Chapter 3 - The Man Who Buried Her Name
Naomi turned toward Hale.
The pistol remained pointed at Richard Sterling, but every instinct in her body shifted toward her former commander.
Hale did not deny the accusation.
That frightened her more than any lie could have.
“Tell me he’s wrong,” she said.
The old passage seemed to narrow around them.
Dust floated through the beam of the emergency lights. Somewhere beyond the walls, three hundred terrified guests waited beneath the guns of men who had come for Richard Sterling’s briefcase.
Hale’s face was unreadable.
“Daniel disobeyed a direct order.”
Naomi’s heart pounded harder.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“He discovered a leak inside the task force.”
“What leak?”
“Someone was selling the identities of undercover agents.”
Richard gave a humorless laugh. “Someone?”
Hale ignored him.
“Daniel believed the leak reached into federal law enforcement, military intelligence, and several private corporations. He refused to report his evidence through official channels because he no longer trusted anyone.”
“Did he trust you?”
Hale’s silence gave her the answer.
Naomi’s voice dropped. “He came to you.”
“Yes.”
“And you handed him over.”
“No.”
“Then how was he captured?”
“I sent him to a safe house.”
Richard’s expression became almost amused.
“You sent him to a location already compromised.”
Hale stepped toward Richard. “I did not know.”
“You should have.”
Naomi lifted her free hand.
“Both of you, stop.”
They did.
Even after six years away from the field, command returned naturally to her voice.
She looked at Hale.
“What happened at the safe house?”
“We lost contact eleven minutes after he arrived. By the time my team reached the location, the building was burning.”
“And you told me he was dead.”
“There was blood at the scene. His blood.”
“No body.”
“No.”
“You knew there was no body.”
“I believed the people who took him would come after you next. So I erased your identity, created a death certificate, and moved you out of the country.”
“You didn’t move me. You drugged me.”
Hale’s eyes lowered.
Adrian stared between them.
“What does she mean?”
Naomi remembered waking in a clinic in Reykjavík with stitches in her shoulder and no passport. Hale had been sitting beside the bed. He had told her Daniel was dead and that the mission had been terminated.
Two days later, Naomi Reyes officially died in a training accident.
She had been given money, a new identity, and one instruction.
Disappear.
“I tried to leave,” Naomi said. “They wouldn’t let me.”
“You were injured and unstable.”
“My brother was missing.”
“You would have gone after him.”
“Yes.”
“And they would have killed you.”
Naomi stepped closer until the barrel of her pistol nearly touched Hale’s chest.
“You had no right to decide what my life was worth.”
“No,” Hale said. “I didn’t.”
The honesty disarmed her more than an excuse would have.
Eleanor Whitmore watched them in silence.
At last, she spoke.
“Recriminations can wait. We have hostages.”
Naomi forced herself to lower the pistol.
Eleanor looked toward Richard.
“Open the briefcase.”
“It’s in the ballroom.”
“You know the code.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell us.”
“No.”
Adrian’s disbelief was immediate. “There are guns pointed at Vanessa.”
“If they obtain the drive, more people will die.”
“Your daughter might die now.”
Richard’s face tightened.
Naomi understood then.
Whatever was on that drive, Richard feared it more than he feared losing Vanessa.
She moved to the viewing panel again.
The ballroom had changed.
Vanessa was now on her knees in the center of the floor. Blood marked the corner of her mouth. The gunman stood behind her, one hand tangled in her hair.
The black briefcase rested on a table.
The second attacker had returned from the library and whispered something to his leader.
The leader looked toward the staircase.
“Richard Sterling,” he shouted. “You have two minutes.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
“Daddy, please!”
No answer came.
The guests stared at one another.
The attacker pressed the muzzle against the back of Vanessa’s head.
“One minute, fifty seconds.”
Adrian reached for the panel.
Naomi blocked him again.
“I can distract them,” he said.
“You’ll die.”
“Then give me another idea.”
She studied the room.
Two visible attackers.
One near Vanessa.
One beside the main doors.
The first gunman she had disabled might escape his restraints soon.
Possibly a fourth attacker outside.
Hale leaned beside her.
“The leader favors his right leg.”
