Chapter 5
When the room emptied, Adrian sat across from Daniel. “Who did they take?”
The doctor broke. His shoulders shook as he pulled a phone from his coat. The video showed his wife, Rachel, tied to a chair in an abandoned building. Beside her sat their nine-year-old grandson, Caleb, with tape over his mouth.
A distorted voice issued instructions: contaminate Adrian Vale’s surgical instruments or both hostages would die. Speak to anyone, and the captors would kill them immediately.
“I used the weakest strain they gave me,” Daniel whispered. “I prayed someone would notice before it spread.”
Adrian watched the video twice. Then he stood and placed a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “You will not die tonight.”
Daniel looked up. “Please save them.”
“I will.”
Noah’s team traced the phone to a warehouse on the industrial edge of Port Lawson. Rachel and Caleb were rescued before dawn. Adrian moved them to a secure house and spread word through the organization that Dr. Daniel Mercer had been executed for betraying him. It was a lie meant to draw out whoever had ordered the contamination.
The trap worked. That afternoon, Mason walked alone through the east garden and made a call from what he believed was an unmonitored phone.
“It’s done,” he said. “Prepare the second phase.”
A listening device hidden inside his jacket recorded every word. Noah brought the audio to Adrian.
For a long time, Adrian stood at his study window. Mason had been beside him during his darkest years. He had called him brother. Adrian had trusted him with routes, accounts, and the security codes to the estate.
“Who was he speaking to?” Adrian asked.
May you like
“We’re tracing it.”
The following night, four armed men broke into the private clinic to destroy Daniel’s records and verify his death. Noah’s men were waiting. The intruders were captured alive.
