Chapter 9: The Exchange
Nathan wanted to transfer the money immediately.
Detective Bennett refused.
“If we give Adrian twelve million dollars, he disappears and your mother may still die.”
“If we don’t give it to him, she definitely dies.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know enough.”
Nathan’s voice shook with rage.
He paced through the command room the police had established near the lake house.
Vanessa stood near the wall, silent.
Nathan turned on her.
“This is because of you.”
She accepted the words without defending herself.
“He found my family through you.”
“Yes.”
“He kidnapped my mother because you brought him into our lives.”
“Yes.”
“You faked our baby to help him steal from me.”
“Yes.”
The calmness of her answers angered him more.
“Stop saying yes like that fixes anything.”
“It doesn’t.”
For the first time, Vanessa did not cry.
She looked exhausted.
“I know there is nothing I can say that will repair this.”
Ethan entered carrying a laptop.
“We may have a way to track the transfer.”
Detective Bennett followed him.
“Nathan can authorize the money, but we’ll route it through a controlled account. Once Adrian begins moving it, federal agents can follow the path.”
Nathan looked at her.
“And my mother?”
“We demand proof of life before every stage.”
Vanessa approached the laptop.
“He will expect that.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What will he expect?”
“A tracking attempt. A delayed transfer. Hidden conditions.”
“Then how do we convince him?”
Vanessa removed a folded piece of paper from her coat.
“I give him something more valuable than the money.”
She opened it.
It contained a handwritten series of numbers and symbols.
Nathan stared at it.
“What is that?”
“My father’s account encryption key.”
Detective Bennett took the paper.
“You said Adrian never obtained it.”
“He didn’t.”
“How did you?”
“My father taught it to me when I was a child. I didn’t understand what it meant until I saw the records at the lake house.”
Ethan studied her.
“Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”
“Because I planned to use it to bargain for my own freedom.”
Nathan gave a bitter laugh.
“Of course you did.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“But now I can trade it for Margaret.”
“You expect Adrian to believe you suddenly care about my mother?”
“No.”
She met Nathan’s eyes.
“I expect him to believe I care about myself.”
The plan was arranged.
Vanessa would contact Adrian and offer the encryption key in exchange for Margaret and her father.
Nathan would still prepare the charity transfer as insurance.
The meeting would occur at an abandoned factory outside the city.
Adrian chose the location.
At midnight, Vanessa entered the building alone.
A microphone was hidden beneath her collar.
Police surrounded the property from a distance.
Nathan listened from an unmarked van.
Inside the factory, Margaret was tied to a chair.
Beside her sat an old man with gray hair and a scar near his temple.
Vanessa stopped breathing.
“Dad?”
The man lifted his head.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Vannie.”
Her knees nearly buckled.
Adrian stepped from the shadows.
He was tall, well dressed and calm.
Nothing about him matched the monster Nathan had imagined.
That made him more frightening.
“Beautiful reunion,” Adrian said. “Now give me the key.”
Vanessa held up the folded paper.
“Release them first.”
Adrian smiled.
“You still think you are negotiating.”
He raised a gun and pointed it at Margaret.
In the police van, Nathan surged toward the door.
Ethan grabbed him.
“Wait.”
Adrian looked directly at Vanessa.
“Give me the key, little sister.”
Vanessa slowly approached.
Then her father spoke.
“Don’t.”
Adrian turned toward him.
The old man smiled weakly.
“She doesn’t have the real key.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
Vanessa froze.
Her father looked at her.
“The real key was never numbers.”
May you like
Then he looked toward the hidden microphone beneath her collar.
“It was Nathan.”
