Chapter 6 - The Second Key.
Cole’s team breached the vault three minutes later.
Lisa entered behind them.
Natalie was lying near a server cabinet.
Blood stained the sleeve of her blouse, but the bullet had passed through her upper arm.
She was conscious.
Ryan was gone.
A maintenance hatch stood open behind the vault racks.
Cole knelt beside Natalie.
“Where did he go?”
She clenched her jaw.
“Service elevator.”
“What did he take?”
Natalie looked at Lisa.
“The key.”
Lisa crouched beside her.
“Why did you help him?”
Natalie’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because I thought I could control the damage.”
“You helped engineer my marriage.”
“I was recruited before I met you.”
“By Evelyn?”
“Rebecca.”
Lisa absorbed the answer.
Natalie had entered her life during graduate school.
Years before Ryan.
“Everything was planned.”
“No.”
Natalie shook her head.
“They wanted access to your father’s research.”
“I was supposed to become someone you trusted.”
“Then I actually did.”
Lisa’s expression hardened.
“You don’t get to claim friendship after surveilling me for fifteen years.”
Natalie looked away.
Michael walked toward the open safe.
“What did Ryan take?”
“A black authentication token.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“Your father made two.”
“He had one.”
“Lisa had the other.”
Lisa frowned.
“The seal was empty.”
Natalie looked at Michael.
“Rebecca took it.”
Cole asked the obvious question.
“Then Ryan has both?”
“No.”
Natalie breathed through the pain.
“Rebecca never gave him Lisa’s key.”
“Why not?”
“Because she doesn’t trust him.”
Michael leaned closer.
“Where is Rebecca?”
“I don’t know.”
Natalie looked at Lisa.
“But Ryan does.”
Paramedics lifted Natalie onto a stretcher.
Before they carried her away, she grabbed Lisa’s wrist.
“There’s something you need to understand.”
Lisa stared at her.
“Ryan wasn’t originally chosen to marry you.”
Lisa’s expression changed.
“Who was?”
“Someone else.”
“Who?”
Natalie hesitated.
“Your brother.”
Michael recoiled.
“That makes no sense.”
Natalie shook her head.
“Not romantically.”
“Gray Lantern had a family-access protocol.”
“Michael was supposed to return to you, gain your trust, recover the key, and disappear again.”
Michael stared at her.
“I refused.”
“That’s why they imprisoned you.”
Lisa looked at her brother.
“You knew they were watching me?”
Michael could not meet her eyes.
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“And you never warned me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The postcards.”
Lisa remembered them.
Random postcards from places Michael had supposedly visited before vanishing.
Each contained strange references to lanterns, orchards, and gray skies.
She had assumed they were private jokes.
They were warnings.
Cole’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, then turned toward Lisa.
“We found Ryan’s vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Near Evelyn’s house.”
Lisa frowned.
“He went back?”
Cole shook his head.
“The vehicle was abandoned.”
“Security cameras show him leaving in another car.”
“Whose?”
Cole’s expression darkened.
“Your mother-in-law’s.”
Michael suddenly moved toward the window.
“What is it?”
He stared at the city below.
“Evelyn isn’t a follower.”
Lisa remembered the baton.
The money.
The panic when investigators arrived.
Michael continued.
“She helped build Gray Lantern.”
“She knows every emergency route.”
“Every hidden storage location.”
“Every identity.”
Cole understood.
“You think she and Ryan are working together.”
“No.”
Michael turned.
“I think they’re competing.”
Lisa’s phone buzzed.
An email had arrived from an unknown encrypted address.
The subject line contained four words.
YOUR HUSBAND LIED TO ME.
Inside was a photograph.
Ryan was tied to a chair.
Standing behind him was Evelyn.
She held the ceremonial baton in one hand.
In the other, she held a pistol.
Below the image was a message.
Lisa.
Bring Michael to Fort Danner by noon.
Come alone.
Or your husband dies first.
Michael read it.
Then looked at Lisa.
“That isn’t from Evelyn.”
Lisa studied the photograph again.
“What makes you sure?”
“The baton.”
Michael zoomed in on the engraved symbol.
“It’s facing backward.”
Lisa stared.
“Meaning?”
“Someone mirrored the photograph.”
Cole’s face hardened.
“Why?”
May you like
Michael answered.
“To hide where it was really taken.”
