Chapter 9 - The Child I Was Told Had DiedFor several seconds, I could not understand the words.
“I thought it was something to make him sleep.”
I kept my eyes on Victor.
“What did he tell you?”
“That Thomas was becoming paranoid. Aggressive. Victor said the medicine would calm him.”
“When?”
“The night before he died.”
Victor chuckled.
“Eleanor always preferred explanations that required the least courage.”
Mom flinched.
I understood immediately why Dad warned me about both of them.
Caleb exploited her need to believe family problems could be explained away.
Victor exploited her need to feel wanted.
Dad saw weaknesses they refused to see themselves.
“How much did you give him?” I asked.
“One dropper.”
Victor corrected her.
“Two.”
Mom stared at him.
“You said one.”
“I said enough.”
Her face changed.
She understood.
Victor had manipulated her into administering the drug, then ensured Caleb appeared at the house.
Two convenient suspects.
Neither clean enough to defend themselves.
Meanwhile Victor could disappear behind their guilt.
“You came afterward,” I said.
“Yes.”
“To make sure Dad died.”
Victor’s smile faded.
“Thomas was stubborn.”
“What happened?”
“He was still conscious when I arrived.”
Mom whimpered.
Victor continued casually.
“He understood almost everything by then. He accused me of selling the country. Dramatic phrase.”
My hands wanted to close around his throat.
Instead, I watched his trigger finger.
His stance.
Distance.
Ten meters.
Too far.
No clean angle.
“Did you kill Pike?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He became sentimental.”
“And Night Lantern?”
His eyes brightened.
There it was.
Pride.
People like Victor eventually want witnesses.
“I sold access,” he said. “Pike ensured the investigation went elsewhere.”
“You knew Americans would be ambushed.”
“I knew information would be exploited.”
“Seven people died.”
“Seven people always die somewhere.”
My mother sobbed.
I didn’t look at her.
Victor wanted emotion.
Emotion creates mistakes.
“So this was money?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“Influence.”
He stepped closer.
“Governments pretend secrets protect nations. Secrets actually create markets. Everyone wants what someone else is forbidden to know.”
“Caleb was your delivery boy.”
“Caleb was easy.”
His contempt was immediate.
“He wanted money without earning respect. Your mother wanted affection without confronting her marriage. Pike wanted retirement money and relevance.”
“And Dad?”
“Thomas was inconveniently principled.”
“And me?”
Victor studied me.
“You survived.”
The word carried more hatred than I expected.
“You weren’t supposed to.”
My breathing slowed.
“So you knew I was on Night Lantern.”
“Not initially. Pike discovered it during the investigation.”
“And then?”
“Then I realized Thomas Bennett’s daughter could eventually connect the two worlds.”
“That’s why my records were accessed.”
“Yes.”
“You were looking for what I knew.”
“I was making sure you knew nothing.”
Behind Victor, an emergency light flashed once.
Very faintly.
Hale.
The team was close.
But Victor noticed my eyes move.
He spun.
I moved.
The rifle fired.
The shot exploded through the hangar.
I hit Victor’s forearm.
The weapon discharged again into the ceiling.
Mom screamed.
Victor slammed an elbow into my ribs.
Pain shot through an old injury.
I caught his wrist.
He was sixty-two but strong.
Trained.
We crashed into the laptop table.
The flash drive skidded across the floor.
Victor reached for a pistol at his back.
I trapped his arm.
He head-butted me.
White light flashed across my vision.
Then Mom did the one thing neither of us expected.
She threw herself sideways.
Chair and all.
Her shoulder struck Victor’s knees.
He fell.
The pistol slid away.
I kicked it beneath machinery.
Victor grabbed my throat.
We hit the floor.
His thumbs pressed beneath my jaw.
“You should have died in that valley.”
I drove my palm into his damaged elbow.
He shouted.
Then the hangar erupted with voices.
“FEDERAL AGENTS!”
“DROP YOUR WEAPON!”
“GET AWAY FROM HER!”
Hale reached us first.
Victor froze.
A dozen red sights covered him.
He released my throat.
Agents dragged him backward.
Mom lay beside the overturned chair, crying.
Hale helped me up.
“You okay?”
“I’ve been better.”
“You ignored the extraction signal.”
“You were late.”
“We were twenty-eight seconds early.”
“Felt late.”
He almost laughed from adrenaline.
Victor was cuffed.
As agents pushed him past me, he stopped.
“You think arresting me fixes anything?”
“No.”
“You think your family survives this?”
I looked at Mom.
Then at him.
“My family surviving isn’t your decision anymore.”
He smiled.
“There are still files on that drive you haven’t seen.”
My stomach tightened.
“What files?”
“Ask Thomas.”
“My father is dead.”
Victor leaned closer as agents held him.
“Then ask why he was secretly paying someone fifty thousand dollars every month.”
I stared at him.
He saw surprise.
That satisfied him.
“Your father had secrets too, Major.”
The agents dragged him away.
Mom was transported to the hospital with a concussion and fractured wrist.
Victor was charged with kidnapping, murder conspiracy, espionage-related offenses, unlawful disclosure, and multiple federal crimes that would take months to fully enumerate.
But his final statement stayed with me.
Dad was paying someone $50,000 every month.
The next morning, forensic accountants searched his private accounts.
They found it.
Six years.
Seventy-two payments.
Exactly $50,000 each.
Total: $3.6 million.
All sent through a trust registered to a woman named Leah Morgan.
I had never heard the name.
Neither had Rachel.
Mom claimed she didn’t know her.
Caleb went silent when investigators asked.
That told me he knew something.
I confronted him at the detention facility.
“Who is Leah Morgan?”
He stared through the glass.
“Dad told me never to tell you.”
“He’s dead.”
“I promised.”
“You also sold classified technology.”
His face tightened.
“Who is she?”
Caleb looked away.
Finally he whispered:
“She isn’t someone Dad was paying.”
“Then what?”
“He was paying for someone.”
I waited.
Caleb looked back at me.
“A little girl.”
My chest tightened.
“What little girl?”
May you like
His answer changed everything I thought I knew about our father.
“Your daughter.”
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