Chapter 11: Forty-Three Minutes
"We're not going.""
Elias said it before I had even finished reading the message.
I looked up from my phone.
"They have my father.""
"They claim they have your father. That's not the same thing.""
"What if it's true?""
"Then rushing into a facility controlled by the people who faked his death is exactly what they want.""
I pushed away from the workbench.
"And what do you suggest? Sit here until midnight and hope they decide to be reasonable?""
"No. We find out whether the message is genuine.""
Grace was already helping Frank toward a chair.
"How?""
Elias looked at the damaged security terminal.
"By using the one thing they haven't accounted for.""
I frowned.
"What?""
"Your father's warning.""
He picked up the handwritten letter that had been left behind. Although the folder had disappeared, Frank had printed a copy before the attack.
"Your father said the original order requires two surviving witnesses. He also said the facility contains the evidence. If the people threatening you already had complete control of the archive, they wouldn't need you to bring anything.""
I considered that.
"They need the access card.""
"Possibly. Or they need you to believe they do.""
Frank pressed a cloth against his forehead.
"Either way, we should assume the facility is monitored. If you go, don't use the front entrance.""
Grace looked at him.
"Do you know the building?""
"I repaired communications equipment there years ago. It's a decommissioned naval logistics annex. The main entrance is on the east side, but the old maintenance corridor runs beneath the western loading bay.""
Elias nodded.
"Can we still access it?""
"Not with a key. The external lock was replaced.""
"Can we open it?""
Frank gave him a weary look.
"I'm a mechanic, not a miracle worker.""
"That's why I'm asking you.""
Frank sighed.
"Possibly.""
I looked at the clock.
11:21 p.m.
Thirty-nine minutes.
I called Admiral Bennett.
He answered on the second ring.
"Commander?""
"Someone has my father's location. They're threatening to kill him unless I bring the original authorization to the naval storage facility outside Norfolk.""
There was a pause.
"Did they mention the archive?""
"Yes.""
"Then do not go through the main entrance.""
"Frank says there's a maintenance corridor beneath the western loading bay.""
Another pause.
"I know it. I can meet you there.""
"Can I trust you?""
The question came out before I could soften it.
Bennett didn't sound offended.
"You have every reason to ask.""
"That's not an answer.""
"No, Commander. It isn't.""
I waited.
He continued.
"I authorized the revised extraction order that sent your team into danger. I failed to verify the information supplied to me. Afterward, I accepted an explanation that should never have satisfied me. I cannot ask you to trust me because I wear a uniform.""
"Then why should I let you help?""
"Because I have the original communications logs, and because I have spent the last hour trying to establish who ordered the second transport canceled. I have a name.""
My grip tightened around the phone.
"Whose?""
"Deputy Director Malcolm Reed.""
"We already know Reed was involved.""
"Not in this particular decision. The cancellation came from an office outside his department.""
"Which office?""
Bennett lowered his voice.
"The office of the Secretary of Naval Operations.""
I stared at the wall.
"Are you saying someone above Reed ordered the cancellation?""
"I'm saying the authorization came from an account assigned to a senior official. That account was accessed using credentials belonging to your father.""
The room seemed to shrink.
"His credentials were stolen.""
"That is my working assumption.""
"Can you prove it?""
"Not yet. The original archive may contain the authentication record.""
I looked at Elias.
He nodded once.
"Meet us at the western loading bay," I said.
"Commander, one more thing. I have reason to believe Northstar has an insider within the facility's security team. I cannot guarantee who will be waiting for us.""
"Then don't come alone.""
"I won't.""
I ended the call.
Grace had already opened a duffel bag on the workbench. She placed a flashlight, medical supplies, spare phone batteries, and a small radio inside.
"No weapons?"" I asked.
She gave me a pointed look.
"I'm a retired military police officer, not an action movie.""
Elias checked the engine keys in his pocket.
"We'll take Frank's truck to the facility. Grace, you stay with Frank and monitor the security feeds.""
Grace shook her head.
"Not a chance.""
"Someone needs to make sure the evidence survives if we don't come back.""
She looked at me.
I nodded reluctantly.
"She's right. If anything happens, send the encrypted drive to an independent investigator. Not the Navy. Not Northstar.""
"Do you have an investigator in mind?"" Frank asked.
I thought of a woman who had questioned my official report six years earlier and then disappeared from the investigation.
"Dr. Evelyn Cross.""
Elias stared at me.
"Your father mentioned her.""
"Exactly. If she's alive, she may be the only person who can tell us what the original mission was supposed to accomplish.""
