Chapter 9 - The Trap
Thomas saw Léa’s face.
“What?”
She showed him the phone.
His expression changed instantly.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Forget it.”
“They said alone.”
“And you’re going to listen?”
“Yes.”
Thomas stared at her.
“Absolutely not.”
Delcourt took the phone.
“Where?”
A second message arrived.
TRAINING RANGE FOUR.
MIDNIGHT.
The ledger had to be brought.
Hale shook her head.
“Nobody goes alone.”
“They have Inès.”
“We handle it tactically.”
Léa looked at the clock.
Eleven twenty-three.
“They gave us thirty-seven minutes.”
Delcourt handed back the phone.
“We can use the tracker.”
“They know about it,” Léa said.
“How?”
“The Kestrel team knew where we were almost immediately.”
Delcourt understood.
“Someone detected it.”
“Or someone here told them.”
Nobody liked that sentence.
Léa looked at the captured civilians.
One of them smiled.
She walked over.
“What?”
He said nothing.
“What are you smiling at?”
“You still think Varenne is the top of this?”
Delcourt grabbed him.
“Who hired you?”
The man laughed.
“You people have no idea.”
Hale ordered the MPs to move the prisoners.
Léa watched them go.
Then she looked at Delcourt.
“Take me to Mercer.”
His face hardened.
“No.”
“If he saw the transfer, he can identify people.”
“He has a family.”
“Inès is tied to a chair because we don’t have enough proof.”
“That doesn’t make Mercer expendable.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
“Then leave him alone.”
Léa lowered her voice.
“I need to know what he knows.”
Delcourt hesitated.
Thomas saw it.
“You really know where he is.”
Delcourt looked away.
Léa spoke softly.
“Adrian.”
It was the first time she had used his first name.
“Varenne is already desperate.”
Delcourt closed his eyes for a second.
“Mercer lives eighty miles north.”
“We don’t have time.”
“We don’t need to drive there.”
“Why?”
“Because he has been watching this investigation for three weeks.”
Léa stared at him.
Delcourt took out his phone.
He dialed.
One ring.
Two.
A man answered.
“You said you wouldn’t call.”
Delcourt turned on speaker.
“Daniel, they took Sergeant Laurent.”
Silence.
Then Mercer said, “I saw.”
Léa frowned.
“Saw what?”
Mercer replied, “I still have access to one thing they forgot about.”
“What?”
“The old training range cameras.”
Thomas looked at Delcourt.
“I thought Range Four cameras were disconnected.”
“Officially,” Mercer said.
Keys clicked over the phone.
“I can see three vehicles.”
“Varenne?”
“Yes.”
“Inès?”
“Building C.”
Léa grabbed a map.
“How many men?”
“Five outside. Maybe more inside.”
“Any exit at the rear?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Mercer’s breathing changed.
“Oh, no.”
“What?”
“Another vehicle just arrived.”
“Who?”
“I can’t see the driver.”
The camera image came through to Delcourt’s phone.
A black sedan stopped beside Building C.
A man stepped out.
Major Peter Sloan.
Thomas whispered, “There he is.”
Then the passenger door opened.
Colonel Hale went completely still.
An older man stepped into view.
Four silver stars on his uniform.
General Raymond Cutter.
Regional commander.
Hale stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Léa looked at her.
“Why?”
May you like
Hale whispered the answer.
“Because General Cutter is the man who ordered me to investigate Varenne.”
