Chapter 17 - The Counterattack
Ellison's team entered the cold-storage annex after confirming movement inside and identifying an immediate threat to a hostage.
Dom was not in charge of the law-enforcement operation, and he respected the boundaries of the team that was.
He remained near the command post to identify Meridian equipment and answer questions.
The building contained a small office, a locked holding room, and a corridor lined with empty metal shelving.
Lily was not in the first room.
A search officer found her rabbit in the second.
Then a hidden speaker played her voice.
Another diversion.
But the team also recovered fresh food packaging, a discarded child's sweater, and a written transfer schedule.
It listed a movement to a private medical transport van at 9:30 p.m.
The receiving location matched a hangar leased by a subsidiary of Meridian.
Ellison moved quickly, securing a warrant and coordinating access with local authorities.
I followed developments from my hospital bed, one verified update at a time.
No dramatic promises.
No guessing.
At 9:17 a guard at the hangar opened a side entrance for a van.
Federal agents stopped it before it reached the ramp.
The driver tried to produce a badge, but his credentials belonged to a deceased contractor.
He was detained.
In the back, wrapped in a gray blanket, sat my daughter.
Alive.
Frightened.
Holding the rabbit against her chest.
Ellison called me herself.
"Kate, we have Lily. She's safe with our team."
I heard her words but couldn't answer.
She repeated them gently.
"We have your daughter."
I covered my face with both hands.
After days of living inside the worst sentence in the English language, there was finally another one.
Lily was alive.
But when Ellison asked who had been directing the guards, Lily gave a name that left the investigator silent.
"Admiral Vale was there," she said.
May you like
"But she kept calling someone else 'sir.'"
