Chapter 5 - MIDNIGHT AT THE PAPER MILLThe old Briar Ridge paper mill had been abandoned for seventeen years.
Broken windows stared over the river.
Rust covered the loading cranes.
Wind pushed loose sheets of metal against one another, producing a slow, irregular banging that echoed through the darkness.
At 11:58 p.m., Cody Pike rode through the gate.
Alone.
At least that was what Rex believed.
Colonel Mercer had wanted federal agents inside the building.
Nathan refused.
“If Vane is involved, he may have access to standard surveillance procedures.”
Mercer hated admitting the old man was right.
So the team stayed nearly half a mile away.
Cody wore no visible transmitter.
A tiny microphone had been sewn inside the lining of his vest.
Nathan listened from an unmarked van.
Mercer sat beside him.
“You should be at Evelyn Bell’s house.”
“She’s asleep.”
“You’re seventy-eight.”
“I noticed this morning.”
“You’ve been awake eighteen hours.”
Nathan looked at him.
“Are you always this annoying?”
“Only with national treasures.”
“Never call me that again.”
For half a second, Mercer smiled.
Then Cody’s voice came through the receiver.
“I’m here.”
Rex emerged between stacks of rotting pallets.
Two bikers followed him.
Neither had been at the diner.
Cody recognized them as men from another chapter.
Rex folded his arms.
“Thought you were quitting.”
“Thought about it.”
“You talked to Hale.”
Cody’s pulse jumped.
Nathan heard it through the microphone.
“Everybody talked to Hale.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m standing here, aren’t I?”
Rex circled him.
“You think the old man’s some kind of hero?”
“I don’t care what he is.”
“You should.”
Rex stopped.
“Because tomorrow he’s going to stand in front of cameras and pretend he spent forty-two years looking for some soldier he actually got killed.”
Inside the surveillance van, Nathan closed his eyes.
Mercer watched him.
Cody said, “Who told you that?”
Rex smiled.
“People.”
“What people?”
“People who know.”
“Government people?”
Rex’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
Enough.
Cody continued.
“The guy with the gray car?”
Rex grabbed Cody’s vest.
“What did you see?”
“Get off me.”
“What did you see?”
One biker moved behind Cody.
Mercer reached for his radio.
Nathan stopped him.
“Wait.”
“Sir.”
“Wait.”
Cody shoved Rex back.
“Enough.”
Rex looked genuinely startled.
Cody had never shoved him before.
“You’re done ordering me around.”
“You think Hale cares about you?”
“No.”
Cody’s voice shook.
“But he didn’t ask me to be afraid of him either.”
Rex laughed bitterly.
“You’re choosing some stranger over your brothers?”
“I’m choosing myself.”
Silence.
Cody removed the Iron Jackals patch from his vest.
He dropped it onto the concrete.
“I’m done.”
One of the bikers stepped toward him.
Rex raised a hand.
“No.”
Then he stared at Cody.
“You want the truth?”
“Sure.”
“The truth is everybody’s owned by somebody.”
He kicked the patch aside.
“Hale just has richer owners.”
Cody shook his head.
“Who paid you?”
Rex laughed.
“You think this is about money?”
“Yes.”
That landed.
Rex’s smile disappeared.
Cody pressed.
“New bike. Paid dues. Cash. What’d they want?”
Rex glanced toward the river.
When he spoke again, his voice was quieter.
“At first? Nothing serious.”
Nathan leaned closer to the receiver.
“Keep talking,” he whispered, though Cody could not hear him.
Rex paced.
“A guy contacted me six months ago. Said he worked for a security consulting company. Wanted people in town watched.”
“Who?”
“Hale.”
Cody stared.
“You’ve been watching him for six months?”
“Just routines. Where he ate. Who he met.”
“Why?”
“Guy said Hale was part of a fraud investigation.”
Nathan looked toward Mercer.
Mercer’s face hardened.
Cody asked, “And you believed that?”
“He paid.”
“So you didn’t care.”
Rex snapped, “Don’t suddenly act better than me.”
“I’m not.”
Cody pointed toward him.
“But I’m starting to understand what you are.”
Rex’s jaw flexed.
“The diner wasn’t planned.”
Nathan frowned.
Cody said, “What?”
“The guy told me Hale would be there. Said make him uncomfortable. Get him to leave before noon.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You stole his cane.”
“I lost my temper!”
“And then?”
Rex looked away.
“After the SUVs showed up, I called my contact. He panicked.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That Hale was supposed to miss a meeting.”
Mercer cursed under his breath.
Nathan turned.
“What meeting?”
Mercer was already working it out.
“Your meeting yesterday afternoon with the recovery board.”
Nathan remembered.
He had planned to attend a secure briefing at 1:00 p.m. before deciding to stop for coffee.
If Rex had frightened or injured him, the meeting might have been delayed.
Cody asked, “Why stop Hale from going?”
Rex reached inside his jacket.
Federal agents tensed.
He pulled out an envelope.
“He gave me this.”
Photographs spilled across a wooden crate.
Cody picked one up.
Nathan saw only shadows through the surveillance camera.
“What are these?”
“Mission records. Hale’s unit.”
“And?”
“Supposed to prove Hale covered up Bell’s death.”
Cody looked closer.
“Do they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why post them?”
Rex slammed a fist against the crate.
“Because after that diner, people laughed at me!”
His voice echoed through the building.
There it was.
Not ideology.
Not justice.
Humiliation.
Rex had been embarrassed, and he wanted the world to hurt for it.
Cody shook his head.
“You did all this because somebody saluted him?”
Rex grabbed the photos.
“You don’t understand.”
“I do now.”
Footsteps sounded from the far entrance.
Rex froze.
A man in a charcoal overcoat appeared.
Even from fifty yards away, Nathan recognized the posture.
Malcolm Vane.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
Vane looked at Cody.
“Who is he?”
Rex answered too quickly.
“One of mine.”
Vane stared.
“No, he isn’t.”
Cody’s blood ran cold.
Vane moved toward him.
“Take off your vest.”
Cody backed away.
“Why?”
“Take it off.”
Rex looked confused.
Vane reached beneath his coat.
Mercer grabbed the radio.
“Move.”
This time Nathan didn’t stop him.
Federal vehicles exploded from darkness.
Headlights swept through broken windows.
“FEDERAL AGENTS!”
Everything happened at once.
One biker ran.
Another dropped to his knees.
Cody dove behind a steel column.
Rex shouted.
Vane turned toward a side door.
He almost reached it.
Then Nathan Hale stepped into the opening.
Cane in one hand.
No weapon.
Vane stopped dead.
Forty-two years stood between the two men.
“Nathan.”
Hale stared at him.
“Malcolm.”
Vane gave a strange smile.
“You still enjoy dramatic entrances.”
“I learned from you.”
Agents surrounded them.
Mercer approached with his weapon lowered but ready.
Vane looked toward the colonel.
“You have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
Nathan’s face was stone.
“I think I finally do.”
Vane’s eyes dropped toward the cane.
For one second, something resembling fear appeared.
“You found Bell.”
“Yes.”
“And the pouch?”
Nathan understood immediately.
“You don’t know what was inside.”
Vane said nothing.
Nathan stepped closer.
“That’s why you’re afraid.”
Vane’s composure cracked.
Only briefly.
But Nathan saw it.
The surviving page wasn’t what Malcolm Vane feared most.
There was something else.
May you like
Something in Andrew Bell’s recovered belongings that Mercer’s people had not yet discovered.
And whatever it was, Vane believed Nathan Hale already had it.
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