Rebecca pressed the radio button.
“We have them. They're alive.”
“Good. Bring them to headquarters immediately. Do not take them anywhere else.”
Olivia stepped closer.
“Ask him one question.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“What question?”
“Ask him why he hasn't ordered an arrest warrant for Senator Caldwell.”
Rebecca lifted the radio.
“Director, Senator Caldwell is currently at the railway station with armed personnel. Do we have authorization to detain him?”
There was a brief silence.
Then Reynolds answered.
“Negative. Senator Caldwell is cooperating with federal authorities. Your priority is to secure the evidence and return to headquarters.”
Olivia felt her stomach tighten.
“Ask him about Daniel Whitmore.”
Rebecca looked at her again, uncertain.
“Director, we have information that Daniel Whitmore may still be alive and held beneath the old courthouse.”
The silence that followed was longer.
Finally, Reynolds spoke.
“Agent Hayes, you are not authorized to investigate that location. Return immediately. That is a direct order.”
Rebecca slowly lowered the radio.
Olivia didn't need another explanation.
Reynolds knew.
He had known about Daniel Whitmore for twenty years.
Walker moved closer to Rebecca.
“Listen carefully. We have evidence that connects Reynolds, Grant, Harlan, Kane, and Caldwell. If you take us to headquarters, there's a good chance none of us will make it out.”
Rebecca looked from Walker to Olivia, then toward Porter.
“Do you have proof?”
Olivia opened the folder and showed her several pages.
“Bank transfers, shell companies, payments to private security firms, and signatures authorizing the original Nightfall operation. Your director's name appears more than once.”
Rebecca studied the documents.
Her expression changed.
“Where did you get these?”
“Porter.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“You were declared dead.”
“I've heard that,” Porter replied. “Apparently, the paperwork was more convincing than the funeral.”
For the first time, Rebecca almost smiled.
Then the radio crackled again.
“Agent Hayes, respond immediately.”
She ignored it.
Instead, she removed the radio from her shoulder and handed it to one of her agents.
“Tell headquarters we lost communication in the tunnel.”
The agent looked surprised.
“Ma'am?”
“You heard me.”
Rebecca turned toward Olivia.
“If we're doing this, we're doing it properly. I want copies of that ledger transmitted to three separate locations before we move.”
Walker nodded.
“I can arrange that.”
“And I want an independent team watching the courthouse entrances. Nobody connected to Reynolds gets near this operation.”
Olivia studied her face.
“Why are you helping us?”
Rebecca took a slow breath.
“Because my older brother was one of the witnesses in an internal police investigation twelve years ago. He testified that officers were selling information to private contractors. Three weeks later, he was killed in what the department called a robbery.”
She looked down at the documents.
“I always suspected there was more to it. Now I know why the investigation disappeared.”
The steel door finally unlocked with a loud metallic click.
Beyond it lay a narrow staircase descending into darkness.
Porter leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
“We don't have much time,” he said. “Caldwell will know the tracker has stopped moving. He'll realize we've found another route.”
Olivia stepped through the doorway.
“Then let's make sure he never gets another chance to hide the truth.”
They descended.
The staircase seemed endless. Its walls were covered with old pipes, electrical cables, and faded warning signs. At the bottom, they reached a narrow passage that split into two directions.
Porter pointed left.
“That leads to the courthouse archive.”
Rebecca checked her weapon.
“And the other direction?”
“An old drainage system. It comes out near the river.”
Walker looked at Porter.
“Why would a courthouse need a secret tunnel to the river?”
Porter gave a bitter laugh.
“Because twenty years ago, powerful people wanted a way to move documents and people without being seen.”
Olivia understood.
Project Nightfall hadn't simply been a corruption scheme. It had been built around secrecy, intimidation, and the ability to erase people from public life.
As they moved through the passage, Rebecca's phone vibrated.
She checked the screen and stopped.
“What is it?” Walker asked.
Rebecca showed them a message from an unknown number.
There was no greeting, no explanation, only one sentence:
You are walking into the same trap that killed Daniel Whitmore.
Beneath the message was an image.
It showed the underground archive.
And standing in front of its entrance was a man wearing a dark suit.
Olivia recognized him immediately.
Michael Grant.
But the photograph had been taken only a few minutes earlier.
“He's already there,” Walker whispered.
Porter stared at the image.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?” Olivia asked.
Porter's face had gone pale.