There was another figure.
Barely visible behind a car.
Holding a handgun.
The face had been partially obscured…
But not completely.
Victor.
I slowly looked up.
His expression changed.
Only for a fraction of a second.
Long enough.
He hadn’t expected me to notice.
Ellis spoke quietly.
“He always crops that photograph.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“The original is in the folder you’re carrying.”
“Read the back.”
My hands trembled as I turned over the picture.
Written in my father’s handwriting were six words.
Victor fired the first shot.
Silence.
For the first time all night…
Victor looked afraid.
Then headlights flooded the parking lot.
Five black pickup trucks roared through the front gate, smashing the chain-link fence off its hinges.
They weren’t FBI.
They weren’t police.
Men poured out carrying military rifles.
Far too many.
Victor stepped backward.
Even he looked surprised.
One of the newcomers shouted,
“Forget Mercer.”
“Find the folder.”
Ellis whispered one word.
“Run.”
We sprinted toward the tree line behind the storage facility as gunfire erupted from every direction.
Bullets chewed through parked cars.
Windows exploded.
Someone screamed.
I didn’t know whether it was one of Victor’s men…
…or one of ours.
We reached the woods just as the first truck burst into flames.
Orange fire illuminated the rain-soaked trees.
Behind us, Route 9 Storage had become a battlefield.
And somewhere inside the burning unit…
The black equipment case was still there.
Along with every piece of evidence my father had spent twenty years collecting.
Or so I thought.
Because as we disappeared into the darkness…
I felt something hard inside my jacket.
A second flash drive.
One I had never seen Agent Ellis place there.
A tiny label was attached.
ONLY AFTER YOU SEE HIM.
