Chapter 14 - MISSING
Lena's protective detail had not failed.
Lena had walked away.
Security footage showed her leaving the safe apartment alone at 4:18 a.m., carrying one backpack.
No struggle.
No forced vehicle.
Maya watched the footage three times.
"She's scared," Priya said.
"No," Maya replied. "She's following instructions."
"Whose?"
Maya zoomed in on Lena's left hand.
A folded receipt was visible between her fingers.
They enhanced the frame.
A diner logo appeared.
The same diner where Lena first met Maya.
Maya drove there.
Under the booth, taped beneath the table, she found a cheap prepaid phone.
It contained one video.
Lena appeared on screen, exhausted.
"Maya, if you're watching this, I had to disappear. Victor's people aren't the only ones involved. There is another company. They bought the defective parts and paid Meridian to keep using them. The name is Northstar Aeronautics."
Maya knew Northstar.
Everyone did.
It supplied components to six major airlines and the military.
Lena continued.
"Jonah found the pattern. That's why he was dangerous."
The video ended with an address.
An abandoned hangar outside Wichita.
Priya looked at Maya.
"That's either where Lena is..."
Maya finished the sentence.
May you like
Maya studied Lena's departure frame by frame until she noticed something else: Lena paused before leaving and looked directly into the lobby camera. Not frightened. Intentional. She wanted to be seen leaving. That meant the disappearance was a message, not an abduction. Priya found a bus ticket purchased in cash and then abandoned. Whoever Lena feared had access to official databases. She was using old-fashioned misdirection because digital systems had become dangerous. Maya admired the discipline even as it scared her.
"Or where someone wants me to go."