Frank began searching his contacts.
"I'll see what I can find.""
At 11:34 p.m., Elias and I left the workshop.
The road toward the storage facility was almost empty. Rain streaked the windshield, and the truck's headlights carved a narrow tunnel through the darkness.
I held the printed letter in my lap.
My father's handwriting looked familiar and strange at the same time. I had spent years believing his final chapter had been written in a hospital room. Now I was learning that someone might have manufactured the ending.
"Do you think he's really alive?"" I asked.
Elias kept his eyes on the road.
"I think someone wants you to believe he is.""
"That's not what I asked.""
He glanced at me.
"I hope he is.""
I looked out the window.
"Me too.""
A few minutes later, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered without speaking.
A woman's voice came through.
"Commander Carter?""
"Who is this?""
"My name is Evelyn Cross.""
I sat upright.
"Dr. Cross?""
"Your father asked me to contact you if the archive was ever compromised.""
"Where are you?""
"I can't tell you that over the phone. I need you to listen carefully. The message threatening your father is a trap.""
My pulse accelerated.
"How do you know?""
"Because Thomas Carter contacted me twenty minutes ago. He isn't at the facility, and he isn't in Northstar's custody.""
I gripped the phone.
"Then where is he?""
"I don't know his exact location. But I know the people who sent you that message want you to activate the original authorization.""
"Why?""
"Because the archive contains two versions of the mission order. One is genuine. The other was created after your father's death.""
I stared at the windshield.
"What happens if I activate the wrong one?""
"The system will record your identity as the person certifying the false authorization. Once that happens, they can claim you fabricated the evidence.""
My stomach tightened.
"How do I tell them apart?""
"Look for the witness field. The authentic order has two names in the final authentication block.""
"Mine and Elias's?""
"No.""
Her voice dropped.
"Yours and Daniel Mercer's.""
I looked at Elias.
He glanced at me, then back at the road.
"Why Mercer?""
"Because he transmitted the revised coordinates. His authentication is required to establish whether the transmission was legitimate or forged.""
"Can he be trusted?""
"I don't know anymore.""
The admission frightened me.
"Dr. Cross, what did you discover about Northstar?""
"Enough to understand that the company was only one part of the operation. The payments were being routed through private contractors to conceal the identity of the person financing the intelligence leaks.""
"Who was financing them?""
"I can't explain everything over the phone. But I can tell you this: the money didn't begin with Northstar.""
"Where did it begin?""
A pause.
"With a federal witness protection account.""
My blood went cold.
"Someone was using money meant to protect witnesses to pay the people who were threatening them?""
"Yes.""
The truck slowed as the facility appeared ahead.
Floodlights illuminated a high fence and a long, low building. A guardhouse stood near the main gate.
I looked at the clock.
11:46 p.m.
Fourteen minutes until midnight.
"Dr. Cross, if my father is alive, why hasn't he come home?""
"Because someone made him believe that if he did, you'd be killed.""
I closed my eyes.
"How do you know?""
"Because I helped him disappear.""
The line went silent for a moment.
Then she said, "Commander, whatever happens tonight, do not let Malcolm Reed take possession of the original authorization. If he gets it, he'll destroy the only proof that your father tried to stop Black Harbor.""
The call ended.
Elias pulled the truck onto a narrow service road.
Ahead, a figure stood beneath a broken security light.
Admiral Bennett.
He raised one hand as we approached.
I stepped out of the truck.
"Did you bring the logs?""
Bennett held up a sealed folder.
"Every page I could recover.""
"Then let's get inside.""
He looked at the facility.
"Commander, before we do, I need to tell you something about your father.""
I waited.
Bennett's expression was grave.
"Six years ago, Thomas Carter didn't simply refuse to authorize Black Harbor.""
He opened the folder and showed me a copy of an emergency directive.
"He issued a countermanding order less than an hour before your team deployed.""
I stared at the page.
The order had been marked *CANCELED*.
The cancellation time was forty minutes before our departure.
And beneath the cancellation stamp was the signature of the person who had overridden my father's decision.
Admiral Richard Bennett.
I looked up at him.
"You canceled my father's order?""
Bennett's face tightened.
"I was told it had been issued using compromised credentials. I believed I was preventing an unauthorized mission.""
"Who told you that?""
He looked toward the building.
"Malcolm Reed.""
A distant alarm sounded inside the facility.
May you like
Bennett closed the folder.
"And now, Commander, we need to find out who was really giving the orders.""
