Chapter 11 - SARAH’S LAST SECRET
They dragged Marcus inside the station.
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
“What did you mean?”
Marcus laughed.
“You really didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Sarah found your files.”
Daniel went still.
Marcus smiled.
“Your sweet little wife wasn’t as clueless as you thought.”
Eli stepped closer.
“Don’t talk about my mom like that.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Your mom was smart, kid. Smarter than your father.”
Daniel’s grip tightened.
Marcus continued.
“After her car crash, Knox’s people searched your house. They found copies, but not the originals.”
“Where are they?”
Marcus shrugged.
“That’s the problem.”
Eli suddenly remembered.
The brass casings.
The dented bucket.
His mother’s garage.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Eli looked at him.
“Mom used to collect old brass with me.”
Daniel frowned.
“She hated shooting ranges.”
“That’s why I thought it was weird.”
Eli’s heart began pounding.
“She’d take me to flea markets. Junk stores. Anywhere people sold spent brass.”
Harlan understood first.
“She was hiding something inside one.”
Eli nodded.
“After she died, I kept collecting because it reminded me of her.”
Daniel’s face broke.
“Oh, Sarah.”
Eli dropped his bucket onto the floor.
Hundreds of casings rolled out.
Marcus started laughing.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Eli searched.
One casing looked different.
Darker.
He remembered his mother handing it to him years earlier.
“Never throw this one away, okay?”
He had thought she was being sentimental.
He picked it up.
Daniel examined the base.
No primer.
He twisted it.
The brass separated.
Inside was a tiny memory chip wrapped in plastic.
Nobody spoke.
Eli stared at it.
“She knew.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“She knew everything.”
Rachel wiped tears from her face.
“She told me once that if something happened to her, I should make sure Eli kept his junk.”
Eli laughed through tears.
“My junk.”
Daniel pulled him close.
For a moment, the war outside disappeared.
Sarah Carter had died eight months earlier.
But she had just reached through time and placed the weapon they needed directly into her son’s hand.
Harlan inserted the chip into the laptop.
Files appeared.
Bank accounts.
Weapons serial numbers.
Recorded phone calls.
Video.
And one final folder.
KNOX_CONFESSION.
Daniel opened it.
Adrian Knox appeared on hidden camera speaking to Marcus.
His voice was clear.
“I ordered the Harlan convoy hit. I ordered Rebecca’s treatment changed. And if Sarah Carter becomes a problem, make the crash look natural.”
Eli looked away.
Daniel’s eyes turned cold.
“That’s enough to bury him.”
Harlan shook his head.
“Only if it reaches someone.”
The trucks outside were getting closer.
Daniel removed the chip.
“Relay station.”
Marcus laughed again.
“You’ll never make it.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Maybe.”
Then a rifle shot shattered the window.
Marcus jerked backward.
A red hole appeared in his shoulder.
Everyone dropped.
A voice came through a loudspeaker outside.
Knox.
“Daniel!”
A pause.
“Bring me my evidence…”
May you like
Then Knox added:
“…or I’ll burn the whole mountain with your son on it.”
