Chapter 6 - FOURTEEN YEARS AGO
Thomas poured coffee.
I couldn't drink.
My father's photograph remained on the table.
"Explain."
Thomas sighed.
"Fourteen years ago, your father discovered that someone inside his organization was selling information."
"Organization?"
"Your father wasn't just a contractor."
I stared at him.
"What was he?"
Thomas looked at Vanessa.
She answered.
"An investigator."
I laughed once.
"My father?"
"Your father spent thirty years helping people disappear."
"From who?"
"People who wanted them dead."
Thomas added:
"Your father built a network."
"Like private security?"
"No."
He paused.
"More like an underground protection system."
I looked at the photograph again.
Victor Kane.
"Then why was Dad meeting him?"
"Because Kane wanted the archive."
Thomas explained that Victor Kane had once been a trusted ally.
Then he became obsessed with controlling the information inside the archive.
The documents could destroy corporations.
Politicians.
Judges.
Law enforcement officials.
Anyone whose name appeared there.
My father refused to surrender them.
So Kane threatened the family.
"Your father made a decision," Thomas said.
"He told Michael he had to leave."
I stared at him.
"Because of me?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Because you were safer believing your father didn't want you around."
My chest tightened.
Twelve years.
I had spent twelve years believing my father had accepted my absence too easily.
Maybe he hadn't.
Maybe he had been protecting me.
I looked at Vanessa.
"You knew."
She nodded.
"I was supposed to keep watching the house."
"And instead?"
"I got involved."
She admitted she had begun working with Kane because she believed she could control him.
She couldn't.
When she discovered Kane intended to kill our parents after acquiring the property, she changed sides.
"That's why I locked them away," she said.
"I hid them where Kane couldn't find them."
"You could have called me."
"He would have followed you."
I didn't answer.
Thomas suddenly looked toward the window.
"Someone followed you here."
We froze.
A car stopped outside.
Then another.
Thomas turned off the lights.
"Basement."
We moved downstairs.
But before we reached the door, the front windows shattered.
Men entered.
Thomas pulled a handgun from beneath his coat.
"Go!"
We ran through the basement.
A gunshot struck the wall.
Vanessa screamed.
Thomas stayed behind.
I grabbed her arm.
"Come on!"
We reached the tunnel.
Behind us, Thomas shouted:
"Michael!"
I turned.
He threw something.
A small metal drive.
"Your father wanted you to have this."
I caught it.
Then Thomas slammed the door.
We ran.
The tunnel led beneath an abandoned railway station.
We emerged into the snow.
Vanessa looked at the drive.
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
We found a public computer at the station.
I inserted it.
A video appeared.
My father's face filled the screen.
He looked older than I remembered.
He spoke directly to the camera.
"Michael, if you're watching this, I failed to keep you out of this."
My throat tightened.
Dad continued.
"Your sister will tell you some of the truth."
He paused.
"But not all of it."
Then he said:
"The person who betrayed me fourteen years ago wasn't Victor Kane."
The video froze.
A message appeared.
FILE CORRUPTED.
Vanessa stared at me.
"Who else knew?"
I looked at her.
May you like
She whispered:
"Only family."
