Chapter 8 - THE DOOR JAKE OPENED
Jake’s voice came again through the sealed door.
“Please. I didn’t know who else to tell.”
Mercer reached for the security panel.
Sarah stopped him.
“How did he get into the command corridor?”
“He was under guard.”
“Then either the guards failed or they brought him here.”
Mercer activated the intercom.
“Recruit Thompson, step back from the door and place your hands where the corridor camera can see them.”
No response.
The camera feed remained black.
Sarah removed the storage drive from the terminal.
The emergency lights cast hard shadows across Mercer’s face.
“Secondary exit?” she asked.
“Secure stairwell behind the communications rack.”
“Does it open from this room?”
“Manual release.”
A heavy impact struck the outer door.
Jake shouted.
“They’re coming!”
Mercer moved toward the manual release.
Sarah listened.
The first impact had been metal against metal.
The second was softer.
A body.
“Jake,” she called. “What is your mother’s name?”
Silence.
Then, “Linda.”
“What city does she live in?”
“Fresno.”
Sarah remembered his personnel file.
Jake’s mother was named Teresa.
She lived in Bakersfield.
Sarah stepped away from the door.
“That isn’t Jake.”
Mercer’s eyes narrowed.
The voice outside pleaded again.
“Commander, open the door.”
The tone was nearly perfect, but the breathing between phrases never changed.
A recording assembled from captured speech.
The outer lock sparked.
Someone was cutting through.
Mercer pulled the manual release for the stairwell.
A panel slid aside behind the equipment rack.
Sarah moved first.
The narrow stairs descended into a communications service level. Mercer closed the panel behind them.
At the bottom, they found the emergency network cabinet open.
Fiber lines had been rerouted into a portable transmitter.
Someone had accessed it minutes earlier.
Sarah touched the casing.
Still warm.
A shadow moved across the far doorway.
Mercer raised his sidearm.
“Identify yourself.”
Marcus Reed stepped into view with both hands raised.
His uniform shirt was partly unfastened, and one side of his face was bruised.
“Don’t shoot.”
Mercer kept the weapon trained on him.
“How did you get down here?”
“They moved us from the mess hall to holding rooms. The guard left when the alarms started. Ethan said he knew a way to the command center.”
Sarah looked behind him.
“Where is Ethan?”
Marcus swallowed.
“He attacked me.”
“What about Jake?”
“He went with Ethan.”
Mercer’s expression darkened. “Why?”
“Ethan showed him a live video of his mother tied to a chair.”
Sarah stared at Marcus.
“Teresa Thompson?”
“Yes.”
So the voice at the door had used the wrong name because the person operating it had built the deception from incomplete records.
But the hostage might be real.
“What did Ethan want Jake to do?”
“Use his access code to open a maintenance route.”
“Jake’s code is under investigation.”
“He said that was the point. Somebody restored it.”
Sarah held out her hand.
“Your phone.”
Marcus gave it to her.
The device contained dozens of messages between the three recruits. Most were childish insults and plans to embarrass Sarah.
One thread was missing.
Sarah checked the deleted-message cache.
Ethan had sent Jake instructions the previous night.
Enter Storage Bay Four.
Wait thirty seconds.
Leave without touching anything.
Jake had replied with a laughing emoji and asked how much he would be paid.
Marcus stared at the recovered messages.
“He told us it was a prank.”
“You were included?” Sarah asked.
“No. Ethan said he needed Jake because Jake was stupid enough to do it.”
Mercer’s mouth tightened.
Sarah scrolled farther.
A payment confirmation appeared.
Five thousand dollars transferred into a digital account registered under Jake’s name.
Below it was a photograph of the temporary access card later found in Marcus’s pocket.
Ethan had taken the photograph before lunch.
Marcus’s breathing became heavy.
“He planted it on me.”
Sarah returned the phone.
“He planned to turn Jake into the primary suspect and you into the backup.”
“Why?”
“Because the investigation was getting close to him.”
Marcus shook his head. “Ethan’s a recruit. He complains when we run two miles.”
“Which makes him a useful disguise.”
A distant explosion shook dust from the ceiling.
The command-center door had been breached.
Footsteps moved above them.
Mercer signaled toward the service tunnel.
They advanced through the lower level.
At the next junction, Jake stumbled from behind a support column. Bloodless scratches marked his cheek. His hands were bound with communication cable.
Sarah cut him free.
“Where is Ethan?”
Jake’s lips trembled.
“He isn’t Ethan.”
Marcus stared.
“What are you talking about?”
Jake looked toward the darkness behind him.
“He said Ethan Carter died before basic training.”
May you like
A man stepped into the emergency light wearing Ethan’s uniform and Ethan’s face.
Then he reached beneath his jaw and began peeling the face away.
