Chapter 8 - THE TWO CORRUPT MEN
For one impossible moment, Ethan watched the two men who had hunted him point weapons at each other.
Sheriff Cole's uniform was torn, one wrist still carrying a broken handcuff. Mud covered his face.
Kessler laughed.
"You were supposed to be in custody."
"You were supposed to protect me."
"I protected you for years."
"You fed me to the FBI."
"I gave you one simple job. Make Walker lose control."
Cole's shotgun trembled.
"You knew the feds were coming."
"Of course."
"You used me."
Kessler's expression became contemptuous.
"You were always useful because you were predictable."
Cole fired.
Kessler dove behind the wrecked vehicle. The blast shattered a side window.
Ethan moved lower along the rocks, trying to reach an angle without drawing fire.
Below, Agent Vance ordered both men to drop their weapons.
Neither listened.
Kessler fired twice.
Cole cried out and fell to one knee.
The shotgun slid across wet gravel.
Ethan reached it first.
He raised the barrel toward Kessler.
Kessler froze.
"Now this is familiar," he said. "You holding a weapon while everyone waits to see which man you are."
Ethan's chest burned where the bullet had struck his vest.
Rain ran into his eyes.
Kessler slowly lowered his pistol toward the ground.
"You're not going to shoot me," he said.
"No."
Kessler smiled.
Then he turned the pistol toward Rachel.
Ethan fired.
The shotgun blast struck Kessler's shoulder and spun him away from the ravine. Agents tackled him before he could reach the weapon again.
Rachel ran toward Ethan.
"I'm okay," he said.
She touched the damaged vest.
"You were shot."
"Stopped by the plate."
"That is not the definition of okay."
Behind them, Cole was bleeding from the thigh. Agent Vance applied pressure while reading him his rights.
Cole looked toward Ethan.
"He was going to kill me."
Ethan did not answer.
"I helped you."
"You shot at him because he betrayed you."
Cole's face twisted.
"You think you're better than me?"
The question echoed the one he had asked in the diner.
This time, Ethan answered.
"No."
Cole blinked.
"I'm responsible for what I do. That's the difference."
At the processing station, Lacey gave investigators the final piece of evidence.
Months earlier, she had seen Kessler meet Cole behind Miller's Diner and deliver an envelope. Travis attacked her because she took a photograph.
The photograph remained backed up in an email draft she never sent.
It showed Kessler's face clearly.
It also showed another man in the passenger seat of the government vehicle.
County Judge Vale.
The corruption network had used Briar as a storage and transfer point for seized weapons and narcotics. Cole's deputies stole evidence. Vale altered warrants and court records. Kessler moved the material through a private security company.
The intimidation of Ethan had begun because he recognized one of the company names in a county contract.
The milkshake attack was supposed to destroy his credibility before he could connect the cases.
Instead, it placed Cole's abuse in front of a room full of witnesses and triggered the emergency protocol that exposed them all.
At dawn, Ethan sat in an ambulance while Rachel cleaned a cut above his eyebrow.
Lacey rested in another vehicle wrapped in a blanket.
Agent Vance approached.
"Kessler is alive. Cole is stable. Travis is in custody."
Rachel looked toward the mountains.
"Is it over?"
Vance hesitated.
"The immediate threat is over."
Ethan heard the difference.
"What remains?"
"Judge Vale transferred money two hours before the warrants. Eight million dollars moved into an account controlled by someone identified only as Northstar."
Ethan knew the name.
Northstar had been the classified source who provided the false warehouse intelligence during his final deployment.
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The person responsible for the deaths of his men had not been Kessler.
Kessler had only been the messenger.
