Chapter 18 - THE LAST POOL
Police converged on Eastwood Recreation Center.
The tracker inside Jason’s stolen vehicle stopped beneath the building.
Ortiz entered with a tactical team.
I remained outside with Emily inside an armored van.
Then the recreation center’s speakers activated.
Jason’s voice echoed across the parking lot.
“Michael comes inside.”
“No one else.”
Ortiz refused.
A live video appeared on her phone.
Sarah was bound to a chair at the bottom of the empty pool.
Everyone stared at the screen.
Sarah had vanished from the burned property without anyone seeing her leave.
The woman speaking with police at the house had been an officer dressed in Sarah’s coat as part of the trap.
Jason had intercepted the real transport vehicle earlier.
He had used Eric Lane’s access to change the route.
I entered before Ortiz could stop me.
A transmitter was hidden beneath my shirt.
The indoor pool glowed under emergency lights.
Sarah sat near the deep end.
Jason stood behind her with a gun.
The brass ring hung from his neck.
“You always arrive too late,” he said.
I walked down the pool steps.
“Let her go.”
“Where is Emily?”
“Far away.”
He smiled.
“No one is far away anymore.”
Sarah looked at me.
“Michael, the drain.”
A black waterproof container rested beneath the diving board.
Jason had brought Bell’s original records.
He needed Sarah to identify which documents could expose the entire network.
He planned to burn everything after recording her explanation.
“You could have disappeared,” I said.
“You had money and false names.”
“Why come back?”
His eyes hardened.
“Because this belongs to me.”
“The house.”
“The records.”
“Sarah.”
“The children.”
“No,” I said.
“People are not property.”
Jason raised the gun.
“You still speak like a man who thinks the world cares about rules.”
“I don’t care about rules right now.”
“I care about keeping you talking.”
He glanced upward.
He realized too late that the transmitter had captured his words.
Jason fired at the ceiling lights.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Sarah threw herself sideways with the chair.
I lunged toward the sound of his footsteps.
The gun discharged again.
A bullet struck tile.
We collided near the pool wall.
Jason drove his elbow into my ribs.
I grabbed the chain around his neck.
The brass ring snapped free.
He abandoned the gun and ran toward the service tunnel.
Ortiz’s team entered from the upper doors.
Jason reached the tunnel before they could stop him.
He knew the passage connected to the freight yard.
Then another figure appeared inside the tunnel.
Lucas stood beside a federal agent.
He had helped them map the exits from memory.
Jason froze when he saw him.
Lucas did not step backward.
“You said nobody would come,” the boy said.
Behind Jason, officers raised their weapons.
In front of him stood the child he had failed to erase.
May you like
Jason lowered his hands.
For the first time, he had nowhere left to run.
