Chapter 7
The phone felt like a block of ice against my ear.
Alive.
The word echoed in the quiet room, drowning out the gentle sound of the lake lapping against the shore outside.
Twenty-two years of mourning.
Twenty-two years of visiting a hollow grave.
Twenty-two years of carrying the weight of a son who lost his father too soon.
"Daniel? Are you still there?"
Agent Bennett's voice brought me back, but my feet felt disconnected from the floor.
"Who is he, Bennett?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"General Arthur Vance," the agent replied.
"He was your father’s commanding officer during his final deployment."
"The official records state he died in a helicopter crash over the Pacific three months after your father passed."
"But we just ran the digital footprint of the encrypted line used to message Kevin Lawson."
"The IP address bypassed three proxy servers."
"But it pinged a secure server registered to a private security firm in Virginia."
"The ultimate owner of that firm is a shell company."
"And the sole beneficiary of that shell company is Arthur Vance."
I looked across the room.
Claire was still sitting by the fireplace, rocking Ethan.
The firelight danced across her face, casting long, peaceful shadows.
She thought the nightmare was over.
She thought this house was our sanctuary.
I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eye and tell her that the ghost of my father's past was currently pulling the strings.
"Where is he now?" I asked Bennett, turning my back to the room.
"We don't know yet," Bennett admitted.
"But Daniel, you need to understand something."
"If Vance is alive, and if he is working with Kevin Lawson, this isn't just about a stolen military inheritance."
"This goes much deeper into the black budget operations your father was involved in."
"Stay inside the house."
"Don't trust anyone who isn't James or Collins."
"I'm sending a federal security detail to your location now."
The line went dead.
I slowly lowered the phone.
James Carter was watching me from the doorway, his eyes sharp and analytical.
He didn't ask what was wrong.
He already knew by the look on my face.
May you like
"James," I said quietly.
"We need to talk. Outside."