Naomi noticed the slight bend in the man’s knee.
“Old injury.”
“He’ll pivot slowly to the left,” Hale said.
She glanced at him.
For a moment, they were commander and operative again, analyzing a target before entry.
She hated how familiar it felt.
Naomi looked at Adrian.
“Can you turn the chandelier lights on from here?”
“The power is out.”
“Emergency generator?”
“In the basement.”
Eleanor tapped her cane against the stone floor.
“There is a manual switch in the musicians’ gallery.”
Hale looked through the panel. “Twenty feet above the floor.”
“I can reach it through the servants’ stairs,” Naomi said.
Adrian shook his head. “That puts you above both shooters.”
“Exactly.”
Richard finally spoke.
“What do you intend to do?”
“Give them what they think they want.”
Naomi took the knife from her belt and handed the pistol to Hale.
He raised an eyebrow.
“You trust me?”
“No. But you shoot better than Adrian.”
Adrian almost objected.
Eleanor gave him a look.
Naomi pointed toward Richard.
“You will enter the ballroom and approach the briefcase.”
Richard stared at her. “Absolutely not.”
“You will give them the code.”
“No.”
“You don’t have to give them the correct code.”
Understanding appeared in Eleanor’s eyes.
“The briefcase has a security lock?”
Richard nodded reluctantly. “Three incorrect attempts destroy the drive.”
“Then enter two wrong codes,” Naomi said. “Slowly.”
“And the third?”
“Wait for the lights.”
Hale checked the pistol.
“Once the chandelier comes on, I take the gunman at the door.”
“I take the leader.”
Adrian said, “And what am I supposed to do?”
Naomi looked at him.
“Get Vanessa out of the line of fire.”
His jaw tightened. “I can do more.”
“Prove it by doing exactly what I say.”
Eleanor placed her revolver in his hand.
“Your grandfather taught you to shoot.”
“Twenty years ago.”
“He would be disappointed by the excuse.”
Adrian accepted the weapon.
Richard remained motionless.
Naomi stepped toward him.
“Your daughter kicked me in front of three hundred people.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
“She tried to humiliate me because she believed I was powerless. She was wrong.”
Vanessa’s sobs echoed through the wall.
Naomi continued.
“But I will still risk my life to save her. Decide what kind of father you intend to be.”
For the first time, Richard looked ashamed.
He pushed open the panel.
“Wait,” Hale said.
Richard glanced back.
Hale removed a small communication device from behind his ear.
“They’re jamming ordinary signals, but this may work at close range.”
He handed Naomi a tiny earpiece.
She fitted it into place.
“Can you hear me?” he whispered.
“Unfortunately.”
A faint smile touched his face and disappeared.
Richard stepped into the east gallery.
A woman screamed when she saw him.
The gunman behind Vanessa pulled her head back.
“There he is.”
Richard raised both hands.
“Let my daughter go.”
“Open the case.”
“I need to reach the keypad.”
The leader gestured toward the table.
Richard walked slowly across the ballroom.
Every guest watched him.
Naomi entered the narrow servants’ staircase and climbed toward the musicians’ gallery.
Her knees shook.
Not from fear.
From the words repeating in her mind.
Daniel is alive.
She reached the upper balcony and crawled behind the marble railing. Below, Richard stood before the briefcase.
The gunman’s back was partly turned toward her.
Hale’s voice sounded in her ear.
“Door target in position.”
“Adrian?”
“Moving along the west wall.”
Naomi spotted him slipping behind the kneeling guests.
Vanessa saw him.
Her eyes widened.
The gunman jerked her hair.
“Look forward.”
Richard entered the first code.
A red light flashed.
“Incorrect,” the gunman said.
“My hands are shaking.”
“Try again.”
Richard entered another sequence.
Red light.
The attacker pressed his weapon harder against Vanessa’s skull.
“One more mistake and she dies.”
Richard lifted his hands from the keypad.
“I need a moment.”
“You have five seconds.”
Naomi reached the manual switch beside the balcony curtain.
“Ready,” she whispered.
Hale replied, “Ready.”
Adrian was now only ten feet from Vanessa.
Naomi gripped the switch.
“Five,” the gunman counted.
