The name Marcus Vale stayed on Ethan's mind long after midnight.He sat alone at the kitchen table, the list spread before him. Rain tapped against the window, soft enough to be almost comforting.Almost.Olivia was asleep in the next room. Mason had taken the couch, his laptop resting beside him. Everyone was exhausted, but Ethan couldn't close his eyes.A dead man had just become the most important person in his investigation.Marcus Vale.Former deputy director.Officially dead.Apparently alive.Ethan picked up his phone and opened an old contact database Mason had recovered from the police department.He searched the name.Nothing.He tried another database.Nothing.Then he searched the old case archives.A file appeared.VALE, MARCUS — STATUS: DECEASEDEthan opened it.The report claimed Vale had died in a private plane crash four years earlier. The wreckage had supposedly been recovered from a mountain region outside Blackridge.But there was something strange.There was no ph

Ethan didn't speak for several minutes.The river carried them farther from the abandoned station, but his mind remained there.His father's name had not been mentioned in years.Not by the police.Not by the courts.Not even by Ethan himself.There were some memories he had simply learned to leave alone.His father, Daniel Carter, had died when Ethan was seventeen. At least, that was what Ethan had always believed.A heart attack.That was the official explanation.One night, one phone call, one funeral.Then life had moved on.Or so Ethan thought.Olivia watched him carefully."What do you remember about your father?"Ethan looked at the water."He worked for the city.""What kind of work?""Records administration. Government contracts. Nothing exciting."Mason turned from his laptop."That's not what I found."Ethan looked at him."What did you find?"Mason swallowed."Your father wasn't just a records administrator."Ethan's expression hardened."Then what was he?"Mason turned th

The drive back to Blackridge was silent.Olivia sat in the passenger seat, staring through the windshield while the city slowly appeared beyond the horizon. Mason was in the back, working through the phone they had found at Daniel's cabin.Ethan kept both hands on the wheel.His mind was somewhere else.Room 17.He had heard the name years ago.He had dismissed it as prison gossip, the kind of story inmates created to scare each other.Now he wasn't so sure."Anything?" Ethan asked.Mason shook his head."The phone is heavily encrypted. Whoever owned it knew what they were doing.""Can you get into it?""Eventually."Ethan glanced at him through the mirror."Eventually isn't good enough.""I know."Mason looked down at the screen."But there's something strange.""What?""The phone wasn't communicating with a normal network."Ethan frowned."What does that mean?""It means whoever sent those messages was using a private relay.""Can you trace it?""I already did."Olivia finally turne

Ethan stared at the message on his phone.Ethan, don't trust Jack.For several seconds, he couldn't move.Jack Donovan had been more than his mentor. He had been the man who taught Ethan how to work a homicide scene, how to read a suspect, how to survive the politics inside the department without becoming part of it.Jack had also been one of the few people who never stopped believing Ethan was innocent.Or at least Ethan had thought so.Jack noticed his expression."What happened?"Ethan locked the phone."Emily."Jack's face tightened."Is she okay?""She sent me a message.""Let me see it."Ethan didn't move.Jack looked at him."Ethan?""You told me you knew about Room 17.""I knew rumors.""Thomas said you knew more."Jack glanced at Thomas."Thomas doesn't know everything."Thomas gave a bitter laugh."Neither do you."The silence that followed was heavy.Olivia slowly moved closer to Ethan.Mason closed his laptop."Something's wrong."Jack reached for his weapon.Ethan immedia

The photograph was only three inches wide, but Ethan Carter knew immediately that it could change everything.He stared at it beneath the weak light of the apartment kitchen. Rain tapped against the window, soft and steady, while Blackridge glittered beyond the glass.Olivia stood behind him with her arms folded.“Who is that?”Ethan didn't answer.He had seen the man before.Not on the streets. Not in a courtroom. Not in any police file.He had seen him in a photograph taken eight years earlier, standing behind Senator Damian Blackwood at a political fundraiser.Ethan turned the photograph over.There was a date written on the back.March 14.Under it were four words.Project Nightfall — Phase Two.Olivia stepped closer.“Ethan?”“This came from where?”“Ryan's source,” she said. “He said the original was hidden inside a camera belonging to one of Blackwood's assistants.”Ethan looked at the photograph again.The man standing behind Blackwood was older now, but there was no mistaking