Chapter 5 - A Witness Disappears
The officer beside the cruiser lay facedown in the rain.
Alive.
Breathing.
A red mark showed behind his ear where someone had struck him.
His weapon remained holstered.
His radio was missing.
Tommy’s handcuffs lay open beneath the rear tire.
No one had seen him leave.
The police sealed the intersection again, but Jack knew the search had started too late.
Tommy had never been the real threat.
He was a disposable distraction.
A man paid to touch Duke, provoke Jack, and create exactly the kind of public confrontation that would force the hidden players to reveal themselves.
Emily stood beneath the shelter with her arms wrapped around her body.
“This was planned.”
“Yes.”
“Why use the dog?”
“To test recognition.”
“Recognition of what?”
Jack looked down at Duke.
Rain darkened the fur along his back.
The dog’s eyes followed every moving shadow.
“Something he was trained to remember.”
Daniel offered to drive Emily and the teenager home in his own car.
Jack refused.
“If Northstar accessed the bus cameras, they have your employee information and the route data.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“You’re saying my address is compromised?”
“I’m saying none of us should go where we’re expected.”
The teenager introduced himself as Noah Blake.
He was seventeen, a high-school senior returning from a late study session.
His mother believed he was already home.
Jack told him to call her without describing the confrontation, ask her to stay inside, and tell her he was safe with police.
Noah obeyed.
Emily called the hospital where she worked and said she would not make the overnight shift.
Then she looked at Jack.
“What now?”
Jack disliked the question because he had no good answer.
For eleven years, he had lived quietly.
He repaired generators, security gates, and emergency power systems for small businesses. He kept no social media accounts. He avoided military reunions. He never spoke publicly about his final deployment.
Duke slept beside his bed.
That had been enough.
Until someone stitched a capsule beneath the dog’s harness.
“We go somewhere without networked cameras,” Jack said.
Daniel gave a humorless laugh.
“In this city?”
“I know one place.”
Jack led them six blocks through service alleys and covered loading bays.
Duke stayed close.
The police tried calling Jack twice.
He ignored both calls.
The capsule vibrated again as they crossed beneath an elevated rail line.
This time it pulsed in a pattern.
Three short.
One long.
Three short.
Jack stopped.
Emily nearly walked into him.
“What?”
“That’s not a tracker signal.”
“What is it?”
“A recognition code.”
He removed the capsule and twisted the end.
The seal released with a faint click.
Inside was a strip of old photographic film wrapped around a thin metal pin.
No electronics.
No battery.
The vibration had come from somewhere else.
Jack checked his jacket lining.
Nothing.
Then Duke turned his head toward Noah.
The teenager froze.
“What?”
“Your phone,” Jack said.
Noah pulled it out.
The device was vibrating, though the screen remained black.
He tried powering it off.
Nothing changed.
“They got into it,” Daniel whispered.
Jack took the phone and dropped it into an open storm drain.
The vibration stopped.
Noah stared at him.
“That cost nine hundred dollars.”
“It was transmitting our location.”
“You could’ve broken the battery.”
“Sealed casing.”
Noah opened his mouth, then closed it.
Jack unfolded the strip of film beneath a loading-bay light.
Six images had been captured on it.
The first showed Duke as a young military dog.
The second showed Jack kneeling beside him in desert gear.
The third showed Elias Voss.
Alive.
The fourth showed Rebecca Vale standing beside a black equipment case marked with the crossed-line symbol.
The fifth showed a hospital room.
A man lay unconscious beneath white sheets.
His face was mostly hidden.
The sixth image was newer.
It showed Jack asleep in his own apartment while Duke lay beside the bed.
Emily’s breath caught.
“Someone was inside your home.”
Jack turned the film over.
A message had been scratched into the back.
BRING DUKE TO TERMINAL NINE BEFORE DAWN.
COME ALONE OR THE NURSE DIES FIRST.
May you like
Jack slowly raised his eyes to Emily.
Across the alley, a red laser point appeared on the center of her chest.
