Chapter 10 - The Quartermaster
Major Nathan Cole had been the fourth member of the original financial investigation.
Official record.
Killed six months before the helicopter crash.
Reality.
Unknown.
Margaret believed he died because his burned vehicle contained remains identified through personal effects.
No DNA test had been performed.
Nathan Cole had designed the accounting architecture used by the ghost network.
He knew every account.
Every identity.
Every weakness.
If he was alive, Evelyn had never been the architect.
She was a partner.
Or a rival.
Marcus searched old intelligence files.
Nathan’s name appeared nowhere after 1998.
Then Lisa asked a cybersecurity question.
“Who maintained the digital structure?”
Margaret looked at her.
“What?”
“Twenty-two years is too long.”
“Accounts change.”
“Encryption changes.”
“Banks merge.”
“Government systems modernize.”
“Someone has been maintaining the network.”
Michael nodded slowly.
Lisa continued.
“Not Evelyn.”
“She barely knows how to use two-factor authentication.”
Margaret almost smiled.
“No.”
“Not Evelyn.”
Ryan had mentioned a man who occasionally visited his mother.
Mr. Cole.
Ryan assumed he was from her veterans’ circle.
Older.
Quiet.
Walked with a limp.
Marcus pulled DMV images.
Nathan Cole would be seventy-six.
One face matched.
Nathan Cole had been living under the name Peter Nolan.
Financial systems consultant.
Government subcontractor.
No criminal record.
High-level clearance history.
Lisa stared.
“He kept himself inside the system.”
Exactly where nobody would question him.
Marcus located his recent travel.
He had arrived in Denver two days earlier.
His hotel reservation used a card tied to Patriot Legacy.
The gala venue was registered to one of his consulting firms.
Margaret looked at Lisa.
“Nathan was always better than Evelyn.”
“At what?”
“Seeing ten moves ahead.”
Lisa thought of the baton.
The assault.
Her photograph.
The military investigation.
What if Evelyn hitting her had not been the trigger?
What if someone expected Lisa to react?
Marcus voiced the same thought.
“Lisa.”
She looked at him.
“Did Evelyn know you had investigators?”
“No.”
“Ryan?”
“No.”
“Claire?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Lisa’s stomach dropped.
Claire had known who Lisa worked with.
Which investigators.
What kind of evidence would trigger rapid review.
Had Claire unknowingly told someone?
Or knowingly?
Lisa called her.
No answer.
May you like
Then Marcus’s analyst ran Claire’s phone location.
It was moving toward the gala venue.
