Chapter 6 - THE SHADOW OF VALENCE
The quiet elegance of the Ashford Hotel ballroom felt instantly irrelevant. The personal family drama, the forged checks, the slaps across my face—all of it paled in comparison to the sudden, horrifying realization that my father's death was tied to a treasonous transaction.
"Vance," Ethan’s voice was lower now, laced with the lethal precision of an operator entering an engagement zone. "Tell me you have a paper trail."
"I have the primary wire transfers, Colonel," Major Vance replied, his fingers moving rapidly across his blue tablet screen. "The money was pulled from General Carter’s pension fund via the forged power of attorney executed by Margaret Carter. But the destination account wasn't a standard bank account. It was an escrow line managed by a senior executive at Valence Security Group."
"Who signed for the incoming wire at Valence?" I demanded, my hands clenching into tight fists at my sides.
Vance pulled up a secondary document, displaying a digitized signature seal.
VICTOR CRAIG CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, VALENCE SECURITY GROUP
I stared at the name. Victor Craig was a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who had served under my father ten years ago before being passed over for promotion and leaving the service to enter the lucrative world of private military contracting.
"Victor Craig was the logistics coordinator on the ground in Amman when Dad’s convoy moved out," I said, my voice trembling with a mixture of rage and shock. "Dad trusted him. He gave Valence the security contract for the perimeter checkpoints."
"Margaret didn't just steal money to buy Chloe a condo," Ethan realized, his eyes narrowing into blue slits of ice. "She was used as a financial mule. Someone fed her the account access codes and told her how to set up the shell company, knowing she was too greedy and foolish to ask where the secondary wires were going."
"Mom didn't know," I whispered, the sickening truth washing over me. "She thought she was just stealing Dad's pension to cover her own lifestyle. But Craig was using her greed as a smoke screen to pull money out of Dad's classified fund to pay off his own treasonous operation."
"Which means Craig needed General Carter dead before the annual Department of Defense audit took place," Vance added. "If General Carter came back from Syria, he would have noticed the $150,000 missing from his special command accounts instantly."
Ethan turned to me, taking both of my hands in his. His grip was warm, strong, and completely unyielding.
"We’re taking this to the highest level, Natalie," Ethan said firmly. "This is no longer a domestic CID case. This is a tier-one counter-intelligence operation."
"Where is Victor Craig now?" I asked Vance.
"According to active FAA flight plans," Vance reported, "Craig arrived in Washington D.C. six hours ago. He’s attending an international defense procurement summit at the Reagan Building tomorrow morning."
"Then we’re going to D.C.," I declared, my chin lifting, my voice ringing with absolute command authority. "Tonight."
Ethan looked at Major Vance. "Prep the bird at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. I want an intelligence team in the air in thirty minutes. Coordinate with the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency on the flight. I want federal arrest warrants ready the moment we hit the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base."
"Sir, yes, sir!" Vance snapped a crisp salute and turned toward the exit, his fingers already typing frantic commands on his encrypted tablet.
Ethan turned back to me, reaching out to gently touch the faint pink mark still lingering on my cheekbone.
"Are you ready for this, Captain?" he asked softly.
May you like
I looked into the eyes of the man who had stood by me through every shadow, and felt the spirit of my father—General Daniel Carter—standing right behind us.
"I’ve been ready for three years, Colonel," I replied. "Let's go finish Dad's final mission."
