Chapter 10 - David’s Final Flight
Federal agents entered the archive before Julian reached the case.
Eleanor triggered the fire alarm.
Steel shutters dropped across the windows.
Julian ignited the accelerant.
Flames moved quickly along the paper shelves.
Preston ran toward a rear exit.
Agents stopped him.
Eleanor disappeared into the smoke.
Julian climbed into the underground chamber.
He carried David’s case toward a drainage tunnel beneath the wreckage.
I watched through a drone feed.
No one in the command vehicle spoke.
A federal agent reached Dr. Mercer and cut his restraints.
Mercer immediately claimed he had been kidnapped.
He ignored the documents burning around him.
Fire crews entered as soon as the shutters were lifted.
The archive became a maze of smoke, water, and collapsing shelves.
Julian emerged from the drainage tunnel nearly half a mile away.
Major Brooks’s team waited at the exit.
Julian held the metal case against his chest.
He stopped when he saw me beside the vehicles.
I had left the command van.
This was not a military operation.
I carried no weapon.
I stood beneath the desert floodlights in my civilian coat.
He laughed.
“You really do arrive in uniform for every tragedy.”
“I am not in uniform.”
For the first time, he looked closely.
Without the ribbons and rank, I was only Chloe’s mother.
That frightened him more.
“Give me the case,” I said.
“It belongs to my company.”
“It belonged to David.”
“David stole corporate information.”
“Then you will have no objection to investigators reviewing it.”
His grip tightened.
“Chloe destroyed everything.”
“No.”
“She refused to help you hide what already existed.”
Julian looked toward the burning archive.
“You have no idea how many people depend on Sterling Aeronautics.”
“I know exactly how many service members depend on the parts being real.”
He stepped backward.
Major Brooks ordered him to stop.
Julian opened the case.
Inside were engineering notebooks, photographs, and a small cockpit recorder.
He lifted the recorder.
“One step and this breaks.”
Chloe’s voice came from behind me.
“Then break it.”
I turned.
She had left the vehicle.
Her cheek remained swollen.
A bandage covered her eyebrow.
She walked toward Julian without lowering her eyes.
“You hit me for those files.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“You drugged me.”
“You tried to erase my father.”
“If destroying that recorder is all you have left, do it in front of everyone.”
Julian stared at her.
He had spent their marriage teaching Chloe to fear what he might do.
She had stopped participating.
His power vanished.
He threw the recorder toward the concrete.
Major Brooks caught it before it landed.
Agents arrested Julian.
The metal case was taken into evidence.
The cockpit recorder still functioned.
David’s voice filled a federal laboratory the following morning.
He spoke during his final flight.
“The controls are resisting.”
“The replacement actuator is locking.”
“This is the same failure I reported.”
A second voice came through the radio.
The Sterling test director ordered him to continue.
David refused.
Then another sound entered the recording.
A small explosion near the control system.
The final words my husband spoke were not a prayer.
May you like
They were a warning.
“Tell Sarah it was the actuator.”
