Page 38 of Keeper of Talon Mountain
Rhett extends a hand. "Good to see you breathing."
"Jury's still out on that," I reply, shaking hands with each of them. "Depends on how the next two days go."
"Then let's get to work." Sarah's all business now. "We've got fifty-eight hours and a lot of ground to cover."
Sarah spreads files across Mara's kitchen table like she's dealing cards. Satellite photos. Personnel files. Financial records. The detritus of a three-week investigation compressed into manila folders and glossy prints.
"I've been digging since you disappeared." She taps a photo of a nondescript office building. "Chimera Global Solutions. On paper, they're a legitimate private intelligence firm. Off paper? They're the CIA's favorite deniable asset. Covert ops, regime change, wetwork—if it's too dirty for official channels, Chimera handles it."
"And Crane?"
"Vex Crane. Former Delta, went private sector eight years ago. He's Chimera's fixer. The guy they send when negotiations fail and they need a body." She slides another photo across the table—Crane in tactical gear, face partially obscured. "He's good. Patient. Methodical. And he's been hunting you for three weeks."
Mara leans against the counter, arms crossed. "Why? What did Gabe take?"
Sarah's jaw works. "Evidence. Documentation of an off-books operation in Yemen that went sideways. Civilian casualties. Weapons transfers to terrorist cells. The kind of proof that would bring down half of Chimera's leadership and trigger a congressional investigation."
"A lie," I say quietly. "From the beginning."
"Not exactly." Sarah meets my eyes. "The operation was sanctioned. The CIA signed off. But when it went south, everyone scrambled to cover their asses. Chimera offered up a scapegoat—you. They blamed the civilian deaths on rogue actions, painted you as a contractor who went off mission."
My hands curl into fists. "But I knew better."
"You knew it was a setup. But that didn't stop the guilt." She pauses. "By the time you figured out the evidence was fabricated, they'd already frozen your accounts and put a target on your back."
"So I ran."
"You collected evidence first. Everything you could find. Then you disappeared." She pauses. "I've been trying to find you ever since. Following breadcrumbs, chasing dead ends. When Crane's team hit that safe house in Montana, I knew they were close. I just didn't know how close."
Fifty-four hours.
Alex sets up a laptop on the coffee table, pulling up surveillance footage. "Crane's got a six-man team. Standard tactical configuration. They've been rotating surveillance on the mountain access roads for the past seventy-two hours. Waiting for you to make a move."
"Or for the deadline to expire," Colton adds. "After that, they come in hard."
Mara shifts beside me. "What's stopping them from coming now? Why wait?"
"Plausible deniability," Sarah says. "Right now, they're just private contractors maintaining surveillance on public land. The moment they move on a civilian residence without cause, they risk exposure. Crane needs Gabe to either turn himself in or force their hand."
"So we have fifty-four hours to figure out where I hid the evidence." I scrub a hand through my hair. "Any ideas?"
Sarah's expression turns grim. "That's the problem. You didn't tell me where you put it. Said it was safer if I didn't know. Smart, but unhelpful."
"There has to be something," Mara says. "Some clue he left himself."
"The photograph," I say suddenly, pulling it from my pocket. The one of Sarah with the trail marker symbol. "When we found this, we thought the marker was just showing you the way to find me. But what if there's more to it?"
Sarah takes the photograph, studying it intently. Her fingers trace the edges, then she flips it over. "The inscription.If you've forgotten, she remembers. Trust her.And underneath...” She holds it up to the light. "There's more. Faint, like you wrote it in pencil first."
Alex leans in with a magnifying app on his phone. "Coordinates. Partial. 47.72... the rest is too faded."
"That's northwest Montana," Rhett says immediately. "Glacier National Park region."
"Three locations," I hear myself say. The words surface from somewhere deep. "I split the evidence. Never keep all your eggs in one basket."
Everyone turns to look at me.
"You remember?" Sarah's voice is carefully controlled.
