Chapter 8 - The Airfield
Elena refused to negotiate with Caleb.
Instead, she studied the estate maps.
The airfield’s main gate used a rotating code.
But my father had built an emergency access road through the northern forest for fire crews.
Caleb did not know it existed.
I did.
We reached the airfield in nine minutes.
A federal tactical team blocked the runway.
The jet’s engines were already running.
Sheriff Crane stood beside a black SUV.
He drew his weapon when we approached.
Elena’s agents surrounded him before he could aim.
Owen pulled Emily against his chest.
A scalpel pressed beneath her jaw.
She looked thinner than she had in the video.
There was dried blood near her temple.
Her eyes found mine.
Everything else disappeared.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
Owen dragged her toward the jet stairs.
“Tell them to back away.”
“You’re not leaving.”
“I have diplomatic clearance.”
“You have a hostage.”
“I have my niece.”
Emily drove her heel into his foot.
The scalpel cut her skin, but his grip loosened.
I crossed the distance before he recovered.
My shoulder struck his chest.
We fell onto the pavement.
The scalpel skidded beneath the aircraft.
Owen fought desperately but without discipline.
I pinned him until agents secured his wrists.
Emily collapsed against me.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
I felt her breathing.
That was enough.
Then she pulled away.
“Noah.”
“He’s safe.”
“Did they take blood?”
“No.”
Relief crossed her face.
She looked toward the jet.
“Lila is inside.”
Agents searched the aircraft.
They found Lila Hart unconscious in a medical compartment beneath the passenger cabin.
She was alive.
The woman removed from the coffin had been a different person.
Owen had switched the bodies through the chapel tunnel.
The second corpse was later discovered inside a storage container.
She was identified as Marissa Cole’s missing sister, Kendra.
The conspiracy now contained two murdered women.
Emily was transported to a military hospital under guard.
Before the ambulance doors closed, she caught my hand.
“Caleb has the second key.”
“What second key?”
“The thing behind his back.”
“The flash drive?”
“No.”
“He burned that to distract you.”
“He had something else.”
Back at the estate, Caleb’s chair sat empty.
One CID agent lay unconscious near the fireplace.
Mother was gone too.
On the marble hearth, Caleb had left a handwritten message.
Bring Noah to the old Hale factory before midnight.
May you like
Come alone, Daniel.
Or Mother tells the world whose blood your son really carries.
