“Still alive. Unfortunately, I’m beginning to regret it.”
Porter was lying beside a fallen support beam. Blood ran down the side of his face, but he was conscious. Walker hurried toward him.
“Can you move?”
“Not quickly,” Porter replied. “And I don't think our friends outside are planning to wait.”
Olivia looked toward the broken entrance. Through the shattered windows, headlights swept across the station. Several dark vehicles had surrounded the building. Armed men were moving between them, using the cars for cover.
Senator Richard Caldwell stood near the largest vehicle, speaking calmly into his phone.
He looked less like a politician than a man supervising a business transaction.
Olivia tightened her grip on the folder.
“He wants this ledger,” she whispered.
Walker glanced at the documents. “Then we make sure he never gets it.”
A small red light blinked near the bottom of the folder.
Olivia froze.
“Walker.”
He followed her gaze.
“What is that?”
“Tracker,” Porter said weakly. “Caldwell must have planted it when he showed us the photograph.”
Walker immediately opened the folder and searched through the papers. A tiny electronic device had been attached beneath the leather lining.
“Don't touch it,” Olivia warned.
Walker pulled a small knife from his pocket and carefully separated the device from the folder. He placed it inside an abandoned metal toolbox several feet away.
“Let them follow that,” he said.
A burst of gunfire shattered what remained of the station windows.
“Move!” Walker shouted.
He helped Porter stand while Olivia gathered the scattered documents. They hurried toward a narrow maintenance corridor at the back of the station.
The corridor was almost completely dark. Water dripped from the ceiling, and the air smelled of rust and damp concrete.
“Where does this lead?” Olivia asked.
“An old service tunnel,” Porter answered. “It was built when this railway station was connected to the courthouse district. Most people don't even know it exists.”
“Does it lead under the old courthouse?”
Porter nodded.
“Eventually. But there's something you need to understand. The place beneath that courthouse isn't just a basement. It was once a secure archive. The original Project Nightfall records were stored there before they were transferred.”
“And Daniel Whitmore?”
Porter looked at her.
“If Caldwell was telling the truth, Daniel is being kept somewhere in that complex.”
Olivia remembered the photograph. An older man sitting beside a window, his expression tired but unmistakably alive.
For twenty years, Judge Eleanor Whitmore had believed her husband was dead. Now Olivia had reason to believe he had been imprisoned all that time because he had discovered the truth about Project Nightfall.
“Why would Caldwell keep him alive?” she asked.
“Because Daniel knows where the original money went,” Porter replied. “The ledger you’re carrying is only a copy of the financial trail. Daniel witnessed the original transfers. He knows which accounts were used, who authorized them, and who received the money.”
Walker looked back toward the station.
“And if Caldwell gets to him first?”
Porter didn't answer.
They continued down the corridor until they reached a steel door. Porter entered a code into the old keypad, but the first attempt failed.
“Come on,” he muttered.
Footsteps echoed behind them.
Someone had entered the tunnel.
Walker drew his weapon and positioned himself between Olivia and the approaching footsteps.
“Get that door open,” he said.
Porter tried another code.
A voice came from the darkness.
“Federal agents! Drop your weapons!”
Walker turned toward the sound.
“Identify yourself!”
A flashlight beam swept across the corridor.
“Agent Walker? It's Special Agent Rebecca Hayes. We received your emergency signal.”
Walker lowered his weapon slightly.
“Rebecca?”
A woman in a dark tactical vest emerged from the shadows with two armed agents behind her. Her face was covered in dust, and her expression was tense.
“What happened here?” she asked.
“Caldwell's men attacked the station,” Walker replied. “We have Porter, and we have the Nightfall ledger.”
Rebecca's eyes moved toward Olivia.
“Then we need to get you somewhere secure immediately.”
“No,” Olivia said.
Rebecca frowned. “Excuse me?”
“We're going to the old courthouse.”
“That's not happening. We have an extraction team waiting outside.”
“Caldwell knows we have the ledger. He also knows Porter is alive. If we leave now, he'll disappear Daniel Whitmore before we can reach him.”
Rebecca looked at Porter.
“Is that true?”
Porter nodded.
“Daniel is the only living witness who can connect Caldwell to the original operation. If he disappears, the ledger may not be enough. Caldwell has spent twenty years making sure every piece of evidence can be explained away.”
Rebecca hesitated.
Then her radio crackled.
A man's voice came through.
“Agent Hayes, this is Director Reynolds. Confirm the location of Olivia Bennett and the evidence.”