Chapter 6 - The Fire Was Never an Accident
I crossed the room before I realized I had moved.
Admiral Reed had taught me that anger destroyed judgment.
So I stopped myself.
Arthur watched me.
Almost daring me.
I refused to give him what he wanted.
“You wanted me aboard.”
“I wanted nothing of the kind.”
“Then explain the email.”
“I was monitoring a sensitive transfer.”
“By tracking me?”
“You were an unpredictable variable.”
I stared at him.
His own daughter.
An unpredictable variable.
That was all I had ever been to Arthur.
Grant stepped beside me.
“What happened to the ship?”
Arthur looked at him.
“You know what happened.”
“No.”
Grant shook his head.
“I know what the report says.”
The fire had supposedly started because of an electrical failure.
But after the recovered Meridian container, investigators reopened the case.
A suppression valve had been manually disabled.
Someone wanted the fire to spread.
I pulled out my phone.
Arthur’s expression shifted.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you one opportunity.”
“For what?”
“To tell the truth.”
He laughed.
“You think that uniform makes you powerful?”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“It taught me what power actually is.”
His eyes hardened.
“Everything you have exists because of me.”
“My scars exist because of you.”
That silenced him.
Vivian began crying quietly.
Not dramatically.
Not for me.
For herself.
She was beginning to understand what our family name actually meant.
Grant stared at Arthur.
“Did you order the sabotage?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Arthur looked toward the windows.
That tiny movement told me more than his answer.
He was afraid of someone.
My father had terrified senators.
Destroyed competitors.
Bought newspapers.
Controlled banks.
But someone frightened Arthur Vale.
“Pierce?” I asked.
Nothing.
“Hale?”
Arthur looked at me.
There.
Secretary Hale.
I stepped closer.
“Jonathan Hale ordered it.”
Arthur whispered, “You need to stop.”
“Why?”
“You don’t understand the people you’re challenging.”
“Then explain them.”
He shook his head.
“You think this is about money?”
“What is it about?”
Arthur’s voice dropped.
“Access.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
Grant moved closer.
Arthur stared at his children.
Then, for the first time in my life, I saw my father without his arrogance.
He looked old.
“Meridian started as a legitimate program.”
“When?”
“Seventeen years ago.”
“Doing what?”
“Tracking commercial maritime traffic through integrated navigation systems.”
“That isn’t illegal.”
“It became something else.”
“What?”
Arthur swallowed.
“A way to make ships disappear.”
Nobody spoke.
I felt cold.
“Disappear how?”
“Not physically.”
He looked at me.
“Digitally.”
False coordinates.
Altered manifests.
Changed ownership records.
Cargo that officially never entered a port.
Ships that existed in one database and vanished from another.
A perfect system for moving anything without scrutiny.
Money.
Technology.
People.
Secrets.
Grant whispered, “My God.”
Arthur looked at him.
“You signed because I protected you from knowing.”
“You used me.”
“I built you.”
Then Arthur turned to me.
“And I tried to protect you too.”
“You erased me.”
“Because you found Meridian.”
“You destroyed my life.”
“Because Hale wanted you dead.”
That stopped me.
Arthur stepped closer.
“When you found those invoices at twenty-four, Jonathan Hale wanted the problem eliminated.”
I could barely speak.
“What did you do?”
“I made you disappear first.”
My anger faltered.
Arthur continued.
“I destroyed your reputation.”
“You expect gratitude?”
“No.”
For once, his voice held no arrogance.
May you like
“I expect you to understand why you’re still alive.”
Then the library window exploded.
