CHAPTER 6 — “The Ghost in the Darkness”
Bang!
A gunshot echoed through the darkness.
Then another.
Men shouted in confusion.
Flashlights danced wildly across the hangar.
Someone screamed.
Victor yelled,
"Find them!"
Nathan pulled Emily and Oliver behind an overturned aircraft engine.
"Stay down!"
Heavy footsteps echoed everywhere.
No one knew who was shooting.
Then...
A calm voice echoed through the darkness.
"Victor Hale."
"You've been under arrest for six years."
Victor froze.
"No..."
"That's impossible."
The emergency lights flickered on.
Standing on the steel catwalk above them was a gray-haired man wearing a black tactical jacket.
Every armed man in the hangar stared in disbelief.
Emily covered her mouth.
"It can't be..."
Nathan looked up...
and nearly collapsed.
"Dad...?"
Standing above them—
Alive.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably...
Richard Carter.
The man the entire world had buried eight years earlier.
Victor stumbled backward.
"I watched you die!"
Richard smiled calmly.
"No."
"You watched another man die in my place."
Every weapon in the hangar slowly lowered.
Victor's men looked at one another, unsure whom they were working for anymore.
Richard lifted a small remote.
"You always wanted my company."
"You never realized..."
"I sold every share three years ago."
Victor laughed hysterically.
"You're bluffing."
Richard pressed one button.
Every television inside the hangar suddenly switched on.
A live global news broadcast interrupted regular programming.
BREAKING NEWS
Federal authorities have frozen all Hale Global assets after uncovering evidence of fraud, murder, money laundering, and international espionage.
Victor stared at the screen in horror.
"No..."
One by one, his own men stepped away from him.
Several quietly dropped their weapons.
Nathan looked at his father.
"You've been alive..."
Richard nodded.
"I stayed dead..."
"...because it was the only way to expose everyone."
Then Richard turned toward Oliver.
His hardened face softened into a smile.
"Come here, Captain."
Oliver ran into his grandfather's arms.
Richard hugged him tightly.
"I always knew you'd be the one brave enough to bring this family back together."
But at that exact moment—
A wounded mercenary, hidden beneath a collapsed aircraft wing, silently raised a pistol.
He wasn't aiming at Nathan.
He wasn't aiming at Richard.
May you like
He was aiming...
at Oliver.
