Chapter 17 Into the Flames #2
The word carried more weight than it should have.
He reached for his phone.
There was one message from Nico.
Heard about the fire. Are you okay?
Gideon stared at it.
Then he typed.
I'm okay. I'm outside.
He hesitated before sending another message.
I went in.
Nico responded almost immediately.
I know you did.
Gideon looked at the burning building.
His fingers moved across the screen.
This time I didn't go back for the past.
The reply came quickly.
Then come home to me.
Gideon closed his eyes.
For years, home had meant a place where he slept between calls.
Now the word meant something else.
Someone waiting.
Someone choosing him.
Someone who did not need him to be invincible.
Gideon looked toward Owen.
"I need to make a call."
Owen nodded.
"Go."
Gideon stepped away from the engine.
The flames continued to rise behind him.
But they no longer looked like the warehouse.
They looked like what they were.
A fire.
A dangerous one.
A real one.
A fire that required skill, discipline, and courage.
Not guilt.
Not punishment.
Not a debt.
Gideon pressed the phone to his ear.
When Nico answered, Gideon said the words he had once thought impossible.
"I'm coming home."
And for the first time since the warehouse burned, he meant it.
This Time Together
The fire at the Mercer property was contained before it could consume the entire building, but the investigation had only become more urgent.
By the time Gideon returned to the station, the evidence recovered from the old maintenance facility had been secured.
The boxes contained copies of inspection reports, contractor invoices, safety-system maintenance records, photographs, and handwritten notes dating back to the months before the South Harbor fire.
There was enough to prove that someone had been hiding something.
There was not yet enough to prove who had ordered it.
Nico stood beside the conference table while Elena sorted through the recovered material.
Gideon had changed out of his fire gear, but traces of smoke still clung to his clothes. His face was tired, and his body carried the familiar exhaustion that followed a difficult call.
Nico noticed immediately.
"You should sit."
"I'm fine."
Nico gave him a look.
Gideon sighed and sat.
That was another change.
Months ago, he would have treated concern as an instruction to prove himself stronger.
Now he accepted it.
Elena placed a photograph on the table.
"This was recovered from the maintenance building."
Nico leaned closer.
It showed the South Harbor control room.
The emergency smoke-control panel was visible on the wall.
Two contractors stood beside it.
One was Daniel Rusk.
The other was Elias Voss.
Gideon's expression hardened.
"I remember them."
Elena nodded.
"Rusk appears in several photographs from the project."
"Voss too?"
"Yes."
Paul opened another file.
"Here's the interesting part."
He placed a maintenance log beside the photograph.
The timestamp showed the system had been placed in bypass at 2:17 p.m. on the day of the fire.
Gideon looked at it.
"That's before the fire."
"Yes."
"Who authorized it?"
Paul pointed to the initials.
"Rusk."
Nico looked at the photograph again.
Rusk had been standing beside the panel.
He had the restricted-access tattoo.
He had access to the system.
He had authorized the bypass.
And he had been present at the warehouse.
But Nico still noticed something that bothered him.
"Look at Voss."
Gideon followed his gaze.
"What?"
"His position."
Voss stood slightly behind Rusk.
"He isn't touching the panel."
"No."
"But look at what he's holding."
Nico enlarged the photograph.
A clipboard.
At first it looked ordinary.
Then Nico noticed a small emblem in the corner.
"That's the same contractor mark."
Elena leaned forward.
"What does that mean?"
"It was used on the project documents."
Paul searched the recovered files.
He found the same emblem on several forms.
"Voss's internal authorization code," he said.
Nico looked at Gideon.
"Then Rusk may have operated the system, but Voss may have authorized the work."
Elena's expression sharpened.
"That gives us a chain."
Paul nodded.
"Authorization, access, execution."
Gideon stared at the photograph.
The memory returned.
The smoke.
The alarms.
The evacuation.
Marcus.
He forced himself to remain in the room.
He looked at the documents instead of the past.
"What else?"
Paul opened another folder.
"There's a property map."
