Chapter 44 - Bloodline in the Ledger
"It's a trap," Cole said instantly, his jaw locked tight. "The mining flume empties into the Devil’s Throat Gorge. The water drops two hundred feet into freezing rapids over jagged rocks. There is zero chance of survival for an infant if she drops him."
"I don't care if it’s a trap," Jonathan said, his eyes blazing with a feral, desperate intensity Cole had never seen in him before. "That's my son. Julianna’s son. Lily’s brother."
"Jonathan, listen to me," Arthur said, holding up a small handheld transmitter from his kit. "Look at the floor around the crib."
Jonathan looked down. Scattered near the steel base of the crib were microscopic droplets of blue liquid.
"What is that?"
"Thermal dye," Arthur said. "She used an emergency heating pack to warm the infant's formula before she left. Those packs contain industrial methylene blue to show temperature activation. Look at the threshold of the tunnel door."
A faint, luminescent blue smudge marked the steel frame where Victoria’s shoulder had brushed past.
"She’s moving fast, but she’s encumbered," Arthur continued. "A baby, a diaper bag, heavy winter gear, and a terrain she hasn't walked in five years. You cannot go alone, Jonathan. If you go alone, she holds all the cards. She’ll force you to sign over legal custody or jump into the falls yourself before she ever hands that boy over."
"Arthur’s right," Cole said, pulling a compact earpiece from his tactical vest and handing it to Jonathan. "Put this in. It’s on a scrambled low-frequency band. She won't pick it up on any consumer scanner. You go through the main tunnel. I’ll take the service ladders up to the old spillway gate above the flume. I can get an overwatch position before you reach the edge."
"If she sees you—"
"She won't see me," Cole cut in. "I’ve hunted these mountains since I was twelve. Victoria is a corporate sociopath, not a mountain tracker. She’s arrogant, and arrogance makes people blind to their flanks."
Jonathan took the earpiece, shoving it firmly into his ear canal until it clicked. He checked the clip of the small semi-automatic pistol Cole had handed him earlier that night, racking the slide and engaging the safety.
"Don't shoot unless you have no choice," Cole warned. "A stray bullet near that baby..."
"I won't miss," Jonathan said. "Arthur, stay here. Monitor the communications and lock down every terminal in this complex. If she has backup contacts or an extraction chopper inbound, I want to know five minutes before it gets here."
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"Understood," Arthur said, his fingers already flying across a portable decoding deck. "Be careful, Jonathan. She didn't keep Noah alive for six months out of sentiment. She kept him because he is the ultimate leverage."
Jonathan stepped into the dark, vaulted mouth of the utility tunnel. The air grew immediately colder, roaring with the distant, thunderous vibration of rushing water.
