Chapter 4: What Daniel Found
Lisa didn't reach for the phone immediately.
She read the message again.
Then she turned it face-down on the counter and looked at Carol Mercer.
"Tell me about my brother."
Carol pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down without being invited.
"His name is Daniel.
Daniel Cho.
He was placed in foster care in 1987, two years before you were.
Different county, different file.
The separation was not an accident."
"Who arranged it?"
"Voss.
Your father owed him a debt he couldn't repay.
Voss took the children instead." Carol said it the way someone says a thing they have rehearsed many times to keep from feeling it.
"You were easier to lose in the system.
Daniel was older.
He remembered more.
Voss needed him closer."
Lisa sat down across from her.
"He recruited Daniel."
"Daniel enlisted at eighteen.
Voss made sure of it.
By the time Daniel understood what the unit was actually doing, he had already signed documents that made him complicit." Carol folded her hands on the table.
"He's spent the last twelve years trying to undo that.
Quietly.
From inside."
"He's been feeding information," Lisa said.
"To me.
And now, apparently, to your investigator as well." Carol glanced toward the hallway.
"Which is why someone sent him to your office tonight.
Not to help him.
To find out how much he had already passed along."
Ryan lifted his head from his hands.
"I didn't know about Daniel.
Not until six months ago.
I swear to you, Lisa, I didn't know he was your brother."
"But you knew the marriage was arranged."
Silence.
"Ryan."
"Yes." His voice was flat.
"I knew.
I was told you were a target.
That your company had cybersecurity contracts the unit needed access to.
That I was supposed to get close, get married, and keep you occupied while they used your firm's clearance." He looked at the table.
"I was twenty-six.
Voss told me it was a national security operation."
Evelyn's chair scraped back.
"This conversation is over."
"Sit down, Mom."
She stared at him.
"Sit.
Down." Ryan didn't raise his voice.
Something in it had changed.
The trembling in his hand had stopped.
"I'm done."
Evelyn sat.
Lisa's phone buzzed again.
This time it was her investigator, Marcus.
She answered it.
"Lisa." His voice was tight.
"Daniel is in your office.
He's been there for about forty minutes.
He's not alone."
"Who's with him?"
"A man named Garrett.
Former military.
He's been working for Evelyn's organization as an outside contractor." A pause.
"He has Daniel's files.
The originals.
Everything Daniel collected over twelve years."
Lisa stood up.
"Is Daniel all right?"
"For now.
But Garrett is making calls.
If those files leave the building—"
"They won't." She was already moving toward the door.
"Send me the building code override.
I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
Carol Mercer stood as well.
"I'm coming with you."
"You don't have to—"
"Garrett knows my face," Carol said simply.
"He'll hesitate.
That's all we'll need."
Lisa grabbed her keys from the hook by the door.
She looked back at Ryan.
He was already on his feet.
"I'll drive."
She held his gaze for three full seconds.
"No," she said.
"You stay here.
And you don't let her make a single call."
She looked at Evelyn.
Evelyn looked back at her with an expression that had stopped pretending to be anything other than what it was.
"This isn't finished," Evelyn said.
"No," Lisa agreed.
"It isn't."
She walked out.
May you like
Carol followed.
The door closed behind them.
