“What did you do?”
She breathed slowly.
Then said, “I was investigating them before the crash.”
“What are you?”
She hesitated.
That hesitation hurt almost as much as seeing her alive.
“Army Criminal Investigation.”
I laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“Attached to a joint task force.”
“You told me you worked procurement.”
“I did. That was my cover assignment.”
“For how long?”
Her eyes filled again.
“Eleven years.”
My entire marriage rearranged itself in my head.
Late meetings.
Unexplained trips.
Locked files.
The questions she sometimes asked about deployments that had seemed like curiosity.
“What did you know about Larkin?”
Sarah stared at me.
That was the question she didn’t want.
“What did you know?”
“He contacted our office.”
The room tilted.
“Before the ambush.”
I stepped backward.
“You knew.”
“We didn’t know he was in immediate danger.”
“You knew he found something.”
“And you never told me.”
“I couldn’t.”
“He died in my arms.”
Rage came up so quickly that Rex moved against my leg.
Sarah whispered, “Larkin found evidence that stolen systems were moving through a domestic network before reaching overseas buyers. The network had people inside the military, law enforcement, logistics companies, everything.”
“Harlan?”
“A piece.”
“Vale?”
She nodded.
Cross cursed quietly behind us.
I felt sick.
“General Vale.”
“He built the network.”
The man who had shaken my hand that afternoon.
The man who had praised Rex.
The man who knew which direction I would drive.
Sarah continued.
“After Larkin died, most of the evidence disappeared. Years later, I found financial records linking this quarry to the old shipments.”
“So they tried to kill you.”
“But you survived.”
“And instead of coming home—”
“You could.”
“If they knew I was alive, they would come after you.”
“They came after me anyway!”
She flinched.
I regretted shouting.
I didn’t regret the words.
Sarah looked at Rex.
“We thought the network had gone dormant.”
“Who is we?”
“Cross.”
I turned slowly.
Daniel Cross looked destroyed.
“You knew she was alive.”
I hit him.
One punch.
Hard.
He didn’t defend himself.
Cross staggered into the wall.
Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“I deserved that,” he said.
“You deserve worse.”
Sarah stepped between us.
“Jack, please.”
“Was any part of my life real?”
Her face broke.
“Our marriage.”
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
“Because disappearing from you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I watched the funeral from a surveillance van two streets away.”
That destroyed whatever was left inside me.
“You watched?”
She was crying openly now.
“I saw you carrying the urn.”
I couldn’t speak.
“I saw Rex searching every car in the parking lot because he could smell me somewhere nearby.”
Rex looked at her when she said his name.
Sarah covered her mouth.
“I almost opened the door.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Vale had men watching you. I knew if I came back, they would know the crash failed.”
The silence after that felt endless.
Finally I asked, “How did you end up here?”
“Harlan found me three weeks ago.”
“Why keep you alive?”
“Because I hid evidence.”
“What evidence?”
And smiled through her tears.
“The one thing Vale has spent six years trying to find.”
She crouched beside Rex.
Her fingers moved toward the scar on his side.
“The cache overseas wasn’t completely destroyed.”
I frowned.
“We watched it burn.”
“The building burned.”
She touched the edge of Rex’s old service harness.
“But before the attack, Larkin took something.”
Cross suddenly understood.
“Oh, God.”
Sarah nodded.
“He knew his communications were compromised. He needed a courier nobody would search.”
I looked at Rex.
Sarah smiled faintly.
“Larkin hid a micro-storage device inside Rex’s medical identification capsule.”
“His ID capsule?”
“The original one.”
“That was replaced after he was wounded.”
“Then the original is gone.”
Sarah shook her head.
My heart began racing.
“Where is it?”
She looked directly at me.
“You have it.”
I had no idea what she meant.
Then I remembered.
The wooden box.
Larkin’s belongings had been returned to his family.
But one small item had been given to me.
Rex’s old collar.
Bloodstained.
Burned along one edge.
I had kept it in the bottom drawer of my desk for six years.
Sarah whispered, “Larkin died protecting evidence he had already sent home with you.”
I sat down on the cot.
For six years, the answer had been in my house.
Twenty feet from where I slept.
Vale hadn’t known.
Until now.
“What changed?”
Sarah looked toward Cross.
“The ceremony.”
Cross nodded.
“We displayed photographs from Rex’s service. One included him wearing the original collar after the cache discovery.”
“And Vale saw it.”
“He realized Larkin might have used Rex.”
“So today wasn’t about killing me in a diner.”
“Then what?”
“They needed you arrested.”
I understood.
“A search warrant.”
“If Harlan could make you look dangerous enough, authorities could search your truck, maybe later your home. Vale wanted that collar.”
Butch groaned from the floor.
“Five thousand dollars.”
He gave a weak smile.
“I should’ve asked for ten.”
“You’re all too late anyway.”
He was still restrained.
Still bleeding.
Still smiling.
Cross grabbed him.
Harlan looked at Sarah.