Chapter 5 - THE GENERAL’S WIFE
Harlan slammed the laptop shut.
Eli flinched.
“Your mom?” he asked.
Thomas couldn’t answer.
His wife, Rebecca, had died thirteen years earlier.
Cancer.
At least that was what every doctor had told him.
Daniel’s recorded voice had just ripped open a grave Thomas thought had been closed forever.
He opened the laptop again.
Daniel continued.
“Dad, I know what you were told. I believed it too. We were wrong.”
Documents appeared beside Daniel’s face.
Medical reports.
Bank payments.
Names of doctors.
A private clinic funded by Knox Defense Systems.
“Knox needed leverage against me,” Daniel said. “When I discovered he was diverting military weapons to private buyers overseas, he threatened the family. I thought he was bluffing.”
Daniel looked away from the camera.
“He wasn’t.”
Thomas whispered, “Rebecca.”
Eli stayed quiet.
“After Mom died,” Daniel continued, “I joined a classified team investigating Knox. Someone gave him our route. He had the convoy destroyed. Four good men died.”
Harlan stared at the old team photograph.
“Daniel survived,” Eli said softly.
“Yes.”
On screen, Daniel nodded as if hearing him.
“I survived because Sergeant Luis Ortega pulled me out before the vehicle burned. Knox thought everyone was dead. I stayed dead because it was the only advantage I had.”
The video changed.
Daniel now stood in a small kitchen.
Eli recognized it immediately.
Their old house.
“My mom filmed that wall,” Eli whispered.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Then I met Sarah.”
Eli’s face tightened.
“She gave me something I didn’t think I deserved anymore. A normal life.”
Daniel smiled briefly.
“And then Eli came along.”
The boy looked away.
Harlan watched his son talk about a grandson he had never held as a baby.
Anger and grief fought inside him.
Daniel continued.
“I should’ve contacted you. Every year I almost did. But Knox stayed close to you. Dinners. Charity events. Hunting trips. He made himself your friend because if I ever came back, you were the first person I’d run to.”
Harlan’s eyes burned.
He remembered Christmas dinners with Knox.
Rebecca’s funeral.
Daniel’s memorial.
Adrian Knox had stood beside him through all of it.
“He watched me bury my son,” Harlan said.
Eli looked at him.
“He wanted you to.”
The video suddenly distorted.
Daniel leaned closer to the camera.
“Sixteen months ago, Knox found us.”
Eli went rigid.
Harlan noticed.
“What?”
Eli didn’t answer.
On screen, Daniel said the words the boy had apparently been afraid to hear.
“Sarah’s crash wasn’t an accident.”
Eli stood so quickly his chair fell backward.
“I knew it.”
“Eli—”
“I knew it!”
His voice cracked.
“I told Dad. I told the police. Nobody listened.”
Harlan moved toward him.
Eli backed away.
“They said she fell asleep. My mom never fell asleep driving!”
Thomas stopped.
The boy’s eyes were full of rage.
Not tears.
Rage was easier.
Harlan knew that trick too.
The video continued.
“After Sarah died, I had one choice. Take Eli underground with me, or send the danger away from him.”
Daniel swallowed.
“So I left.”
Eli turned toward the screen.
“You left me alone.”
Daniel’s recorded face seemed almost ashamed.
“But if you’re seeing this, son, then leaving didn’t work.”
The next file opened automatically.
A map appeared.
One red dot blinked in the mountains.
May you like
Under it were three words:
I’M STILL HERE.
