Chapter 11 - THE FALSE EXCHANGE
Ross constructed a controlled exchange.
Kane demanded the original baby monitor and the spoken sequence.
We demanded my mother alive.
The meeting would occur at an abandoned airport outside Baltimore.
Kane chose the location.
We chose the time.
Jason agreed to cooperate after prosecutors showed him the charges.
He wanted immunity.
He received only protective custody and the possibility of a reduced sentence.
He still believed he could bargain his way out.
My father regained consciousness before we left.
I sat beside his hospital bed.
He looked smaller beneath the bandages.
“I am sorry.”
“I don’t know what to do with that.”
“You don’t have to forgive me.”
“Did you know Mom sent Jason to me?”
His eyes closed.
“No.”
“Would you have stopped her?”
“Yes.”
I wanted to believe him.
That did not make it true.
He reached for my hand.
“The files contain more than defense contracts. Kane used the program to blackmail judges, generals, and senators.”
“Then why hide them inside me?”
“Because you were the only person Kane never suspected I would endanger.”
I pulled my hand away.
“But you did endanger me.”
“Yes.”
No excuses.
That honesty hurt more.
At midnight, we reached the abandoned airport.
A storm covered the runway.
Federal snipers positioned themselves in empty hangars.
Ross fitted me with a microphone.
Jason stood beside me in a bullet-resistant vest.
“You look nervous,” he said.
“I lived with you for four years.”
He smiled.
“You loved me.”
“I loved the man you performed.”
His expression tightened.
A private jet taxied toward us.
The door opened.
Kane stepped down holding my mother by the arm.
A pistol pressed against her ribs.
She looked exhausted but alive.
“Sequence first,” Kane called.
I held up the baby monitor.
“Release her.”
He laughed.
“You sound like your father.”
Jason stepped forward.
“Kane, I completed the assignment.”
Kane looked at him with contempt.
“You failed to control one pregnant woman.”
Jason’s face flushed.
“I found the device.”
“You found nothing.”
Jason looked toward me.
His panic returned.
He realized Kane never planned to protect him.
Kane pushed my mother onto the wet runway.
“Speak the sequence.”
I began.
One word at a time.
The monitor’s red light blinked with each syllable.
Kane listened.
When I reached the sixth word, I stopped.
“The final word after she reaches me.”
Kane shoved my mother forward.
She walked toward us.
Halfway across the runway, Jason suddenly grabbed me.
He pressed a hidden blade beneath my belly.
Ross’s agents raised their weapons.
Jason screamed,
“I want a plane!”
My mother stopped.
Kane smiled.
He had expected this.
Jason dragged me toward the jet.
“You’re coming with me.”
I felt the blade against my skin.
Then the baby monitor played the last word by itself.
May you like
“Kane.”
Every phone on the runway began ringing.
