Chapter 7 - The TradeCharles Voss chose the location carefully.
An abandoned shipyard south of San Diego.
Private docks.
Multiple exits.
Minimal civilian traffic.
Exactly the kind of place a man chooses when he plans to leave bodies behind.
At 11:43 p.m., my phone received coordinates.
Then a photograph.
Dad sat tied to a steel chair.
Blood ran from his forehead.
Underneath:
MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE. BRING THE KEY.
I arrived at 11:58.
Alone.
At least, that was what Voss believed.
Vanessa’s pendant hung around my neck.
The data wafer inside was a Navy duplicate loaded with a tracking package and a forensic trap developed by Grant’s cyber team.
The real wafer was already inside a secure laboratory.
If Voss inserted the duplicate into his network, every connected system would begin copying itself to Navy servers.
We needed him to take the bait.
I walked into Warehouse Seven.
Dad sat beneath a single hanging light.
Voss stood behind him.
Two armed men guarded the exits.
“You came,” Dad said.
“Of course.”
Voss smiled.
“I always admired your loyalty.”
“You don’t understand loyalty.”
“I understand it better than anyone.”
He pointed toward my pendant.
“The key.”
“Let him go.”
Voss laughed.
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
“That key is useless without me.”
His smile faded.
“You need biometric authentication to unlock the Lighthouse archive.”
He stared.
I had guessed correctly.
Mom’s key didn’t merely expose records.
It unlocked the master evidence archive she had constructed.
Voss needed both.
The wafer.
And me.
Dad struggled against the restraints.
“Claire, don’t.”
Voss struck him.
I stepped forward.
“Touch him again and this goes into the harbor.”
I held up the pendant.
Voss stopped.
“Good,” I said. “Now we negotiate.”
He ordered one guard to untie Dad.
Dad moved toward me slowly.
When he reached halfway, Voss raised his hand.
“Key first.”
I removed the pendant.
Threw it.
Voss caught it.
Dad crossed the remaining distance.
I put my arm around him.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
Voss examined the wafer.
“Commander.”
I looked back.
“You forgot something.”
“What?”
“You.”
The armed men moved.
I expected that.
What Voss didn’t expect was Vanessa.
Her voice echoed from the warehouse entrance.
“Charles!”
Everyone turned.
She stood outside beneath the floodlights.
Unarmed.
Furious.
Voss looked astonished.
“You stupid girl.”
Vanessa raised her phone.
“You wanted attention? You’ve got it.”
She was livestreaming.
Not publicly.
Directly to federal investigators.
The distraction lasted three seconds.
Enough.
I drove my elbow into the nearest guard.
Dad dropped behind a steel crate.
Shots exploded.
Navy tactical units stormed from side entrances.
Voss ran.
Again.
I chased him toward the docks.
“CLAIRE!” Grant shouted behind me.
Voss reached a speedboat.
I jumped aboard before he cleared the pier.
He swung a metal hook.
I ducked.
The boat accelerated.
City lights blurred behind us.
Voss attacked again.
I blocked his arm.
Pain exploded through my damaged shoulder.
He saw it.
Smiled.
“Still broken.”
“No.”
I drove my forehead into his nose.
He staggered.
“Just repaired.”
The boat veered wildly.
He grabbed the pendant from his pocket.
“You think this matters?”
“It does to you.”
He laughed.
“Your mother believed evidence mattered too.”
Anger became cold.
“What did you do to her?”
His expression answered before his mouth did.
My mother died of cancer.
That was what doctors said.
But Voss had visited her repeatedly during treatment.
Fear crept into me.
“What did you do?”
“I made sure a sick woman stayed sick.”
For one second, the ocean disappeared.
“You poisoned her?”
“Such an ugly word.”
I lunged.
He raised the hook.
We crashed into the rail.
The pendant fell.
Voss reached for it.
I kicked it overboard.
His face transformed.
“No!”
He leaned after it.
That was his mistake.
I grabbed the emergency throttle and killed the engine.
The sudden deceleration threw him forward.
He struck the rail and collapsed.
Seconds later, Coast Guard lights surrounded us.
Voss regained consciousness in handcuffs.
Grant boarded.
“You okay?”
“No.”
But I was standing.
That mattered.
Federal officers took Voss away.
Dad and Vanessa were safe.
The duplicate wafer was gone beneath fifty feet of seawater, but the trap had already activated during the minutes Voss carried it near his encrypted phone.
His device had automatically attempted to communicate with a hidden Meridian network.
That connection gave investigators something better than the shipyard.
An active server address.
Grant showed me the result.
The location was not overseas.
Not some secret foreign facility.
It was inside a U.S. government building.
Naval command headquarters.
Someone inside was still working with Voss.
Someone powerful.
And when we traced the terminal authorization, I recognized the name.
May you like
CAPTAIN ELIAS GRANT.
The man standing beside me.
