Chapter 10 - What Glass Harbor Contained
Glass Harbor was not a weapons shipment.
It was a list of people.
Judges.
Defense executives.
Police commanders.
Members of Congress.
Hospital administrators.
Each had received money from Meridian.
Congressman Voss was not the leader.
He was a coordinator.
The true architect used the name Harbor One.
No real identity appeared in the file.
Only recorded instructions and financial codes.
Jessica’s chip contained one audio recording.
A distorted voice said:
“Once Cole gives us Black Echo, eliminate both daughters.”
Jessica covered her mouth.
“They were going to kill me too.”
Rachel did not soften the truth.
“Yes.”
“Even after I married Evan?”
“The marriage gave them access. It never gave you protection.”
Marcus examined the audio signature.
The distortion pattern matched equipment used by a defense communications company.
Richard Cole’s company.
Richard entered the room with Linda.
He looked twenty years older.
“I never built voice-masking equipment.”
Marcus showed him the technical markers.
Richard recognized the encryption architecture.
His former business partner, Thomas Vale, had designed it.
Vale died seven years earlier in a boating accident.
Or so everyone believed.
Richard sat down.
“Thomas introduced me to Nathan Voss.”
Rachel asked:
“What else did he introduce?”
Richard admitted Vale encouraged him to accept unusual defense contracts.
Some orders were shipped through false destinations.
Richard questioned them once.
Vale told him wealthy people did not appreciate curiosity.
After Vale’s death, the Voss family acquired his shares.
Richard had spent years benefiting from the arrangement.
He claimed he did not know about Meridian.
Rachel believed he avoided knowing.
That was not innocence.
Marcus received a new alert.
Thomas Vale’s death certificate had been issued by a Voss-owned hospital.
No body was recovered.
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Harbor One might be alive.
And he had known the Cole family for decades.
