CHAPTER 7 – The Man Everyone Thought Was Dead
Three days after Captain Cole disappeared, the city was living in fear.
Every news channel called it the biggest corruption scandal in state history.
Dozens of officers had been arrested.
Politicians resigned overnight.
But Daniel Hayes couldn't celebrate.
Someone had leaked his location.
The FBI moved him and Rex into a heavily guarded safe house, but Daniel couldn't shake the feeling that someone was always watching.
Then, at exactly 2:13 a.m...
The security cameras went black.
Every alarm mysteriously shut off.
Rex bolted upright, growling toward the front door.
Daniel grabbed his pistol.
A slow knock echoed through the hallway.
Three knocks.
Silence.
Then another three.
Sarah whispered, "Nobody knows we're here."
Daniel carefully opened the door.
No one.
Only a small cardboard box.
Inside was Daniel's old police badge...
The one that had supposedly been destroyed years ago.
Underneath it lay an old photograph.
Daniel as a rookie officer.
Standing beside his first training instructor.
A man named Michael Grant.
Officially...
Michael Grant had died in a helicopter crash fifteen years earlier.
But someone had circled his face with a red marker.
On the back of the photo were seven terrifying words:
"Dead men make the best puppet masters."
Daniel's hands began to shake.
Only one person knew about that photograph.
Michael Grant himself.
Suddenly...
Rex sprinted toward the backyard, barking furiously.
A dark figure climbed over the fence and disappeared into the woods.
Daniel chased him.
The stranger vanished without a trace.
But he left something behind.
A military identification tag.
The name engraved on it made Daniel's heart stop.
MICHAEL GRANT.
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The dead man wasn't dead after all.
He had been controlling everything from the shadows.
