He didn’t answer.
“Daniel.”
He stared ahead.
“General Adrian Vale.”
The name hit me like cold water.
General Vale had been at Rex’s ceremony that afternoon.
He had shaken my hand.
He had scratched Rex behind the ears.
And he had said something I hadn’t considered important.
Drive safe, Mercer. Long road south.
“How did he know I was driving south?”
Cross said nothing.
I remembered the tracker.
The phone call.
Butch.
The sheriff.
We weren’t following the conspiracy anymore.
We were moving exactly where someone wanted us to go.
“Stop the car.”
Cross looked at me in the mirror.
“What?”
“Stop.”
He braked.
Gravel cracked beneath the tires.
I opened the door.
Rex jumped out beside me.
Emily followed.
“What are you doing?”
I stared into the darkness.
“This is wrong.”
Cross stepped out.
“What is?”
“Everything.”
I pointed back toward town.
“They tracked me from the base. They paid Butch to provoke me. Harlan arrived before anyone called him. Then you magically appear and get me released.”
Cross’s face hardened.
“Careful, Jack.”
“Who called you?”
“I told you—”
“No. You told me you got a strange call.”
Silence.
“Who called?”
Cross looked at Emily.
Then at me.
Finally he said, “Vale.”
Emily slowly backed away from him.
I stared at my former commander.
“General Vale called you?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After you were arrested.”
“How did he know?”
Cross didn’t answer.
My hand moved instinctively toward a weapon that wasn’t there.
Rex stepped between us.
“Jack,” Cross said quietly, “listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“Vale told me you’d been arrested. He said you might have stumbled into something connected to the old investigation.”
“And you believed him?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I needed to know whether he would move.”
“What does that mean?”
Cross took a slow breath.
Then he reached into his jacket.
Emily flinched.
I moved.
“Easy.”
Cross withdrew not a weapon, but a folded photograph.
He handed it to me.
The image was old.
Six years old.
Taken in Afghanistan.
Our team standing beside a helicopter.
Larkin.
Me.
Cross.
Three others.
Rex sitting in front.
Someone had drawn a red circle around Larkin.
On the back were three words.
HE FOUND IT FIRST.
My throat tightened.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was on my windshield this morning.”
“Before the ceremony?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I didn’t know who to trust.”
I stared at him.
“You could’ve trusted me.”
His expression broke for a second.
“That’s exactly what Larkin said.”
Silence filled the road.
Cross looked toward the trees.
“Three days before the ambush, Michael came to me. He believed someone inside our chain was moving restricted hardware.”
“You never told me that.”
“I ordered him to stop investigating until we could verify it.”
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
The word barely left Cross’s mouth.
He looked older suddenly.
“He died because I told him to wait.”
Rex approached him.
Cross crouched and placed one hand on Rex’s head.
“I’ve carried that for six years.”
Then Rex growled.
Not at Cross.
Past him.
Toward the trees.
Headlights appeared behind us.
Several vehicles.
Fast.
Cross stood.
“We need to move.”
Three black SUVs came around the curve.
Emily whispered, “Sheriff.”
Cross jumped behind the wheel.
We piled in.
The SUVs accelerated.
The chase ended before it really began.
A truck blocked the road ahead.
No way around.
Cross stopped.
Doors opened behind us.
Men emerged.
Sheriff Harlan stepped into our headlights.
Butch stood beside him.
His arm was now in a sling.
I stared.
Butch grinned.
“Three minutes, huh?”
Harlan raised a handgun.
“Everybody out.”
We obeyed.
Rex stayed against my leg.
Harlan looked at him.
“That dog really is a problem.”
I moved slightly in front of Rex.
“You’re going to have a bigger one if you point that weapon at him.”
Harlan smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Enlighten me.”
He nodded toward Cross.
“Ask your colonel.”
I looked at Cross.
Cross stared at the ground.