Chapter 10 - The Second Abduction
Julian disappeared from a federal safe house guarded by six agents.
No windows had been broken.
No doors had been forced.
The surveillance system showed him entering the kitchen at 4:12 a.m.
At 4:14 a.m., every camera inside the house repeated the same eight seconds of empty footage.
At 4:19 a.m., the system returned to normal.
Julian was gone.
One agent lay unconscious near the garage.
Another had vanished with him.
His name was Eric Morrow.
He had worked for the federal protective division for nine years.
His financial records showed nothing unusual.
His service history was clean.
His younger brother, however, worked for a subcontractor owned by Vale Strategic Systems.
Bennett had placed people inside the government long before anyone began investigating him.
The attack at the lighthouse ended when Claire’s agents disabled Bennett’s boat.
He escaped into the fog aboard a second vessel.
Daniel wanted to follow.
I stopped him.
“Julian first.”
“The notebook is what Bennett wants.”
“He will keep Julian alive until he gets it.”
“That was true at the warehouse,” Daniel said.
“It may not remain true.”
We returned to the St. Aurelia Hotel because Claire’s temporary command center remained there.
The wedding decorations had not been removed.
White roses drooped beneath the chandeliers.
Broken glass had been cleared.
The gold cake stood untouched near the dance floor.
A celebration frozen in the moment before it collapsed.
Natalie sat at the head table wearing a borrowed sweater over her wedding dress.
Her veil had been removed.
A pistol rested on the table in front of her.
When she saw Daniel, she stood.
“You are supposed to be dead.”
“So I have been told.”
She looked at me.
“This is him?”
“Yes.”
Natalie’s eyes returned to Daniel.
“My husband was taken because of evidence you hid for fourteen years.”
Daniel did not argue.
“Yes.”
She picked up the pistol.
Claire stepped between them.
“Commander.”
“I am not going to shoot him.”
Natalie checked the magazine and placed the weapon against her back beneath the sweater.
“I am going to find Julian.”
“We need a location,” Claire said.
“I know where Morrow took him.”
Everyone looked at her.
Natalie pulled Julian’s damaged phone from the table.
“He activated our emergency tracking protocol before they disabled it.”
“You had an emergency protocol?” Daniel asked.
“We are military officers getting married into the Voss family.”
“Planning seemed reasonable.”
A tiny signal appeared on the screen.
It moved west along the river.
“Commercial harbor district,” Claire said.
Daniel examined the map.
“Vale owns a decommissioned shipyard there.”
“Through a shell company.”
“Bennett used it to alter cargo containers.”
Claire called for tactical support.
A message appeared on the ballroom screen.
The projector activated without warning.
Julian appeared sitting inside a steel room.
His hands were restrained to the chair.
Bennett stood beside him.
Damian stood on the other side.
My brother had removed his tuxedo jacket.
A bandage covered one side of his face from the museum escape.
“Good morning, Elise,” Bennett said.
His voice filled the ballroom.
“I apologize for interrupting the remains of the reception.”
Natalie moved closer to the screen.
Julian looked directly into the camera.
He appeared frightened, but conscious.
Damian placed a hand on his shoulder.
Julian recoiled.
“Let him go,” Natalie said.
Bennett smiled.
“I cannot hear you, Commander.”
“But I assume you are making a predictable demand.”
He turned toward Julian.
“Your bride is remarkably disciplined.”
“You don’t know anything about her,” Julian said.
“I know she married into the wrong family.”
“So did my aunt.”
Bennett’s smile changed.
He looked toward the camera.
“Bring the notebook, the microfilm, and Thomas Reed.”
“You have two hours.”
“Where?” I asked, though the broadcast was one-way.
Bennett answered as though he heard me.
“Vale Shipyard.”
“If federal forces enter the property, the room Julian occupies will flood.”
Natalie went still.
Bennett touched the steel wall behind Julian.
“This chamber once tested marine equipment.”
“It is currently below the waterline.”
“One command opens the intake valves.”
Damian leaned toward his son.
“You should have stayed out of matters you did not understand.”
Julian looked at him.
“Grandmother understood.”
Damian’s face twisted.
He struck Julian across the mouth.
Natalie moved toward the screen as though she could cross it.
I caught her arm.
The broadcast ended.
“Two hours,” Claire said.
“They will expect surveillance.”
“They will have thermal detection, signal scanners, and remote cameras.”
Daniel opened his notebook.
“There is an old service tunnel beneath the western dry dock.”
“I used it years ago.”
“Bennett knows you survived,” I said.
“He may expect you to use it.”
“Yes.”
“That does not mean he can cover every exit.”
Thomas Reed was recovering at a guarded naval hospital.
He had lost blood but remained conscious.
When I called him, he refused to be excluded.
“Bennett wants me because I can identify him at Pier 9,” Thomas said.
“He was nineteen.”
“He poured accelerant across the records room.”
“His father lit the fire.”
“Why did you never tell Daniel?”
“I did.”
“Daniel knew Bennett was present?”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
Another secret.
Another choice made without me.
I ended the call and faced him.
“How much more have you decided I did not deserve to know?”
“Enough to make you hate me.”
“I already hate what you did.”
“That is not the same.”
“No.”
I looked at the photograph of Julian frozen on the screen.
“It is not.”
Claire received authorization for a covert rescue.
Natalie insisted on joining.
I did not try to stop her.
She was not a guest to be protected.
She was an officer whose husband had been taken.
Daniel spread old shipyard plans across the head table.
The wedding cake stood behind us.
White roses surrounded diagrams of tunnels, flood chambers, and loading cranes.
“There are three ways inside,” he said.
“The main gate is impossible.”
“The river entrance is exposed.”
“The service tunnel ends beneath the dry dock.”
“What is the fourth?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“There is no fourth.”
“There is always a fourth.”
I studied the plans.
The dry dock’s original fire suppression channel connected to the river intake.
If we reversed the pumping system, we might disable the flood chamber before Bennett activated it.
But someone would need to enter the control station from inside.
“Thomas can identify the original valves,” I said.
“He is injured,” Claire replied.
“He can guide remotely.”
Natalie looked at the diagram.
“I’ll enter through the service tunnel.”
“No,” I said.
“Julian is my husband.”
“And that is why Bennett expects you to act emotionally.”
She met my eyes.
“Then trust what you taught me.”
I did.
That frightened me more than refusing.
We divided into three teams.
Claire would lead the western tunnel approach.
Natalie would remain with her.
Daniel and I would approach by river.
Thomas would guide the technical team from the hospital.
Keene would coordinate air surveillance using channels he claimed were still secure.
As we prepared to leave, a hotel employee approached Claire.
He carried a sealed envelope discovered beneath the head table.
Inside was an old photograph from the night of the Pier 9 fire.
Conrad stood beside Bennett’s father near the burning warehouse.
Damian stood behind them.
He was sixteen years old.
In his hand was a chain looped around the rear exit.
The door where six men died.
May you like
On the back, my mother had written one sentence.
Conrad gave the order, but Damian locked the door.
