Chapter 16 - The Meaning of Firefly
I replayed Lily's twelve-second call so many times that Ellison finally took the phone away for forensic processing.
She said one detail kept bothering her.
Lily hadn't asked for rescue.
She had chosen words carefully, as if she were trying to transmit something from memory.
"What does Firefly mean in your family?" Ellison asked.
I almost laughed.
"Ben called her that because she used to turn a flashlight on under the blankets."
Then I remembered the game.
He had taught Lily to use short and long flashes to spell secret words, a harmless variation on a Morse-code lesson.
When frightened, she sometimes tapped the rhythm on tables.
The technicians cleaned the audio behind her voice.
Beneath the scrape, there were faint taps.
Three short, one long, then a repeated pattern.
Dom helped decode it with a training chart.
The result wasn't a sentence.
It was a name: HARKER.
The Meridian contractor Voss had identified.
Ellison pulled Harker's known locations and found he leased a cold-storage annex under a different company name.
The facility stood miles from the pier, near a transportation corridor where a van could travel without attracting notice.
A recent utility service request described a green emergency indicator lamp in its rear holding room.
The same green reflection I had seen on Lily's face.
We finally had a location supported by more than a single planted clue.
Ellison obtained authorization for a coordinated operation and insisted I remain at the hospital.
I agreed only after Dom promised to update me through an authenticated channel.
Minutes before the operation, I received a message from Vale's personal number.
I CAN BRING YOUR DAUGHTER BACK. COME ALONE.
I forwarded it to Ellison without replying.
For the first time, I didn't chase the threat.
May you like
I used it as evidence.
