Ethan Cole refused to speak.
That was the first report from Texas.
The second was more useful.
He had been carrying a suppressed handgun, two false identification cards, lock-picking tools, an encrypted phone and photographs of Camila’s house.
The third report changed the investigation.
Inside the SUV, agents found an empty padded case shaped almost exactly like Gabriel’s model F-16.
Maya listened to the briefing without interrupting.
When it ended, she asked only one question.
“Did Cole enter the house?”
“Yes.”
“Was Camila harmed?”
“No.”
“Did he take anything?”
“They’re checking.”
Maya closed her eyes briefly.
Camila remained safe upstairs while agents cleared the property.
Leo had fallen asleep again, curled sideways across two airport chairs with Davis’s jacket covering him.
It was nearly morning in Spain.
Maya felt as though several days had passed since she woke in seat 8A.
The American official introduced himself properly at last.
“Daniel Mercer.”
Maya looked at him.
“You waited long enough.”
“Until now I was operating as liaison.”
“And now?”
“Now this is a federal criminal investigation intersecting with classified procurement.”
“Meaning more people will tell me things are classified.”
“Almost certainly.”
“At least you’re honest.”
Mercer sat opposite her.
“Cole’s capture matters.”
“If he talks.”
“He doesn’t have to talk immediately. His devices can.”
Maya looked toward Gabriel’s archive.
“Kessler will assume Cole failed.”
“Yes.”
“Then he’ll move.”
“Probably.”
“So stop treating this like a normal investigation.”
Mercer’s expression tightened.
“What do you suggest?”
“Find what he needs.”
“We know what he needs.”
“No. We know what he wanted destroyed eighteen months ago.”
Maya pointed toward Gabriel’s device.
“He could have killed me without staging a commercial-aircraft failure. He could have taken the model from Leo’s school. Cole could have taken it from our house.”
Davis joined them.
“So Flight 412 served another purpose.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Maya looked at Sterling.
He sat across the room under guard.
“Ask him.”
Sterling shook his head.
“I’ve told you everything.”
“No one ever has.”
“I don’t know what Kessler wanted.”
“What was in the cargo package?”
“Maintenance audit records.”
“Physical or digital?”
“Encrypted drives and documents.”
“Where are they now?”
“Impounded with the aircraft.”
Maya looked at Mercer.
“Have they been examined?”
“Not fully.”
“Do it.”
Sterling frowned.
“They only show counterfeit parts.”
“Maybe.”
Maya remembered Gabriel’s duplicate rule.
One copy where people expect.
One where nobody would.
“Kessler has survived because everyone looks at the obvious crime.”
Davis understood.
“Counterfeit parts.”
“Yes.”
“What’s underneath?”
Maya turned toward Nightglass.
“Something worth killing Gabriel for.”
Sterling scoffed softly.
“Millions of dollars is enough motive.”
“For you.”
His expression hardened.
Maya continued.
“Kessler built an international network around compromised aviation components. He bought suppliers, recovery companies, leasing interests and security firms.”
Mercer nodded.
“That gives him access.”
“To aircraft.”
“Yes.”
“To accident sites.”
“Yes.”
“To evidence.”
Davis’s face changed.
“If his company handles accident recovery…”
“He can influence what investigators recover.”
Maya nodded.
“And what they don’t.”
Sterling looked uneasy.
“You think Nightglass became something else.”
“I think Gabriel did.”
Mercer received another call.
This one came from Texas.
Agents had cleared Camila’s home.
Nothing obvious was missing.
But Cole had opened Gabriel’s old box.
Maya asked to speak directly with Camila.
Her face appeared over secure video minutes later.
She looked exhausted.
“You owe me a boring vacation after this,” Camila said.
Maya almost smiled.
“I’ll buy you the boringest vacation ever invented.”
“Deal.”
“Show me the box.”
Camila turned the camera.
A weathered cardboard storage box sat on her dining table.
Agents wearing gloves surrounded it.
Inside were photographs, envelopes, old squadron patches and receipts.
“Cole went through all of this?”
“Looks like it.”
“What did he focus on?”
An agent answered.
“Several envelopes were opened. One photograph was removed from a frame.”
“Which?”
Camila held it up.
Gabriel at seventeen.
Thin.
Grinning.
Standing beside a white-and-red Cessna.
Behind him was a weathered hangar marked ALAMO RIDGE AVIATION.
Maya stared.
“Back.”
Camila moved the photograph away from the camera.
“No. Turn it over.”
She did.
Gabriel’s handwriting covered the back.
Most was ordinary.
FIRST SOLO.
JUNE 12.
DAD PRETENDED NOT TO CRY.
Then a second line appeared in different ink.
Maya leaned closer.
“Read the bottom.”
Camila squinted.
“Locker seventeen. Still hate combination locks.”
Mercer stood.
“Locker seventeen.”
Maya nodded.
“At the flight school.”
Camila looked confused.
“That note wasn’t there before.”
Maya’s head snapped toward the screen.
“What?”
“I’ve seen this picture a thousand times.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“The locker line is new?”
“I think so.”
An agent examined the ink.
“Could have been added later than the original caption.”
Maya understood.
“Gabriel added it before giving you the box.”
“Why?”
“To tell us where the duplicate was.”
Mercer immediately contacted agents in Texas.
The old Alamo Ridge property was less than an hour from Camila’s home.
