Chapter 17 - The Counterattack
The cabin appeared at 10:16 p.m.
One light glowed inside.
Claire remained behind the tactical vehicles.
Adrian stood twenty feet away.
Agents surrounded the property.
A negotiator called Malcolm.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then the cabin door opened.
Raymond Pike stepped outside with both hands visible.
He surrendered immediately.
“Malcolm’s gone.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
“Where is Noah?”
Pike looked toward the cabin.
“He’s inside.”
Claire moved before anyone could stop her.
An agent caught her arm.
“Wait.”
Two officers entered.
Seconds felt like hours.
Then one voice came through the radio.
“Child located.”
Claire covered her mouth.
“Safe.”
Her knees nearly gave out.
Noah emerged wrapped in a blanket.
“Mommy!”
Claire ran.
She dropped to the ground and pulled him against her.
He smelled like smoke, juice, and the shampoo from home.
Nothing had ever smelled better.
Adrian stopped several yards away.
Noah saw him.
“Daddy.”
Adrian’s face crumpled.
He knelt.
Claire hesitated.
Then she allowed Noah to run to him.
Adrian held his son for perhaps the first time without a phone in his hand.
Without checking a watch.
Without wanting to be somewhere else.
Claire watched silently.
Malcolm was still missing.
Pike eventually spoke.
He had driven Malcolm away an hour earlier.
But he gave investigators something better than a destination.
“He kept talking about Eleanor.”
Pike lowered his head.
“He thinks Claire has her mother’s original server.”
Claire exchanged a look with Ethan.
Malcolm believed the server contained the only surviving proof.
It did not.
The evidence had already been copied to attorneys, investigators, and the audit committee.
But Malcolm did not know that.
Claire saw the opportunity.
She called Monica.
“Schedule another board meeting.”
“Now?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Malcolm is a fugitive.”
“That’s why he’ll come.”
Adrian looked up.
Claire continued.
“Announce that the original Whitmore server will be physically presented at Vale headquarters.”
Rebecca understood immediately.
“You’re baiting him.”
Claire looked at Noah.
“No.”
Her expression hardened.
“I’m ending this.”
The announcement went public before midnight.
WHITMORE HEIR TO PRESENT ORIGINAL CORPORATE RECORDS.
At 12:31 a.m., a burner phone connected to Malcolm Vale activated in Southern California.
May you like
He had seen the headline.
And he was heading home.
