Chapter 13 - The Deadline Changes
The original deployment had been halted, but the danger hadn't disappeared.
Ellison found a secondary transfer order directing portions of Lot 7-Alpha to an offshore training platform by 6:00 a.m. the next day.
Someone was trying to move the evidence beyond the normal inventory chain before federal investigators secured it.
Vale's office called the transfer a routine administrative correction.
Dom called it a race.
A separate message arrived on my phone at 4:12 p.m.
WE HAVE THE GIRL. GIVE US THE BRACELET AT FIVE.
Attached was a picture of Lily holding her stuffed rabbit in front of a blank gray wall.
Her eyes were open.
She looked frightened but alert.
I memorized every detail: the seam in the wall, a stain on the floor, the green reflection along one side of her face.
Then I read the deadline again.
Forty-eight minutes.
I told Ellison I wanted to make the exchange myself.
"Absolutely not," she said.
"They expect a mother who'll do anything. Let them see one."
She looked at my legs.
"You cannot safely travel to a meeting without a major medical risk."
"Then we don't travel. We make them come where we can watch them."
Dom proposed a controlled exchange using a duplicate bracelet and a secure communication link, but only if it could be arranged without placing Lily in greater danger.
Ellison coordinated with her supervisors and warned everyone that the message might be a diversion.
At 4:58 p.m. we received new instructions.
The caller no longer wanted the bracelet.
He wanted Dom to release Garrett Voss from custody.
I stared at the screen.
"Why Voss?"
Dom's face turned grim.
"Because he's the only one who can identify who paid him."
The caller sent a live audio message.
For one second Lily spoke.
"Mom, don't give them anything."
Then a hand covered the microphone.
The line cut.
For the first time, she sounded less frightened than determined.
My daughter was trying to protect me.
May you like
That knowledge almost broke me more completely than the warehouse had.
