Chapter 4 - The Agent In The Shadows
"Drop the phone, Ryan," the man commanded, his voice deep and raspy. "Step away from the door and let me secure the perimeter."
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, stepping between the armed man and the bed where Sarah lay. "Caroline, what is going on in this house?!"
"This is Special Agent David Miller," Caroline said, scrambling to her feet. "He's the only reason Sarah and Maya are still alive. Ryan, please listen to him. Everything I did... every lie I told you since you woke up from that coma... was to keep you and Lily from being executed."
Agent Miller holstered his sidearm and pulled a handheld radio scanner from his belt. A burst of static hissed through the small speaker, followed by two short, sharp clicks.
"We have two black SUVs running dark without headlights three miles down the county road," Miller said grimly, looking at his watch. "They picked up the cellular ping when you turned your phone flashlight on in this shielded room. The steel lath in the walls blocked the signal for fourteen months, but the moment you opened that reinforced vault door, your phone registered to the local tower."
"My phone?" I pulled the device from my pocket. The screen showed four bars of 5G connectivity—a signal that had never reached the nursery before.
"The Mercer Syndicate doesn't just want the drive," Miller explained, his eyes scanning the narrow room. "Your biological father, Arthur Mercer, died in federal prison three months ago. His will left a sixty-million-dollar trust under the sole control of his direct biological heir. If you are alive, that money belongs to you and Maya. But if you and Maya are confirmed dead, the entire estate transfers to your uncle, Vincent Mercer—the man who ordered the hit on you five years ago."
My mind raced, struggling to stitch together two completely different lives.
In one life, I was Ryan Mercer: a mild-mannered suburban architect with a beautiful wife, a four-year-old daughter named Lily, and a quiet mortgage on a historic home.
In the other life, I was the sole witness to a billion-dollar criminal empire, the father of a hidden daughter named Maya, and the target of a ruthless cartel run by my own bloodline.
"Where is the encrypted drive?" I asked, looking directly at Caroline.
Caroline looked down at her hands. "It’s not with me. Sarah hid it before the crash."
Sarah weakly lifted her right hand, pointing toward Maya, who was still standing at the nursery vent, holding Lily’s hand.
"The wooden dog," Sarah whispered. "The carving Ryan made for her first birthday. The drive is sealed inside the hollow core."
At that exact moment, the outdoor motion floodlights behind the garage clicked on.
May you like
A harsh white glare flooded through the high attic gable window.
Downstairs, the heavy plate-glass window of the living room shattered with a violent, deafening crash.
