EPILOGUE
The first rounds shattered her living room window, glass exploding outward as automatic weapon fire tore through the walls.
Kari dove behind her vehicle, hearing bullets punch through metal and shatter the windshield.
She drew her sidearm, knowing even as she did that her pistol was completely outmatched against whoever was inside with an automatic rifle.
More gunfire. Sustained bursts that spoke of serious firepower and someone who knew how to use it.
Kari returned fire blindly, just trying to make the shooter think twice about charging outside, while her mind raced through options.
She was pinned down, outgunned, and whoever was inside had obviously been waiting for her.
They knew. Devco, or the conspiracy, or whoever was protecting the lithium deposit—they knew she'd been briefed, knew she had evidence, knew she was a threat that needed to be eliminated.
A brief pause in the gunfire. Kari used it to crawl around her vehicle, putting the engine block between herself and the house. She pulled out her phone, calling Ben with shaking hands.
"Kari?" Ben answered, alert despite the late hour. "What's wrong?"
"Someone's in my house. Automatic weapons. They're trying to kill me." Another burst of gunfire emphasized her words. "I need backup, now."
"I'm calling tribal police. Stay on the line, stay down."
Kari heard Ben making calls in the background while more rounds punched through her vehicle. The shooter was working systematically now, trying to hit her through the car's mass. Soon they'd realize that she'd moved positions, and they would adjust their fire.
She made the decision. Staying pinned down meant eventual death. She needed to move.
During the next pause as the shooter reloaded, Kari sprinted toward the window nearest the kitchen. If she could get inside, use her knowledge of the layout against the intruder, she might have a chance.
She dove through the window as gunfire resumed, rolled, came up with her weapon ready. The house was dark except for muzzle flashes from the living room. Kari fired three rounds toward the flashes, then moved, knowing the shooter would track to her position.
Return fire followed her, bullets tearing through drywall and furniture.
But Kari was moving, using darkness and cover, finally taking advantage of her familiarity with her own home.
She reached the hallway, pressed herself against the wall, and tried to control her breathing enough to hear over the ringing in her ears.
Sirens in the distance. Tribal police responding to Ben's call. The shooter would hear them too, would know time was running out.
Heavy footsteps running toward the back of the house. Kari moved to intercept, but the shooter was faster. She heard the back door slam open, heard an engine start in the darkness behind her property.
By the time Kari had reached the back door, a dark SUV was disappearing down the dirt road that ran behind her house, no headlights, just taillights vanishing into the night.
Tribal police vehicles flooded her driveway moments later, officers securing the scene while Kari stood in her destroyed kitchen, breathing hard, processing how close she'd come to dying.
Ben arrived within twenty minutes, taking one look at her house—windows shattered, walls riddled with bullet holes, furniture torn apart—and his expression went dark.
"They knew I'd been briefed," Kari said. "Knew I had the evidence." She gestured at her vehicle, where the document case containing copies of Anna's decoded notes sat. "They're not playing games anymore. They've moved from intimidation to active assassination."
"Which means we're all targets now," Ben said. "You, me, your father, Paul. Anyone who knows about the lithium deposit and the murders."
Kari called Paul while tribal police processed the scene, bringing him and James up to speed. They needed to move faster than planned, needed to get the evidence public before the next attack.
"We go today," Paul said, his voice grim. "No more waiting. We compile everything, distribute it to the media and congressional oversight simultaneously, and make it too public to suppress. It's our only chance."
Kari agreed, but she knew the truth: going public might not be enough.
Twenty billion dollars bought a lot of protection, a lot of willingness to kill.
The conspiracy had been operating for two decades, had murdered seventeen people that they knew of.
Exposing it would make them even more dangerous, more desperate.
But what choice did they have? Her mother had died for this truth. Ben had been tortured for it. And tonight, someone had tried to kill Kari to prevent it from being exposed.
They had to fight back. Had to finish what Anna had started. Had to make sure all those deaths meant something.
As dawn arrived, Kari stood in her destroyed home, surrounded by evidence of how close she'd come to joining her mother on that timeline of suspicious deaths. But she was alive. She had the evidence. And she had allies willing to risk everything to expose the conspiracy.
The sun rose over the reservation, painting the desert in shades of gold and red. Beautiful and deadly, like everything in this land. Kari had been born here, had learned here, had become a detective here. And if necessary, she'd die here defending the truth her mother had discovered.
But not without a fight.
Not without making damn sure that everyone knew what Anna had found, what twenty billion dollars had cost in human lives, what a conspiracy had been hiding in plain sight for two decades.
Today, the truth would go public.
In the meantime, Kari loaded extra magazines for her sidearm and waited for whoever might come next.