Chapter 5 - The Shadow of the Pentagon
I didn't flinch.
I had faced enemies in combat zones far more intimidating than a man in a tailored suit.
“The manifests are forgeries,”
I said,
keeping my hand near my hip.
“And my forensic experts already know it.”
His eyes flickered with a hint of doubt.
“You haven't had time to run forensics.”
“You underestimate the resources of the United States Army,”
I replied.
“And you underestimate the woman you’ve been lying to for fifteen years.”
He lunged.
He was fast,
but I was faster.
I sidestepped his reach and drove my elbow into his ribs,
the same spot where he had hit my mother.
He gasped,
stumbling back against the banister.
I didn't stop.
I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back,
pinning him against the wall.
“You’re going to tell me everything,”
I hissed into his ear.
“Who are you working for?”
“You’re hurting me,
Kelsey!”
he cried out,
trying to revert to his victim persona.
“The neighbors will hear!”
“Let them,”
I said.
“Let them see the monster hiding behind the picket fence.”
I pulled the remote from his hand and tossed it down the stairs.
He struggled,
but my grip was iron.
“The money,”
I said.
“The four million dollars.
Where is it going?”
“It’s already gone,”
he spat,
his face turning red.
“It’s in accounts you can’t touch,
guarded by people you can’t see.
If I die,
the evidence against you goes live.
You’ll be stripped of your rank,
and you’ll spend the rest of your life in Leavenworth.”
“I’d rather be a prisoner of truth than a wife of a traitor,”
I replied.
I pulled out my handcuffs,
the ones I kept in my gear bag,
and snapped them onto his wrists.
He looked at them in disbelief.
“You can’t do this.”
“I just did.”
I dragged him down the stairs,
his boots scuffing the wood.
I sat him in a kitchen chair and used a zip-tie to secure his ankles.
Then,
I picked up the phone and called a number that wasn't on any public record.
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Kelsey Vance,”
I said.
“I have a Code Alpha situation at my residence.
I need a containment team and a high-level interrogation unit.”
Ryan’s face went pale.
“Containment?
What are you talking about?”
“You thought you were playing a game with a civilian,”
I said,
leaning over the table to look him in the eyes.
“But you forgot that I work for the Department of Defense.
You didn't just break the law,
Ryan.
You poked the bear.”
The sound of heavy tires crunched on the gravel outside.
Black SUVs pulled up to the curb,
and men in tactical gear began to spill out.
Ryan realized then that he wasn't going to a local police station.
He was going to a place where lawyers couldn't reach him.
May you like
A place where secrets were extracted,
not negotiated.
