Chapter 10 - THE FRIEND HE BURIED FIRED THE FIRST SHOT
The round hit the cruiser door beside my head.
Cole shoved Lauren behind the engine block.
I returned fire.
Eli vanished into the church.
“Jack!” Mia screamed.
“I’m fine.”
I wasn’t.
Not inside.
Rex pulled toward the building.
“Stay.”
He whined.
He remembered Eli.
Of course he did.
Eli had trained him with me during two deployments.
I had forgotten that until I saw the way Rex looked at the doorway.
Not anger.
Confusion.
The same confusion he had shown after Butch dumped the water.
“Jack,” Cole said, “we need to move.”
“No.”
“He’s got a rifle and elevation.”
“He missed.”
Cole stared at me.
“What?”
“Eli doesn’t miss.”
The first shot at the jail had hit the deputy.
The shot at the warehouse had killed Butch.
But this one struck six inches from my face.
A warning.
I ran into the church.
“Eli!”
My voice echoed through the nave.
A door slammed near the rear.
I followed.
Outside, an old pickup tore through the cemetery gate.
Too late.
On the ground lay a small black notebook.
I picked it up.
Inside were dates, road numbers, names of towns, and military shipment codes.
One page had been marked with a red tab.
September 10.
Today.
ASH CREEK — PHASE ONE.
Under it:
NOMAD VERIFIED.
K9 VERIFIED.
MERCER PACKAGE RECOVERED.
My name was Mercer too.
Jack Mercer.
I turned the page.
A photograph was taped inside.
Colonel Nathan Mercer.
No relation.
My former commanding officer.
The man who signed Eli’s death report.
The man who personally handed me the folded flag at the memorial service.
He had died three years later in a helicopter crash.
At least that was what we had been told.
Cole entered behind me.
“Who is that?”
“My old commander.”
“Dead?”
“Supposedly.”
Lauren stepped into the doorway.
Her face tightened when she saw the photo.
“That’s him.”
I looked at her.
“You know this man?”
“He ran the place they kept us.”
“Where?”
She pointed toward the hills north of town.
“Under the quarry.”
Mia whispered, “There are more people there.”
“How many?”
Lauren’s answer came fast.
“Enough that they built a second cage after I arrived.”
I looked back at the notebook.
Another line sat beneath PHASE ONE.
12:30 A.M. — MOVE PACKAGE TO QUARRY.
It was 12:12.
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