Chapter 6 - THE VOICE IN THE DARK
The emergency alarm continued screaming.
Red lights flashed along the corridor.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Not me.
Not Lieutenant Reed.
Not the person hiding somewhere in the darkness.
Then the ship shook.
Hard.
A metal sound echoed from deep inside the vessel.
Like something heavy had fallen.
Reed grabbed my arm.
“We need to leave.”
I pulled away.
“No.”
His eyes widened.
“What?”
“You said Deck Four was the truth.”
“Hannah—”
“I didn’t come here to run.”
Another explosion-like sound came from below.
Not an explosion.
Something mechanical.
A system failure.
But someone wanted it to look worse.
Reed lowered his voice.
“You really don’t understand who you’re fighting.”
I looked at him.
“Then help me understand.”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Finally, he reached into his jacket.
And pulled out a small black drive.
My heart stopped.
“What is that?”
“The reason Daniel Cross died.”
I took one step closer.
“Why do you have it?”
“Because he gave it to me.”
The answer hit harder than I expected.
“You said he was dead.”
“He is.”
“Then how did he give you this?”
Reed looked away.
“Because Daniel knew he wasn’t going to survive that night.”
The alarm continued.
The red lights painted his face.
“He knew someone was going to make sure he never left Deck Four.”
I looked down at the drive.
“What’s on it?”
Reed swallowed.
“Everything.”
Before I could ask more, a voice came over the ship speakers.
“Petty Officer Cole.”
Colonel Kane.
Even through the distorted speaker system, I could hear his confidence.
“Please report to the command deck immediately.”
Reed’s face changed.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“No?”
“That’s a trap.”
The speaker crackled again.
“Petty Officer Cole.”
A pause.
Then Kane added:
“You and I both know you’ve been searching where you shouldn’t.”
My hand tightened around the drive.
Reed whispered:
“He knows.”
“Yes.”
“No, Hannah.”
He looked terrified.
“He wants you to know he knows.”
The difference was worse.
Because that meant Kane wasn’t reacting.
He was controlling the situation.
The lights suddenly returned.
And standing at the end of the hallway were two armed security officers.
Behind them…
Colonel Victor Kane.
He wasn’t angry.
He wasn’t surprised.
He was smiling.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to find that.”
My eyes moved to the drive in my hand.
Kane noticed.
And his smile grew.
“Now we can finally stop pretending.”
He stepped forward.
“Give me what belongs to me.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
The hallway went silent.
Kane tilted his head.
“You still don’t understand.”
He pointed toward the floor beneath us.
“Deck Four doesn’t belong to NCIS.”
May you like
Then he said something that made my blood run cold.
“It belongs to the people who built this ship.”
