Chapter 4 - The Federal Interference
The walls of the interrogation room seemed to close in on me.
My entire life, my career, and my sense of justice were built on a lie.
I grabbed my phone and tried to call my federal director.
The call would not go through.
The signal jammer inside the police station was active again.
I realized Landry was trapping us inside until he could clean up the mess.
I looked at Arthur and asked him where Brooke was going.
He said Brooke was heading to my mother’s house to dig up the garden.
That was where Mom buried the decryption key before coming to the station.
I had to get my mother out of this building immediately.
I unlocked the door and stepped out into the hallway.
Six of Landry's officers were waiting for me with their hands on their weapons.
Landry smiled, holding up a pair of heavy steel handcuffs.
He announced that I was under arrest for assaulting a civilian in the interrogation room.
He had cut the audio feed and was framing me to ruin my federal credibility.
I calculated the odds of shooting my way out.
They were terrible, especially with my injured mother sitting in the lobby.
I surrendered my weapon and let them place the cuffs on my wrists.
They marched me into a holding cell and slammed the heavy iron door shut.
I sat on the cold metal bench and waited for my one phone call.
An hour passed in complete silence.
Then, the door to the holding block opened.
It wasn't Landry who walked in.
It was Director Vance, my boss at the federal bureau.
I stood up, relieved that my encrypted message had brought him here so quickly.
Vance looked at me with cold, dead eyes.
May you like
He pulled a key from his pocket, but he didn't unlock my cell.
Instead, he handed the key to Captain Landry and told him to make sure I never made it to trial.
