CHAPTER 10 — LOCKER 317
“IF THAT LOCKER STILL EXISTS, VALE WILL BE WAITING FOR US.”
The investigator wanted the family moved to federal protection immediately.
The father agreed to send his son and the dark-haired woman to a secure location, but the boy refused.
“It’s Mom’s message.”
His father knelt.
“And that’s exactly why I’m going instead of you.”
For once, the boy did not argue.
Locker 317 was located beneath an abandoned private rail terminal that had closed years earlier. Daniel explained that the network once used the facility for anonymous exchanges.
Police entered first.
Nothing moved.
The father followed.
Rows of rusted lockers stretched into darkness.
Number 317 stood at the end.
The brass key did not fit.
Then the father remembered the old phone.
He opened his wife’s final video again.
For several seconds, she touched her wedding ring while speaking.
He removed his own ring.
Inside the band were numbers he had never noticed.
11-4-17.
He entered them into the locker keypad.
The door clicked open.
Inside was no money.
No weapon.
No computer.
Only a child’s music box.
The father recognized it.
His wife used to play it beside their son’s crib.
Daniel whispered:
“That’s the key.”
They opened the box.
A digital storage chip had been hidden beneath the mechanical cylinder.
The investigator inserted it into an isolated laptop.
Hundreds of encrypted records appeared.
Payments.
Surveillance orders.
Names.
Dates.
Then one folder opened automatically.
VALE.
Everyone leaned closer.
Inside was an audio file.
The father pressed play.
His wife’s voice filled the terminal.
“I know who you are.”
A man answered.
“You know a name.”
“No. I know why you chose my family.”
The father stopped breathing.
The male voice sounded familiar.
Painfully familiar.
Before the recording could continue, every light in the terminal shut off.
Gunfire erupted from the entrance.
Officers returned fire.
“MOVE!”
Daniel dragged his brother behind the lockers.
The laptop disappeared from the table during the chaos.
Someone had entered from a second tunnel.
By the time police regained control, the attacker was gone.
So was the evidence chip.
But the father remembered something.
The investigator had copied the first few seconds automatically.
They replayed the surviving audio.
The mysterious man spoke again.
This time Daniel recognized him.
“No,” he whispered.
The father turned.
“You know that voice?”
Daniel looked sick.
“That’s impossible.”
“WHO IS IT?”
Daniel stared at his brother.
“That voice belonged to your father.”
The father stepped backward.
“My father died twenty years ago.”
May you like
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s what we were told.”
