Chapter 14 - The Voice on the Line
The cold metal of the phone felt like ice against Jax’s ear. The hum of the warehouse faded into absolute silence as the words registered in his mind.
“Lily?” Jax said, his voice instantly dropping to a panicked, urgent register. “What do you mean, someone is waiting outside? Where is Ms. Gable?”
“I don't know, Daddy,” the little girl replied, her voice sounding small and frightened through the static of the line. “She went to talk to a man by the front door, and she hasn't come back. A strange man in a black suit just opened the back door of the car and told me to get out.”
Jax spun around, facing the federal agent with wild eyes. “Trace this call! Right now! It’s coming from the precinct parking garage!”
The agent immediately motioned to a cyber-specialist near the doorway, who whipped out a portable terminal and began tapping furiously on the keyboard.
“Lily, listen to me very carefully,” Jax said, keeping his voice as steady as humanly possible while his chest tightened in sheer terror. “Do not get out of that car. Lock the doors, put your feet up on the seat, and do not open the door for anyone, no matter what they say. Do you understand?”
“I’m scared, Daddy,” Lily whimpered, a soft sob breaking through the speaker. “The man has a silver ring on his hand, just like Uncle David’s friend.”
Marcus’s cell phone was still sitting on the workbench in the warehouse. Before Marcus was ambushed, he had been coordinating with an unknown operative inside the police department—someone who hadn't been rounded up in the initial sweep.
“We have a security breach at the central precinct,” Jax shouted to the federal agent, breaking into a full sprint toward the exit. “Someone inside the department is moving against my daughter!”
“Sir, you can't leave the jurisdiction!” the agent yelled after him, stepping into his path.
Jax didn't stop. He slammed his shoulder into the agent’s arm, knocking him aside with calculated force, and sprinted out into the rainy night toward his idling sedan. He ripped the driver’s door open, threw himself behind the wheel, and punched the ignition button. The engine roared to life with an aggressive snarl.
As the tires spat gravel across the wet asphalt, Jax grabbed his radio handset, switching the frequency to the local police dispatch channel.
“This is Jax Vance! Code red at the central precinct parking garage! My daughter is inside a vehicle under active threat! Dispatch all available units immediately!”
Static crackled over the dash speakers for three agonizing seconds before a dispatcher’s tense voice cut through the air.
“All units, be advised, we have reports of an unauthorized civilian vehicle departing the precinct garage at high speed. Suspect is armed and—"
The dispatcher was suddenly cut off by a sharp, piercing shriek of feedback.
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As Jax tore around the final corner of the industrial park highway, his headlights caught a dark, unmarked van speeding away from the direction of the precinct, its rear license plate intentionally obscured by mud.
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