Chapter 6 - The Burning Archive
Smoke poured from the archive loading bay when Hannah arrived.
Sprinklers hammered the concrete.
Boxes lay beside an industrial shredder.
One had broken open.
She grabbed the top file.
Michael Mercer’s signature appeared above APPROVED.
Kane, now under guard, leaned over her shoulder.
“That one is fake.”
“How do you know?”
“I watched Thorne’s aide sign it.”
Hannah turned.
“You saw who forged my father’s name?”
“Yes.”
A man in a suit stood behind the smoky office glass.
Kane pointed.
“That’s him.”
The man saw them and ran.
Hannah chased him through the rear exit.
He disappeared between parked trucks.
On the pavement lay a dropped phone.
The screen showed an unsent message:
MERCER HAS THE ORIGINAL REPORT. ACTIVATE BLACK TIDE.
Back at the field office, nobody knew what Black Tide meant.
Kane did.
“Cleanup.”
Hannah stared.
“Of what?”
“Witnesses. Files. Anyone who can describe Harbor Meridian.”
The five survivors from the Resolute had been moved to a protected medical site.
Hannah called.
No answer.
They reached the building twelve minutes later.
Power was off.
A guard was unconscious.
The rooms were empty.
Written on the wall:
STOP MAKING WITNESSES.
Hannah slammed her palm against the doorframe.
Nathan searched the rooms.
“They moved them fast.”
One survivor had left a clue.
Under a mattress was a torn medical label with a number written on it.
Kane recognized the prefix.
“My brother’s company.”
Hannah looked at him.
“What brother?”
“Thomas Kane. Defense consultant.”
“You never mentioned him.”
“I didn’t know he was involved.”
Hannah gave him a cold stare.
“Everyone in this story keeps not knowing.”
An analyst traced the company to a private hangar near Coronado.
Then a video arrived.
Marisol Vega, one of the rescued women, sat tied to a chair.
A distorted voice said:
“Discredit Michael Mercer’s report by six p.m.”
Marisol lifted her head and spoke in Spanish.
Nathan translated.
“Don’t trade the dead for the living.”
Kane whispered, “Thomas has a hangar.”
Hannah checked the time.
May you like
Forty-eight minutes.
“Then we go.”