Maya said, “Don’t go in openly.”
Mercer paused.
“Why?”
“Kessler owns it.”
“We know.”
“He may monitor it.”
“We’ll use surveillance first.”
Maya looked toward Sterling.
“You ever hear of Locker Seventeen?”
“No.”
“Alamo Ridge?”
“No.”
“Gabriel’s second archive?”
“No.”
Sterling’s ignorance appeared genuine.
That mattered.
Maybe Gabriel had successfully hidden something Kessler never found.
Davis sat beside Maya.
“You’re thinking of going there.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You’re not my captain anymore.”
“I’m still allowed to recognize a terrible idea.”
“If the archive contains something only I can identify—”
“Federal agents can photograph it.”
Maya glanced at Leo.
Davis followed her gaze.
“You have a seven-year-old son.”
“I noticed.”
“Then act like it.”
Maya’s eyes sharpened.
Davis did not retreat.
“Gabriel told you to go home afterward.”
“That recording was eighteen months old.”
“He knew you.”
“So do I.”
“Then you know what he’d say now.”
Maya looked away.
She hated Davis for being right enough to hurt.
“I’m not chasing ghosts.”
“No.”
He lowered his voice.
“You’re chasing the men who made them.”
That silenced her.
Mercer returned.
“We have another problem.”
Maya stood.
“What?”
“Spanish police found Vale.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Relief and anger collided inside her.
“Condition?”
“Gunshot wound to the shoulder. Significant blood loss. Conscious.”
“Where?”
“Hospital under guard.”
“Who shot him?”
“He says Kessler.”
Maya’s eyes narrowed.
“He saw him?”
“According to Vale, yes.”
Sterling looked stunned.
“Kessler is in Spain?”
“Or was.”
Maya thought about the phone call.
The second voice.
You should have stayed retired, Major Lin.
“What does Vale say happened?”
“Kessler intercepted him while he was driving to meet someone.”
“Who?”
Mercer hesitated.
“Us.”
Maya stared.
“Vale was coming here?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
“He says he has information not contained in Gabriel’s archive.”
Sterling muttered, “Of course he does.”
Maya ignored him.
“Can I speak with Vale?”
“Doctors say not yet.”
“Tell them he doesn’t need to give a speech.”
“Maya.”
“He helped conceal Gabriel’s murder. I’m not sending flowers.”
Mercer’s phone vibrated again.
This time his expression changed before he spoke.
“What?”
“Texas surveillance team reached Alamo Ridge.”
Maya waited.
“The hangar complex is burning.”
For a moment nobody reacted.
Then Maya said, “Kessler.”
Mercer nodded grimly.
“Fire department says blaze started minutes before agents arrived.”
“Locker seventeen?”
“Unknown.”
“Get someone inside.”
“Not while the structure is burning.”
Maya slammed her palm against the table.
“Damn it.”
Leo stirred across the room.
She immediately lowered her voice.
Davis stepped beside her.
“If Kessler burned it now, he knew we found the photograph.”
Maya turned toward Camila’s video feed.
Cole.
Captured less than an hour earlier.
He could not have reported what agents found.
Unless someone else was watching Camila’s house.
Or listening to their communications.
Maya looked at Mercer.
“How secure is this room?”
“Very.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Our communications are encrypted.”
“Kessler knew agents were going to Alamo Ridge before they arrived.”
Mercer went still.
Maya continued.
“Either he anticipated the clue…”
Davis finished.
“Or someone inside the investigation told him.”
Sterling laughed bitterly.
“You’re finally learning.”
Mercer stared at him.
“What?”
Sterling looked around the room.
“Kessler survived Nightglass because he never relied on one corrupt official.”
Maya felt cold.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because none of us knew.”
Sterling leaned forward.
“That was the system. Cells. Separate relationships. If one person fell, Kessler still had someone inside.”
Mercer’s jaw tightened.
“Inside where?”
Sterling met his eyes.
“Everywhere that mattered.”
The forensic technician interrupted from Gabriel’s device.
“I found something.”
Maya crossed the room.
“What?”
“An encrypted manifest Gabriel copied from Nightglass.”
The technician opened it.
Rows of aircraft tail numbers appeared.
Military.
Civilian.
Dates.
Component serial numbers.
Beside some were status codes.
Maya recognized several aircraft associated with accidents.
Then she saw a different category.
ACTIVE PLACEMENT.
Davis leaned closer.
“What does that mean?”
Maya scrolled.
Dozens of aircraft.
Current dates.
Current registrations.
One row was highlighted.
Flight 412’s aircraft.
Another appeared beneath it.
A passenger jet scheduled to depart Madrid later that morning.
Destination: Washington, D.C.
Mercer immediately reached for his phone.
Maya stopped him.
“Wait.”
He stared.
“There are two hundred people booked on that aircraft.”
“I know.”
“Then why wait?”
“Because look at the passenger manifest.”
He did.
Maya had already recognized the name.
A United States senator who chaired the committee scheduled to receive the confidential aviation-supply audit.
The aircraft was due to depart in ninety-three minutes.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: A Second Compromised Airliner Forces Maya to Choose Between Exposing Kessler’s Network and Preventing Another Carefully Designed Disaster
Two Hours Over the Atlantic, One Unusual Announcement Forces Maya Lin to Face the Life She Abandoned
Part 10 of 35
