Chapter 7 - The Camera That Went Dark
The plan began with a lie.
Madison returned to Center Seven two nights later.
Everyone had been told she was collecting personal belongings.
In reality, Gabriel wanted the person responsible to believe she had remembered something.
Madison walked toward Platform Seven.
Gabriel watched remotely.
“You're sure about this?” his security chief asked.
“No.”
“That's comforting.”
Gabriel ignored him.
Madison reached the platform.
She deliberately looked beneath the rack.
Then she picked up an empty evidence envelope.
Anyone watching would think she had found something.
Ten minutes later, a camera went dark.
Camera 7C.
Gabriel leaned forward.
“There.”
Security moved.
But not toward Madison.
Toward the surveillance control room.
Someone had manually disabled the camera.
The operator's chair was empty.
A rear door stood open.
Gabriel swore.
Then Madison's radio crackled.
“Madison, leave.”
No response.
“Madison?”
Static.
Gabriel ran.
He found her near the loading bays.
She was standing motionless.
A forklift blocked the aisle.
Nobody was driving it.
Its forks had been raised to chest height.
And taped to the steering wheel was a photograph.
Madison's employee badge photograph.
Across it, someone had written:
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED DOWN.
Gabriel tore the photograph free.
Madison stared at it.
“Still think I should go home?”
“Yes.”
“I'm not.”
“This isn't a debate.”
“Someone tried to kill me.”
“Exactly.”
“And they think I'm afraid.”
“You are afraid.”
Madison looked at him.
“So are you.”
Gabriel didn't answer.
She was right.
Not for himself.
For her.
That realization bothered him.
His phone rang.
Security had identified the person who disabled Camera 7C.
The badge used belonged to Daniel Mercer.
Gabriel turned.
“Find Mercer.”
They searched his office.
Empty.
His car remained outside.
His phone lay on his desk.
Then a security guard shouted from the loading dock.
Mercer was found inside an empty trailer.
Alive.
Bound.
Bleeding from the forehead.
Someone had used his badge.
Mercer opened his eyes.
He saw Gabriel.
“They know.”
“Who?”
Mercer's breathing became ragged.
“Voss.”
Gabriel crouched.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“What does he want?”
Mercer looked toward Madison.
“He wants her dead.”
Madison felt the room tilt.
“Why?”
Mercer began crying.
Not loudly.
The defeated tears of a man who had spent too long carrying something.
“Because she saw the shipment numbers.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“What shipment numbers?”
Mercer whispered four words.
“Black manifests. Dock Twelve.”
Then his eyes closed.
Paramedics rushed in.
Gabriel stood.
Madison looked at him.
“What are black manifests?”
“I don't know.”
But somebody did.
May you like
Because at that exact moment, across the warehouse, flames erupted from the records room.
Someone was destroying the evidence.
