Chapter 10 - Blackthorne Hill
Rusk’s house was immaculate.
His safe was empty.
But scratches on the floor exposed a false base.
Beneath it sat one notebook.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Beside some entries were single letters.
M.
K.
V.
T.
A page marked FAMILY LIABILITY listed:
Michael Mercer.
Clara Mercer.
Hannah Mercer.
Victor Kane.
Thomas Kane.
Nathan Vale.
Rusk had reduced human beings to risk columns.
Then Hannah found a video card hidden behind an electrical plate.
The footage showed Admiral Elias Thorne in the same room six years earlier.
“I want out,” Thorne said.
Rusk stood by the window.
“There is no out.”
“I covered Mercer. I covered Lee. I’m done.”
Hannah’s stomach tightened.
Thorne had helped bury both deaths.
Rusk walked closer.
“You don’t retire from a secret. You become part of its burial.”
The video ended.
An agent entered.
“We traced a vehicle that left before we arrived.”
“Passenger?”
“Unknown.”
Hannah’s phone rang.
Elias Thorne.
His voice was weak.
“Commander Cole.”
“Where are you?”
“With the only thing Rusk still fears.”
“The ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Why call me?”
“Because your father was right about me.”
“About what?”
“That I was a coward.”
Hannah heard a car door slam.
Thorne whispered, “They found me.”
The line went dead.
They traced the call to a motel near Oceanside.
Room 18 was open.
Blood on the carpet.
No body.
One torn ledger page lay beside the bed.
Michael Mercer’s name appeared at the bottom.
Authorization canceled by M. Mercer.
Hannah touched the paper.
“He revoked it.”
Nathan nodded.
“He tried to shut the program down.”
Highway cameras located a gray van heading east.
Agents followed.
At an abandoned quarry road, they found Thorne alive against a concrete barrier.
Barely.
He gripped Hannah’s wrist.
“I split the ledger.”
“Where?”
“Half is in a federal vault.”
“And the rest?”
Thorne looked at Nathan.
“With his daughter.”
May you like
Nathan went white.
“Sophie.”
