Chapter 10 - The Unseen Enemy
The Denver airport terminal was eerily quiet as Captain Vance escorted us through a private, secure exit reserved for federal transport officials, completely bypassing the chaotic baggage claim and the waiting crowds of reporters.
We were led directly out to a nondescript, armored government van waiting in a secure subterranean bay beneath the terminal.
As we climbed into the back of the van, the driver—a silent, middle-aged man wearing a dark suit and an earpiece—slid the side door shut, plunging us into a cool, leather-lined interior illuminated only by the faint glow of a dashboard navigation screen.
“Where are we going, Agent?” Mom asked, settling into the passenger seat beside the driver.
“Not a safe house, Colonel,” the driver replied, his voice deep and gravelly as he shifted the heavy van into gear and pulled away from the loading bay. “A command post. The Department of Justice's special oversight division just intercepted an encrypted communication routed from a private offshore server in Geneva. It mentions you by name.”
I sat in the back row, clutching my handbag, watching the concrete walls of the underground parking garage slide past the reinforced windows.
“What did the communication say?” I asked, leaning forward between the front seats.
May you like
The driver glanced at my mother in the rearview mirror before answering.
“It wasn't a threat, Ms. Hayes,” the driver said grimly. “It was a transfer order. The syndicate running Veloce Holdings just put a ten-million-dollar bounty on your mother’s head—and the asset liquidation team is already airborne.”
