Prologue #2
I walk him through the conversation, every detail, every pause, every carefully chosen phrase. When I finish, Uncle Robert goes quiet for a long stretch and the silence on the line feels heavy with calculation.
"He's protecting something. Could be the agency's reputation, or his own involvement, maybe both.
" His voice shifts into the tactical register I've come to recognize over the past ten years, the one that means the situation has moved past conversation and into operational planning.
"This is bad, Raven. You need to get out of there tonight.
Do you still have that go-bag I put together for you? "
"It's in the spare tire well."
"Good. Where are you right now?"
"On my way to the apartment. I'll clear out what I need and then turn in my—"
"No." Uncle Robert's voice cuts sharp enough to make me flinch. "You're compromised and you know it. If Alvarez is dirty, he's already making calls, and they will be waiting for you at the apartment. You need to drive straight out of town without stopping."
"What about my things?"
"It's just stuff, Raven. Everything you need to survive is in that bag. Destroy your phone as soon as we hang up and switch to the alias on the IDs I packed for you. I'll have money wired into the account and activate the credit cards before you reach your first stop."
"Okay."
"Now listen to me carefully, because there is almost certainly a tracker on your vehicle.
" He pauses long enough for the weight of that to hit.
"You're going to drive north to Las Cruces.
There's a car dealership called Graham's Car Superstore.
Ask specifically for Graham and give him my name.
He'll hand you keys to a clean vehicle, no questions asked, and his team will make your SUV disappear.
As far as anyone tracking you will be able to tell, you simply vanished off the face of the earth. "
My breath catches. Uncle Robert's voice has that edge it only takes on when someone's life hangs in the balance, and I know better than to push back against it.
"Where do I go after that?"
"There's a case that surfaced in Fredericksburg a few weeks back.
A rancher was killed under suspicious circumstances.
The local sheriff ruled it an accident, but the whole thing has cartel fingerprints all over it.
" He's quiet for a moment. "The gun-running pipeline you've been chasing runs right through the heart of the Hill Country, Raven. "
Nausea rolls through me in a slow, greasy wave. Fredericksburg. The one place on earth I swore I would never set foot in again.
"I have a safe house just outside of town.
Its location is known only to me, and you'll have everything you need there: a base of operations, resources, equipment, and intel.
" Uncle Robert's tone softens just enough for me to hear the concern threaded beneath the authority.
"You won't be working for me, Raven. This will be your investigation, on your terms. But I'll give you every tool at my disposal to make sure you can do it right. "
"Why Fredericksburg?"
"Because that's where it all started. You became an agent to fight exactly this kind of evil." His voice is steady, certain, carrying the conviction of a man who has spent decades making impossible decisions. "Your badge doesn't matter anymore. But the fight does."
My service weapon sits on the passenger seat with my badge right next to it. Five years of believing the system could deliver justice and tonight proved just how naive that belief was. "I need to turn in my badge and gun."
Uncle Robert scoffs. "Think, Raven. You're compromised.
If you walk into that field office, you won't walk back out.
Just do what I'm telling you. We'll handle the badge and the firearm through proper channels when the time is right.
Everything will be ready for you in Las Cruces, and from there I want you heading straight to Fredericksburg. "
My hands tremble as I take the I-10 on-ramp heading north. "I'm forty minutes out from Las Cruces, give or take. Unless something comes up, I'll call you when I reach Fredericksburg."
"Stay safe." The line goes dead before I can respond.
The lights of El Paso shrink in my rearview mirror, and once again I am leaving behind everything I know.
The interstate stretches northwest into the dark, and I try not to think about what waits on the other side of swapping out this vehicle.
Fredericksburg. The last time I was there, I was nineteen years old and watching everything I loved burn to the ground.
But I'm not that girl anymore. This time, I'm the one bringing the fire.
ROBERT
Dawn breaks over the Potomac, and I haven't slept since Raven's call. My niece is running for her life, hunted by the very people she spent the last five years trying to bring down.
I pick up my secure phone and key in the one contact I trust to keep her alive if the cartel finds her before I can get proper protection in place.
Raven is on the run. Cartel and possibly federal involvement. Her partner tried to kill her in El Paso tonight. She's headed for Fredericksburg and I'm sending her to the Cypress Street safe house. Don't ask questions. Just keep her breathing.
The message shows as delivered within seconds.
Jesse will understand. Former Delta Force, one of my best Shadowland operatives, and a man who owes me more than one favor.
He and Raven have history together, created in the kind of situation that either builds trust or destroys it.
That shared experience should help her accept his presence long enough for him to do his job.
More importantly, Jesse is the kind of man who doesn't flinch when trouble shows up at his door.
And trouble is most certainly on its way.