“But you should probably wait.”
Ethan frowned.
“For what?”
Harold looked toward the entrance.
“For the man who is about to walk through those doors.”
Five minutes later, the first black sedan stopped outside the terminal.
Then another.
Then a third.
The doors opened.
Men in dark suits stepped into the airport.
Passengers began turning toward them.
Reeves' face slowly lost its color.
One of the men approached.
He looked at Harold.
Then immediately lowered his head.
“Mr. Brooks.”
The terminal seemed to freeze.
Ethan looked at the old man's worn coat.
His battered shoes.
His cheap travel bag.
Then back at the man in the expensive suit.
“Who is he?” Ethan whispered.
The executive looked at Ethan.
“You don't know?”
Ethan shook his head.
The man turned toward Harold.
“Should I tell him?”
Harold smiled.
“No.”
He looked at Ethan.
“Let him find out himself.”
And that was the moment Ethan realized something.
He hadn't helped a helpless old man.
He had helped a man who had spent decades making decisions that could change thousands of lives.
And somehow, that man had remembered the name on Ethan's badge.
Ethan Carter.
The teenager who had chosen a human being over a rule.
The boy who had walked away from his station.
And the decision that had cost him his job was about to change his entire future.