Chapter 9 - The Father I Had Never Met
The call originated from a remote airfield two hours north.
Federal agents joined the search because Thomas Reed had once served in classified operations.
I traveled with Ellison despite Nathan’s objections.
The airfield hangar was open when we arrived.
Inside, we found blood, a broken radio, and one brass naval wing.
No body.
Security footage showed Thomas arriving alone.
Victor followed twenty minutes later.
After the gunshot, both men left in Thomas’s truck.
Victor was driving.
Thomas appeared injured but alive.
A map in the hangar office marked an abandoned weather station in the mountains.
We reached it before dawn.
Victor stood outside holding a rifle.
He fired at the lead vehicle.
Agents returned fire and forced him behind a concrete barrier.
Thomas was inside the station.
Victor shouted that he wanted the medal chip.
He did not know police already had copies.
“You lose even if you leave,” I called.
Victor laughed.
“You think this is about Harold?”
“What is it about?”
“Your father.”
For years, Victor had believed Thomas possessed intelligence documents worth millions.
Harold promised access in exchange for arranging the maritime attack.
The attack served two goals.
Break me.
And force Thomas out of hiding if he learned his daughter had been targeted.
Thomas did learn.
He secretly investigated the explosion and traced Northstar Maritime to Victor.
Grandmother found him during that investigation.
Victor had been trying to locate him ever since.
Inside the weather station, Thomas managed to activate an emergency beacon.
Agents moved around the ridge.
Victor realized he was surrounded.
He ran toward a snowmobile.
Ellison tackled him before he reached it.
I entered the station.
A man sat against the wall with blood soaking his shoulder.
He had gray hair, weathered skin, and my eyes.
“Evelyn,” he whispered.
I knelt beside him.
There were too many things to say.
I chose the most important.
“You stayed away.”
His face tightened.
“I thought distance kept you alive.”
“It didn’t.”
“No.”
He looked at my bruises.
“I am sorry.”
I had imagined meeting my biological father only after learning he existed.
In those imagined conversations, I accused him.
He explained.
We understood each other.
Reality was quieter.
A medic treated him while he handed me a small waterproof envelope.
“Your grandmother asked me to give you this.”
Inside was a photograph of Thomas holding me as a newborn.
Margaret stood beside him.
Harold watched from the background.
On the back, Grandmother had written:
The first theft was not the company.
It was Evelyn.
Thomas told me Harold had not simply married Margaret after his disappearance.
May you like
Harold helped arrange the training crash that forced him into hiding.
My father had stolen my mother, my name, and my childhood before I was even born.
