Chapter 5: Operation Ashfall
I sent Mr. Lawson through the back door with the tablet.
Then I returned the watch to Violet’s desk and walked downstairs.
Grant entered without knocking.
Daniel followed him.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Grant said.
“It’s my house.”
“It’s an active crime scene.”
“That did not stop you from bringing a suspect inside.”
Daniel closed the door.
Grant’s expression hardened.
“We need your phone.”
“For what?”
“To review the security application.”
“You’ll need a warrant.”
Daniel took a step toward me.
“Mason, nobody wants this to become worse.”
“My daughter is in a coma.”
“It can become worse.”
Grant glanced toward the staircase.
“You found something upstairs.”
It was not a question.
I looked at Daniel.
“The watch?”
His face answered before his mouth did.
Daniel reached inside his jacket.
I moved first.
I caught his wrist, turned him into the wall, and removed the pistol from his waistband.
Grant reached for his own weapon.
I aimed Daniel’s gun at the floor between us.
“Try it.”
For three silent seconds, nobody moved.
Then sirens sounded outside.
Grant looked toward the window.
Two dark federal vehicles stopped behind his sedan.
A woman in a black coat stepped onto the porch.
Special Agent Naomi Price had served with Army Criminal Investigation Command before joining the FBI. We had met during the original Ashfall inquiry, before the investigation disappeared.
I had called her from the hospital.
She entered with four agents.
“Detective Grant,” she said. “Step away from Mr. Cole.”
Grant forced a laugh.
“This is local jurisdiction.”
“Not anymore.”
Naomi took Daniel’s weapon from me.
Then she faced him.
“Daniel Reese, we have been waiting fifteen years for you to make a mistake.”
His face went pale.
Naomi took me into the kitchen while her agents separated Grant and Daniel.
“Ashfall was not an ambush,” she said quietly. “Your team discovered an illegal weapons transfer organized by Colonel Voss.”
I stared at her.
“Voss sold seized weapons?”
“To criminal groups and private contractors. Your team found the records. Three soldiers died before they could testify.”
“I filed a report.”
“It was replaced.”
She placed several copied pages on the counter.
The final page contained my forged signature.
“You were supposed to take the blame if the operation was ever exposed,” she said. “But someone removed the original evidence before Voss could destroy it.”
“The memory card inside the watch.”
Naomi nodded.
“We believe your teammate Eli Parker hid it there before he died. Daniel has spent years looking for it.”
A shout came from the living room.
One of Naomi’s agents ran into the kitchen.
“Daniel is gone.”
The back door stood open.
Grant was still handcuffed near the wall.
“He had help,” Grant said.
Then Naomi’s phone rang.
She answered and listened for several seconds.
Her face changed.
“What happened?” I demanded.
She lowered the phone.
May you like
“Someone wearing hospital credentials entered Violet’s room.”
I was already running before she finished the sentence.
