A Single Dad Rushed Into a Burning Jet to Save the CEO — Then a Marine General Saw His Face and Went Pale
Chapter 6
Daniel moved Victoria through the safe house.
They escaped through a basement corridor.
Jonathan’s team arrived minutes later.
Caleb disappeared.
Again.
The attack confirmed what Daniel feared.
Someone inside the security network was giving away locations.
The safe house had been compromised.
They moved again.
This time to an undisclosed military facility.
Victoria asked:
“How many people know this place?”
Jonathan answered:
“Four.”
Daniel looked at him.
“And you trust them?”
Jonathan hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
“Then we’re compromised already.”
Jonathan was silent.
The general looked older than he had at the airport.
“You know something.”
Daniel nodded.
“Caleb was never working alone.”
“What are you saying?”
“During our final operation, somebody knew our exact route.”
Jonathan froze.
“We thought the enemy intercepted the communications.”
“They didn’t.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Someone gave them our location.”
Jonathan’s face changed.
“Inside the command.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you report this?”
“I did.”
Jonathan looked confused.
“To whom?”
“Your predecessor.”
Silence.
Daniel explained that after the crash, he had found evidence of insider betrayal.
He attempted to report it.
His commanding officer ordered him to remain silent.
When Daniel refused, he became a liability.
His wife’s death happened months later.
He disappeared because he believed the conspiracy reached too deeply into the system.
Jonathan was devastated.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were under observation.”
“What?”
“They were watching you too.”
Jonathan stared.
For fifteen years, he had believed Daniel was dead.
Now he realized Daniel had been protecting him too.
Victoria listened quietly.
Then she asked:
“What’s the connection to me?”
Daniel answered:
“The technology.”
“Why would old military operatives care?”
“Because the original research wasn’t civilian.”
Victoria frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Daniel looked at Jonathan.
“Tell her.”
Jonathan exhaled.
The medical monitoring system had originated from a classified military project.
The government had funded the early research.
Then the project was discontinued.
The technology was purchased by a private company.
That company was later acquired by Hale Meridian.
Victoria had unknowingly inherited something much older than she realized.
Caleb had been part of the original project.
So had Daniel.
Victoria stared.
“Then this isn’t about stealing my technology.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“It’s about what the technology can reveal.”
Jonathan nodded.
“It can identify physiological patterns associated with certain neurological conditions.”
“Such as?”
“Exposure.”
“Exposure to what?”
Jonathan hesitated.
“A classified compound.”
Victoria went pale.
Daniel understood.
Someone wanted the technology because it could prove that a chemical weapon program existed.
And the evidence had been hidden inside her company.
That was why powerful people were willing to kill for it.
