Chapter 7 - The Woman Who Knew Too MuchThe surveillance footage arrived the following morning.
Special Agent Bennett played it on a laptop inside a secure conference room.
The image was grainy.
A bearded man stepped from a side entrance of the abandoned medical facility.
Daniel Carter.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably alive.
Evan leaned toward the screen.
“Dad.”
Nobody spoke.
Daniel looked directly toward the camera.
Then a woman emerged behind him.
She wore a dark coat and carried a medical bag.
“Who is she?” I asked.
Bennett paused the video.
“Dr. Elena Price.”
I recognized the name.
Price had worked as a civilian medical contractor during our deployment.
She'd been assigned to the medical evacuation operation.
According to the official records, she'd left government service shortly afterward.
“Why is she with Daniel?” Evan asked.
“We don't know yet,” Bennett replied.
The video continued.
Daniel and Price entered a black SUV.
The vehicle left through the rear gate.
Bennett enlarged the license plate.
“Registered to a transportation company connected to Voss Security Solutions.”
Evan stood.
“Then Voss has my father.”
“Possibly,” Bennett said. “But the footage doesn't establish whether Daniel is being held against his will.”
“He disappeared for eight years!”
“That makes the situation serious. It doesn't tell us everything.”
I understood Bennett's caution.
The last thing we needed was to build another investigation on assumptions.
Later that afternoon, Bennett identified Dr. Price's most recent professional address.
A small clinic in rural Pennsylvania.
Federal investigators contacted her.
She refused to speak by telephone.
But she agreed to an interview if I attended.
We traveled under an authorized arrangement coordinated with the investigative team.
Evan remained with his unit.
He was furious.
“That's my father,” he told me.
“I know.”
“Then why can't I come?”
“Because if Daniel is in danger, we need you safe.”
He looked away.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
I placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I can't promise you answers today. But I can promise we won't stop asking.”
For a moment, he looked twenty-two again.
Not a Marine.
Just a son trying to find his father.
At the Pennsylvania clinic, Dr. Elena Price greeted us with exhausted eyes.
She was fifty-three, with dark hair streaked gray.
When she saw me, she whispered, “Rebecca Mitchell.”
“You remember me.”
“I remember everyone from that mission.”
Bennett introduced herself.
Price closed her office door.
Then she said something unexpected.
“Daniel told me you'd eventually come.”
I sat down slowly.
“Where is he?”
Price looked toward the window.
“Somewhere safe, I hope.”
“Why have you been helping him?”
“Because I was there when they brought him in.”
My heartbeat quickened.
“Brought him where?”
“An unofficial medical facility across the border. He had a serious head injury and multiple fractures.”
“What happened?”
Price folded her hands.
“He survived the attack. But before he could be evacuated, someone ordered him transferred away from the military medical system.”
“Who?”
She swallowed.
“Marcus Voss.”
Bennett leaned forward.
“Are you prepared to make a formal statement?”
Price nodded.
“Yes.”
Then she looked at me.
“But you need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Daniel didn't spend eight years hiding because he wanted to abandon his family.”
My throat tightened.
“Then why?”
Price lowered her voice.
“Because he believes someone inside the government helped Voss erase him.”
Before I could answer, her office computer chimed.
A new email appeared.
May you like
The subject contained only three words.
THE DOCTOR TALKED.
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