Chapter 8 - GENERAL COLE
Raymond Cole agreed to meet only after Walter threatened to walk into his Veterans Day gala with reporters.
Walter did not actually have reporters.
Daniel called it bluffing.
Walter called it scheduling.
Raymond arrived without uniform or staff.
He hugged Walter.
Walter did not hug back.
Raymond admitted knowing Thomas survived.
He claimed he learned in 1987.
Walter asked why he never told him.
Raymond said Thomas demanded it.
"That's not good enough."
"I know."
"Then give me the bad answer."
Raymond looked at his hands.
"I was building a career."
There it was again.
Not blackmail.
Not mind control.
Ambition.
Raymond had already survived one inquiry into Night Glass.
Revealing Thomas would have reopened everything.
He chose promotion.
Walter asked about Voss.
Raymond said he believed Voss died in 1996.
Michael laughed.
"Apparently death certificates are decorative in this family."
Raymond flinched.
He had once been ordered to locate Voss.
A contractor paid him forty thousand dollars for "operational expenses."
He found Voss.
Then let him go.
Why?
Voss had evidence implicating senior officials and Crewe's company.
Raymond feared killing him would bury the evidence forever.
But Raymond never exposed it either.
He hid copies.
Daniel asked where.
Raymond refused.
Then Walter's phone buzzed.
Emily had sent a photograph from Harrison's surveillance archive.
The elderly man who delivered the warning envelope had returned.
The camera caught his face clearly.
Michael stared at the image.
His knees weakened.
"That's my father."
Walter studied the scar.
The eyes.
The posture.
Robert Voss was alive.
And Michael still called him father.
(To be continued)
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