Nico leaned closer.
The map showed the warehouse and surrounding buildings.
A service corridor connected the control room to a records storage area.
Gideon pointed.
"That corridor."
"Yes."
"It was open that day."
Nico looked at him.
"That's where you saw someone?"
Gideon nodded.
Paul compared the map with the recovered photographs.
"There's something else."
He pointed to a small storage room.
"This area doesn't appear on the final construction plans."
Nico frowned.
"Why?"
"Because it was added after the original plans were approved."
Gideon looked at Elena.
"Was it inspected?"
"Apparently not."
Nico's pulse increased.
"What was inside?"
Paul checked the photographs.
"According to an old inventory, project records."
Gideon stood.
"That's where Marcus was going."
Elena looked at him.
"You think he knew?"
"I think he was looking for something."
Gideon's voice was quiet.
"Marcus wasn't wandering around that building."
He pointed to the photograph.
"He was trying to get to the records."
Nico understood.
Marcus had not simply been caught in the fire.
He might have been trying to preserve evidence.
Elena picked up her phone.
"We need to find out whether that storage area still exists."
Paul checked current property plans.
"It doesn't."
"What do you mean?"
"The area was removed during redevelopment."
Nico looked at the warehouse map.
"Then where did the records go?"
Paul searched the property history.
"That's the problem."
He paused.
"There is no documented transfer."
Silence filled the room.
Nico felt something click.
"Unless someone moved them."
Gideon looked at him.
"Before the fire."
Nico nodded.
"Or during it."
Elena's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
"What?"
Everyone watched her.
She listened.
Then looked at Gideon.
"Rusk is gone."
Gideon's stomach tightened.
"Where?"
"His apartment is empty."
"How long?"
"Neighbors saw him yesterday afternoon."
Paul stood.
"His current office?"
"Also empty."
Nico looked toward the window.
The attack at his studio.
The stolen photograph.
The missing notebook.
The fire at the Mercer property.
Now Rusk was gone.
"He knows," Nico said.
Elena nodded.
"He knows we're close."
Gideon's eyes hardened.
"Where would he go?"
Paul pulled up a list of current properties connected to Voss Site Solutions.
Nico scanned it.
Then stopped.
"The old maintenance building."
"It's already been searched."
"Not that one."
He pointed at another location.
A smaller industrial property near the river.
"That company used this address before the maintenance building."
Paul checked.
Nico continued.
"Ray said the crews used to keep copies. If they moved documents, they may have used a secondary storage site."
Gideon looked at the map.
"How do you know?"
"I don't."
Nico pointed to the property history.
"But look at the dates."
The company had transferred ownership of the river property shortly after the warehouse fire.
"That's too close."
Elena nodded.
"Get the address."
Paul did.
Gideon reached for his jacket.
Elena stopped him.
"You are not going there alone."
"I wasn't planning to."
He looked at Nico.
Nico raised an eyebrow.
Gideon smiled faintly.
"We're learning."
The team moved quickly.
Police units were dispatched to the river property while Elena coordinated the search warrant.
Gideon and Nico stayed at the station until investigators confirmed the site was accessible.
The waiting was difficult.
Gideon's instincts wanted action.
Nico could see it.
"You want to go."
"Yes."
"But you're staying."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Gideon looked at him.
"Because rushing in isn't the same as being brave."
Nico smiled.
"Good answer."
Gideon leaned against the table.
"I almost lost you."
Nico's expression softened.
"You didn't."
"I know."
Gideon took a breath.
"That's what I'm trying to remember."
The phone rang.
Elena answered.
Then she looked at them.
"There's a problem."
Gideon straightened.
"Rusk is there."
Nico's heart jumped.
"Alone?"
"We don't know."
The next message came immediately.
"Police have surrounded the property."
Gideon's hand found Nico's.
The old instinct to separate them appeared for a moment.
He felt it.
Then he let it go.
"Stay with me," Gideon said.
Nico nodded.
"I am."
They reached the river property with Elena once the area had been secured.