Chapter 14 - THE COLONEL’S SECRET
The man in the video looked like Vance.
The same height.
The same uniform.
The same scar near his right eyebrow.
Charles Sterling handed him a folder.
“Destroy the original route orders.”
The man accepted it.
Maya stepped away from Vance.
“You were involved.”
“No.”
“You are standing beside them.”
“That is not me.”
Victoria gave a bitter laugh.
“You always said that.”
Vance turned toward her.
“You knew about the video?”
“I saw him that night.”
Vance’s voice rose.
“I was in Germany.”
“Your travel records were altered,” Agent Brooks said.
She had already begun checking.
Military files showed Vance entered the country two days after the attack.
But the entry could have been fabricated.
Maya looked at him.
“You told me you searched for me.”
“I did.”
“After helping them hide me?”
“No.”
Vance removed his jacket.
He rolled up his right sleeve.
A long burn scar covered his forearm.
“The man in that video has no scar.”
Agent Brooks enlarged the image.
The man’s right wrist became visible.
No burn.
Vance continued.
“My younger brother was named Matthew.”
“He worked in military intelligence.”
“He looked exactly like me.”
“Your twin?” Maya asked.
“Yes.”
“He disappeared one week before the convoy attack.”
Vance had spent years believing Matthew was killed.
No body was found.
Military records claimed he died during an overseas operation.
The video proved otherwise.
Matthew Vance had impersonated his brother.
He helped alter the convoy route.
He helped bury the investigation.
“Is he alive?” Maya asked.
Vance looked at the date on the final file access.
Someone using Matthew’s authorization code entered the vault six months earlier.
“Yes.”
“He may be.”
Agent Brooks searched the database.
Matthew had received payments from offshore Vaughn accounts for twenty-four years.
The last transfer occurred that morning.
The recipient account was active.
Vaughn had not escaped alone.
Matthew had helped him.
Maya opened another folder.
It contained surveillance photographs from the banquet.
One image showed Matthew disguised as a server near the broken window.
He had stolen the medal during the blackout.
Another photograph showed him returning it to Vaughn’s briefcase.
The blood on the broken window did not belong to the senator.
It belonged to Matthew.
Vance sat down heavily.
“My own brother.”
Maya understood the grief in his voice.
Family could be lost without dying.
Agent Brooks opened the final video file.
Matthew appeared alone.
He looked directly into the camera.
“If Amelia Cross finds this, tell her the person who ordered the convoy attack was not Conrad Vaughn.”
Maya stopped breathing.
Matthew held up a photograph.
It showed Evelyn standing beside Maya’s father.
May you like
A man Maya had never seen.
“The order came from Amelia’s father.”
