Chapter 8 - The Ghost from the Past
I raised my hands instinctively to shield my family from the blinding spotlight.
The figure behind the light lowered the weapon and stepped forward.
It was an older man with a gray beard and a tactical vest.
He looked at my bleeding brother and terrified wife.
Then he looked at me and said my father's name.
The man introduced himself as Elias, a former police detective who used to work with my dad.
He explained that my father had known about Margaret's criminal empire before he died.
My father had set up this safe house underneath the church in case she ever turned on the family.
Elias ushered us into a fully stocked bunker equipped with medical supplies and communication gear.
He quickly went to work treating Mark’s gunshot wound.
Emily sat on a cot, rocking Lily to sleep.
I handed Elias the black ledger I had taken from Vanessa’s safe.
Elias flipped through the pages and let out a low whistle.
He said this ledger was the final piece of evidence the FBI needed to dismantle the entire cartel.
He told me he had a secure server that could transmit the data directly to the federal authorities.
Elias booted up a heavy, encrypted laptop and plugged in a scanner.
We spent the next thirty minutes scanning every single page of the ledger.
Above us, we could hear Vanessa's men tearing the church apart in frustration.
Elias clicked the upload button to send the massive file to the FBI field office.
A progress bar appeared on the screen, slowly ticking toward one hundred percent.
I finally felt a glimmer of hope that this nightmare was ending.
Suddenly, the screen froze at ninety-nine percent.
A red warning box flashed, stating that an external source was actively blocking the transmission.
Elias frantically typed on the keyboard, trying to bypass the firewall.
He looked at me with absolute dread in his eyes.
He said someone inside this very bunker was broadcasting a jamming signal.
I slowly turned around to look at the only other adults in the room.
May you like
Mark was bleeding on the table, barely conscious.
Emily was standing near the back wall, holding a small black device with a glowing green light.
