Chapter 13 - PHASE TWO
The first attack came through money.
Cole Strategic Security’s accounts were frozen.
Then contracts were suspended.
Then government agencies announced investigations.
Within two hours, Ethan’s company was technically insolvent.
Marcus entered his office.
“Vale is dismantling us.”
Ethan nodded.
“He’s fast.”
“Employees are scared.”
“They should be.”
“What do we tell them?”
“The truth.”
Grace walked in carrying coffee.
“You haven’t slept.”
“Neither have you.”
“I’m twenty-two.”
“That isn’t an immunity spell.”
“It kind of is.”
Dana entered behind her.
“Bad news.”
Marcus sighed.
“Can we schedule bad news?”
“No.”
She turned her laptop.
“Vale just released documents claiming Ethan sold classified information to Mercer.”
Grace stared.
“They’re fake.”
“Good fakes.”
Ethan studied them.
“Not good enough.”
“What do you see?” Marcus asked.
“The dates.”
One document claimed Ethan met Raymond in Washington on September 17, twelve years earlier.
Ethan smiled.
“I was in Germany.”
Marcus nodded.
“I was with you.”
Dana checked.
“Military travel record?”
“Classified.”
Claire walked in.
“Not anymore.”
She dropped a folder.
“Justice Department just authorized declassification.”
Marcus smiled.
“Now we fight.”
Over the next six hours, Vale’s story began to collapse.
Then the physical attack came.
Grace was leaving a secure federal facility when a delivery van accelerated toward her.
Ethan saw it.
“GRACE!”
He tackled her behind a concrete barrier.
The van crashed.
Agents surrounded the driver.
Dead.
Single gunshot wound to the head.
He had been dead before the crash.
Grace stared.
“They remotely drove it.”
Dana examined the onboard computer.
“Yep.”
Marcus cursed.
Grace looked at Ethan.
“He’ll keep trying.”
“Yes.”
“Then stop treating me like a target.”
“What?”
“Use me.”
“No.”
“Dad.”
“No.”
“Vale thinks I’m the weak point.”
“You are not bait.”
“He already sees me as bait.”
“No.”
Grace stepped closer.
“This started because people thought Mom was alone.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“She wasn’t.”
“She felt alone.”
That hurt.
Grace continued.
“I’m not going to spend my life hiding because you’re afraid to lose me.”
“I am afraid.”
“I know.”
She softened.
“So am I.”
For a moment, father and daughter simply looked at each other.
Then Ethan nodded.
“What do you want to do?”
Grace smiled slightly.
“Make Vale think I have the only copy.”
Marcus stared.
“That’s insane.”
Grace pointed at him.
“You literally jump between rooftops for work.”
“Fair.”
They built the trap.
Grace sent an encrypted message through a channel they knew Vale monitored.
I HAVE LAURA COLE’S ORIGINAL FILE.
ONLY I KNOW WHERE IT IS.
MEET ME.
The response arrived four minutes later.
Not from Vale.
From Captain Sloan.
ADDRESS.
MIDNIGHT.
COME ALONE.
Ethan read it.
“He’s alive.”
Claire checked the location.
Old waterfront warehouse.
Marcus laughed.
“Of course it’s a warehouse.”
Grace looked at him.
“What?”
“Bad people love warehouses.”
At 11:58 p.m., Grace entered alone.
Or appeared to.
Ethan’s team surrounded the area.
Claire monitored from a command van.
Grace wore a wire.
Sloan emerged from the darkness.
Gun in hand.
“You look like your mother.”
Grace stared.
“You helped kill her.”
“I helped clean up a mess.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
She almost laughed.
“You guys really love saying that.”
Sloan held out his hand.
“The file.”
“Where’s Vale?”
Sloan smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
Lights came on.
Grace turned.
A second man stepped from behind a steel column.
Senator Adrian Vale.
No cameras.
No podium.
No flag pin.
Just a gun.
“You’ve caused an extraordinary amount of trouble, Miss Cole.”
Grace looked directly at him.
“Good.”
Vale smiled.
“You really are Laura’s daughter.”
Then he raised the gun.
May you like
And Claire’s voice came through Ethan’s headset:
“We’ve lost Grace’s signal.”
