Chapter 34 - The Traitor Revealed
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Before we could pack for Miami, we needed to sever the Architect’s eyes in the federal government.
"Elias Thorne might control the traffic cameras, but he still needed someone inside the FBI to execute Vance Hale in his cell," Julian explained, pacing the bunker floor. "I ran a trace on the communication logs from the federal holding facility during the blackout."
"And?" I asked, checking the action on my sidearm.
Julian pulled up a photograph on the monitor. It was Special Agent Miller—the same tactical commander who had stood on our patio and arrested Vance.
"Miller authorized the transfer of guards away from Vance's cell block right before the cameras went dark," Julian said disgustedly. "He's the mole. And he’s the one who dispatched that black truck to run us off the highway."
"We can't just leave him in play," I said, my jaw tightening. "If we fly to Miami, Miller will flag our aliases at the airport."
"Then we plug the leak," Julian said, grabbing his tactical jacket.
We left Irene and Grace locked securely in the bunker with Julian’s two most trusted perimeter guards. The drive back toward Phoenix was tense. We bypassed the city and headed toward an abandoned civilian airfield on the outskirts of the desert, a place known for illicit midnight drop-offs.
Julian used a burner phone to send a text to Miller’s encrypted federal line, posing as a syndicate lieutenant: Target survived the highway. Meeting at Desert Sky Airfield. Bring payment.
We arrived at the airfield just as the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting the rusted hangars in deep purple shadows. We parked the SUV behind a dilapidated prop plane and waited in the darkness.
Ten minutes later, a sleek, unmarked federal sedan rolled onto the cracked tarmac.
Agent Miller stepped out, a suppressed pistol gripped tightly in his right hand. He looked around the empty runway, his eyes darting nervously.
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"I'm here," Miller called out to the shadows. "Where is the body?"
I stepped out from behind the hangar, raising my rifle directly at his chest. "I'm right here, Miller. Drop the gun."