Richard looked up.
For one brief instant, his eyes met Naomi’s.
“Four.”
Naomi pulled the switch.
The chandeliers exploded with white light.
Guests screamed and covered their faces.
Hale fired from the hidden panel.
The gunman at the door collapsed.
Naomi vaulted over the balcony railing.
She caught a hanging velvet curtain, slid halfway down, and released it.
She landed behind the leader.
He turned slowly, exactly as Hale had predicted.
Naomi trapped his pistol arm.
The weapon fired into the ceiling.
Adrian lunged forward, dragged Vanessa away, and covered her body with his own.
Naomi drove her knee into the gunman’s injured leg.
He collapsed.
She twisted the pistol from his hand and struck him across the temple.
He fell beside the briefcase.
For two seconds, it seemed over.
Then the ballroom windows shattered inward.
A fourth attacker rappelled through the broken glass.
He carried an automatic rifle.
“Down!” Naomi screamed.
Gunfire tore across the chandeliers.
Crystals rained over the ballroom.
Naomi rolled behind the table and fired twice.
The attacker swung toward her.
Before he could shoot, Colonel Hale stepped into the open and fired.
The bullet struck the attacker’s shoulder.
He spun but remained standing.
Hale fired again.
The attacker fell through the broken window, still attached to his rope.
The ballroom went quiet except for crying and falling glass.
Adrian helped Vanessa to her feet.
She stared at Naomi, stunned.
Naomi turned toward the briefcase.
Its keypad was flashing.
Richard had entered a third code during the attack.
Green light.
The lock released.
“No!” Richard shouted.
The lid opened automatically.
Inside was a black data drive, a stack of documents, and a photograph.
Naomi reached for the photograph.
Her breath stopped.
Daniel stood in the image.
He looked older, thinner, and exhausted—but alive.
A date had been printed in the corner.
Three days earlier.
Behind Daniel was a concrete wall marked with a symbol.
A crown split by a serpent.
Naomi knew the emblem.
The organization had a name whispered only in classified briefings.
The Dominion.
She turned the photograph over.
Five words had been written on the back.
BRING NAOMI REYES TO BLACKWATER PORT.
Beneath them was a deadline.
Midnight tomorrow.
Naomi looked up.
Richard Sterling was staring at the photograph.
“You knew,” she whispered.
“No.”
“You knew Daniel was alive.”
“I suspected.”
“For how long?”
Richard said nothing.
Naomi rose and pointed the gun at him.
“How long?”
“Four years.”
The answer shattered something inside her.
Before she could respond, Vanessa stepped between them.
“Don’t point that at my father.”
Naomi stared at the woman she had just saved.
Vanessa’s cheek was bruised. Blood stained her lip. Her expensive gown had torn across the shoulder.
Yet the contempt in her eyes remained.
“You still think you understand what is happening?” Naomi asked.
“I understand that you brought armed men into my engagement party.”
A shocked murmur spread among the guests.
Adrian looked at Vanessa.
“What?”
Vanessa pointed toward Naomi.
“She is the reason they came. The note proves it.”
Naomi lowered the gun slightly.
Vanessa turned to the crowd, her voice growing stronger.
“This woman lied about her identity. She infiltrated our home. She attacked me and endangered every person here.”
Adrian stared at her.
“She saved your life.”
“She created the danger.”
Vanessa looked directly at Naomi.
“You’re not a maid.”
Naomi answered quietly.
“No.”
Vanessa’s lips curled into a cold smile.
“Then tell everyone what you really are.”
Before Naomi could speak, sirens approached the estate.
Police vehicles raced through the gates.
Relief moved across the ballroom.
Hale did not look relieved.
He stepped beside Naomi.
“We need to leave.”
“The police are here.”
“That is why we need to leave.”
Naomi studied his face.
“You think the leak is still active.”
“I know it is.”
“How?”
Hale looked toward the ballroom entrance as armed officers rushed into the mansion.
The first officer through the door wore the uniform of the Massachusetts State Police.
But beneath his cuff, Naomi saw the edge of a black serpent tattoo.
The same tattoo as the attacker in the library.
May you like
Hale drew his weapon.
“Because they’re not here to rescue us.”
