Chapter 12 - THE EXCHANGE
Maya walked onto the platform alone.
Rain soaked her coat.
Vaughn kept the gun against Ethan’s neck.
The medal hung from his other hand.
“You look like Evelyn,” he said.
Maya stopped twenty feet away.
“You kept her imprisoned.”
“Charles Sterling kept her.”
“You paid for it.”
“I paid for many things.”
“Give me the medal.”
“Give me the vault key.”
Ethan held the brass key between two fingers.
Vaughn tightened his grip around Ethan’s throat.
Maya looked at her husband.
He was frightened.
But for the first time, he did not ask her to save him.
“Do not give it to him,” Ethan said.
Vaughn struck him with the gun.
Maya’s body moved instinctively.
“Stop.”
“Then bring me the key.”
“The key is useless without access to Sterling Tower.”
“I still have friends inside.”
“You do not have friends.”
“You have people waiting to betray you before you betray them.”
Vaughn smiled.
“You learned quickly.”
Maya continued walking.
Agent Brooks spoke through the hidden receiver in Maya’s ear.
Five more steps.
Maya reached Ethan.
She held out her hand.
He placed the key in her palm.
Vaughn extended the medal.
For one second, both objects hung between them.
Then Maya dropped the key through a gap in the platform.
Vaughn lunged.
Ethan drove his shoulder into the senator’s chest.
The gun fired.
Maya fell backward.
Agents opened fire.
Vaughn disappeared over the side of the platform.
Ethan collapsed beside Maya.
Blood spread across his white shirt.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
Maya was uninjured.
She crawled toward him.
He looked at her.
“Did you get the medal?”
Maya opened her hand.
The silver pendant rested against her palm.
“Yes.”
Vaughn had fallen onto the lower tracks.
By the time agents reached them, he was gone.
A trail of blood led into a maintenance tunnel.
He had escaped again.
Paramedics carried Ethan away.
Maya rode with him to the hospital.
She sat beside the stretcher but did not hold his hand.
He understood.
“I knew about the woman in the desert,” he whispered.
“I know.”
“I convinced myself she was being protected.”
“You protected yourself from the truth.”
“Yes.”
His eyes closed.
“Will you ever forgive me?”
Maya looked at the medal.
“I do not know.”
Back at the military hospital, Vance examined it.
The edge opened with a small mechanical click.
Inside was a thin metal strip engraved with numbers.
They matched a vault beneath Sterling Tower.
But there was also a tiny photograph.
It showed Victoria standing beside Evelyn after the convoy attack.
May you like
Victoria was holding Maya.
And smiling.
