Chapter 9 - Claire’s Voice
Mercer Island was dead silent when I pulled the Zodiac onto the jagged rocks beneath the south bluffs. The storm had chased the caterers and guests away; the grand estate on the hill stood dark, except for a few security floodlights sweeping the perimeter.
I climbed the steep cliffside stairs toward the white silhouette of the old lighthouse. The wind howled off the Atlantic, whipping freezing spray against my face. This was the exact spot where Claire had supposedly fallen.
I pushed the heavy iron door of the lighthouse open. It groaned on rusted hinges.
Inside, the smell of damp salt and old cedar was intoxicatingly familiar. I took the spiral iron staircase two steps at a time, ascending into the lantern room at the top.
On the curved ceiling, Claire’s hand-painted constellations glowed faintly in the ambient light of the storm. The North Star. Orion. Cassiopeia.
I dropped to my knees beneath the painted North Star, pulling my combat knife from my boot. I wedged the blade into the seam between the heavy oak floorboards.
*Crack.*
The board pried loose.
Tucked into the insulation below was a red leather-bound notebook and a sealed plastic evidence envelope containing a small thumb drive and a handwritten letter.
My hands shook as I unfolded the paper. Claire’s elegant handwriting leaped out at me through the dim light of my tactical flashlight:
>*Daniel,*
>
>*If you are reading this, I am already dead. Vanessa and Julian think I don't know what they’re planning, but I’ve been tracking their offshore accounts for six months. They are selling our autonomous drone patents to a foreign front named Aegis Red. They will do anything to stop me.*
>
>*Julian offered me ten million dollars to walk away and take Lily. When I refused, he threatened her life. Daniel, Vanessa is dangerous, but Julian is the one pulling the strings. He has poisoned everyone around us. Even our closest allies have a price.*
>
>*The man who brokered the Aegis Red deal... the man who introduced Vanessa to Julian’s shell companies... wasn't a stranger.*
>
>*It was Marcus Vance.*
>
>*Do not trust him, Daniel. He took five million dollars to bury the naval intelligence flags on the weapons transfer. If you go to him, you are walking straight into their hands.*
>
>*Kiss Lily for me. Be her father. Be her armor.*
>
>*Forever yours, Claire.*
The air evacuated my lungs.
*Marcus.*
Marcus hadn't sent me here to get evidence. Marcus had sent me here to get me out of the way while he collected Lily from Owen at Rowes Wharf.
I grabbed the notebook and the thumb drive, sprinting down the spiral stairs.
As I burst through the iron doorway into the storm, two red laser sights converged on my chest.
Standing in the rain on the rocks below, holding a suppressed assault rifle, was Keller.
May you like
"Drop the knife, Mercer," Keller smiled, his teeth gleaming in the dark. "Marcus said you’d be predictable."
***
