Chapter 18 - Bay Three
The vehicle tore through the rear wall and stopped beneath the old service lift. Two men in tactical gear jumped out. Cole followed with a pistol in one hand and a folder in the other.
“Where is Eli?” he shouted.
Vale stepped from the passenger side. He wore a dark overcoat and carried no visible weapon. That made him more frightening than the men around him.
“You were told to remove the evidence,” Vale said.
“You were told to protect me.”
“Protection has limits.”
Cole laughed bitterly. “You wrote the limits on a list.”
Lena moved through the service tunnel toward the office. Nico caught her arm.
“If you go out there, he will see you.”
“He is here for Eli.”
“Rao has him covered.”
“Rao cannot be everywhere.”
The tunnel door opened ahead. Malcolm Saye stood on the other side with a gun raised.
“Drop it,” he said.
Nico shoved Lena behind a pipe as the shot struck the wall. Saye advanced into the tunnel, moving with the confidence of a man who had practiced this route.
Nico grabbed a length of chain and swung. Saye blocked it, but Lena drove a wrench into his wrist. His gun fell. Nico kicked it beneath the lift.
Saye struck Nico across the face. Lena hit him again, harder. They left him bleeding beside the pipe and ran toward Bay Three.
Vale had opened the evidence folder. It contained photographs of the garage, the courthouse ledger, and the names of every witness who had come forward.
“You think exposure changes anything?” Vale asked. “People need roads, courts, hospitals, placements. They need someone to make decisions when everyone else is afraid.”
“You made people disappear,” Lena said.
“I moved problems out of sight.”
“Children are not problems.”
Vale looked toward the camera. “Children are leverage. So are prisoners. So are women who cannot let go of their dead brothers.”
Cole raised his pistol toward the office stairs. “Bring Eli down.”
“He is not here,” Lena said.
Cole turned.
Vale smiled. “She is lying.”
The overhead lights came on. Federal agents filled the garage doors. Rao stood at the center with her weapon trained on Vale.
“Adrian Vale,” she said, “step away from the case.”
Vale did not move. “You have no warrant for this building.”
“We have a federal arrest warrant.”
“For what?”
“Conspiracy, obstruction, trafficking, witness intimidation, homicide, and kidnapping.”
Vale looked at Cole. “You brought them here.”
Cole’s face changed. The accusation struck the last loyalty out of him.
“You were going to kill me,” Cole said.
“You were going to be arrested.”
“After I disappeared.”
“There is a difference.”
“Not to the people you moved.”
Cole raised his weapon toward Vale.
Lena shouted, “Do not!”
Cole fired. The bullet struck Vale’s shoulder. Agents tackled Cole before he could fire again. Vale fell against the workbench, clutching his coat.
For one second, the garage was silent except for the rain.
Then the rear wall collapsed farther inward.
Eli stood beyond the opening with June and three foster parents behind him. He had escaped the church basement through the alley when he heard the gunfire.
“Get him out!” Lena shouted.
Vale saw the boy and reached for the pistol lying beside Cole.
Lena crossed the floor. She kicked the weapon beneath the lift and put herself between Vale and Eli.
Vale looked up at her, blood soaking his shirt. “You think this makes you brave?”
“No.”
“Then why are you still standing?”
Lena thought of Nico in the cruiser, Sadie beneath the concrete, and Eli knocking from the locked van.
“Because he is behind me.”
Vale lunged. Lena caught his wrist and drove him against the workbench. She did not strike him again. She held him there until the agents pulled him away.
Cole was arrested with a fractured arm. Saye was taken from the tunnel. The tactical men surrendered when they saw the cameras still recording.
Rao looked at Lena. “You had a clear shot.”
“I know.”
“Why did you not take it?”
Lena watched Eli come toward her, shaking but upright.
“Because I am not protecting him by becoming the person who decides who gets to live.”
May you like
Eli reached her and pressed his forehead against her shoulder.
Behind them, the old garage wall stood open to the rain. The darkness had entered Bay Three, but it had not taken the boy.
