Caleb understood.
"This wasn't a land purchase."
Mara looked at him.
"What was it?"
"A payment schedule."
"For what?"
He looked toward his mother's grave.
"For silence."
A sudden noise echoed from above.
Stone scraping against stone.
Caleb extinguished the lantern.
Mara froze.
Footsteps.
More than one person.
A man's voice drifted down the stairwell.
"Search the tower."
Silas Rook.
Caleb drew his revolver.
Isabel whispered, "There's another passage."
"Where?"
"Behind the grave."
Mara looked toward the stone marker.
Isabel moved to the wall and pressed a narrow section of mortar.
A hidden panel shifted.
Beyond lay a dark tunnel.
"Where does it lead?" Caleb asked.
"To the old orchard."
"How far?"
"Perhaps a hundred yards."
Caleb handed Mara the ledgers.
"Take these."
She gathered them into her satchel.
"What about you?"
"I'll follow."
"No."
"Mara—"
"We leave together."
Caleb looked at her.
For a moment, he saw the same stubborn determination that had kept her standing outside the land office while an entire town looked away.
He nodded.
"Together."
They entered the passage.
Isabel followed.
Above them, Rook's men descended the staircase.
One reached the iron door.
"Found something!"
The lock had been opened.
The chamber was empty.
But the stone covering the strongbox had been moved.
Rook entered.
He examined the open cavity.
Then he noticed the grave.
He read the inscription.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Well, now."
He turned toward his men.
"Looks like the old stories were true."
One of them pointed toward the wall.
"Boss."
Rook approached the hidden panel.
A faint draft moved through the opening.
He drew his revolver.
"They're close."
Then he shouted into the darkness.
"Mercer!"
His voice echoed through the tunnel.
"You can run all you want!"
Caleb heard him.
He kept moving.
Rook laughed.
"But there's something you ought to know!"
Caleb stopped.
Mara turned.
"Don't listen."
Rook's voice grew louder.
"Your brother isn't hiding anymore!"
Caleb went still.
The words seemed to strike the air itself.
Mara caught his arm.
"Caleb."
Rook continued.
"Jonah Mercer came back to Red Hollow three weeks ago!"
Caleb's heart pounded.
"And if you want to see him alive—"
A pause.
Then Rook delivered the words with deliberate cruelty.
"Tell the girl to ask what happened to her father."
Mara froze.
Her father.
A man who had disappeared when she was seven.
A man her grandmother had refused to discuss.
Caleb looked at her.
Mara's face had gone pale.
"What does he mean?" she whispered.
Caleb had no answer.
Behind them, the gunmen entered the passage.
Ahead, the tunnel opened toward the night.
And somewhere in the darkness beyond the mission, a horse whinnied.
Not Caleb's horse.
Another.
Then a familiar voice called softly.
"Caleb?"
He stopped breathing.
The voice came again.
Older.
Deeper.
But unmistakable.
"Caleb, it's me."
A man stepped from behind the orchard wall.
He carried a rifle.
A scar crossed his left shoulder.
His face was lean, weathered, and marked by years of hardship.
But his eyes were the same eyes Caleb remembered from childhood.
Jonah Mercer stood before him.
Alive.
For seventeen years, Caleb had imagined this moment.
He had rehearsed a thousand words.
Questions.
Apologies.
Promises.
But when he finally saw his brother, he could say only one thing.
"Jonah?"
The younger man lowered his rifle.
Tears filled his eyes.
"Hello, big brother."
Caleb took one unsteady step forward.
Then another.
And the two brothers embraced beneath the ruined walls of Saint Agnes, while behind them the men who had destroyed their family came searching through the darkness.
But the reunion lasted only seconds.
Jonah pulled away.
"We have to leave."
Caleb gripped his shoulders.
"Where have you been?"
"There's no time."
"Jonah—"
"Listen to me."
His expression changed.
"Voss isn't the man in charge."
Caleb stared.
"What?"
Jonah looked toward Mara.
Then toward the mission.
"The land company. The murders. The forged records. All of it."
He swallowed.
"Voss was only protecting someone else."
"Who?"
Jonah's voice dropped.
"Someone who knows exactly where Daniel Tolan is being held."
Mara stepped forward.
"Daniel is alive?"
Jonah looked at her.
"Yes."
She covered her mouth.
"Where?"
Jonah hesitated.
Then answered.
"Under the sheriff's jail."
Mara nearly collapsed.
Caleb caught her arm.
Jonah looked toward the tunnel entrance.
The voices of Rook's men were getting closer.
"We have to ride."
Caleb turned.
"Where?"
Jonah's face hardened.
"Back to Red Hollow."
Mara stared at him.
"That's where they'll expect us."
"I know."
"Then why?"
Jonah looked at the satchel containing the ledgers.
"Because tomorrow morning, Edward Harrow arrives on the eastbound train."
Caleb frowned.
"The financier?"
Jonah nodded.
"And he's bringing the one thing we need to expose them."
"What?"
Jonah looked directly at Mara.
"The original testimony of the man who ordered the Black Mesa killings."
The brothers had been reunited for less than five minutes when the first bullet struck the orchard wall.
Stone exploded beside Caleb Mercer's shoulder.