The Media Leak

Mary was gone.

The realization settled over Claire like a shroud, heavier than the exhaustion, colder than the wind biting through her coat. She stood at the edge of the ravine, staring at the empty space where the truck had been, her mind replaying the sequence of events.

Mary hadn’t just left. She had come back. She had seen the fire. She had tried to help.

And the Syndicate had taken her.

"They have the girls," Sarah whispered, her voice trembling. "Mary took the girls."

David spun around. "No. No, she hid them. She said she had a cabin off the grid."

"But if they took her..." Sarah trailed off, unable to finish the thought.

"If they took her," Aris said, his face grim in the moonlight, "they'll make her talk. Mary is tough, but everyone breaks eventually."

"We have to find them," Claire said. She turned away from the ravine, her jaw set. "We have to find them before she talks."

"How?" David asked. "We have no car. No phones. No weapons."

"We have the files," Aris said. He held up the laptop. "The upload finished. It's all out there. The news cycle is about to explode."

"That doesn't help Mary," David snapped. "Or the girls."

"It helps us," Claire said. She walked back to the smoldering ruins of the cabin. "It gives us a microphone."

She found her burner phone in the snow, miraculously intact. The screen was cracked, but it still had a signal.

"I know a journalist," she said. "Elena Ross. She broke the story on the Mayor's corruption last year. She's fearless."

"And you think she'll help a fugitive?" Aris asked.

"I think she'll help the woman who just handed her the biggest story of the decade," Claire said.

She dialed the number.

It rang once. Twice.

"Hello?" A woman's voice, sharp and professional.

"Elena," Claire said. "This is Claire Vance."

Silence. Then, the sound of movement, of a pen scratching on paper.

"Claire Vance," Elena said. "You're a hard woman to find. Half the NYPD is looking for you."

"I know," Claire said. "I'm about to make it easier for them."

"Are you turning yourself in?"

"No," Claire said. "I'm turning Arthur Vance in. Posthumously."

"I saw the leak," Elena said, her voice lowering. "The files. It's... it's devastating. If it's real."

"It's real," Claire said. "But it's not the whole story. The files tell you what he did. I can tell you why."

"I'm listening."

"Not on the phone," Claire said. "Meet me. In an hour."

"Where?"

"The old Vance textile factory," Claire said. "In Queens. It's abandoned."

"That's a long way from the Catskills," Elena said. "How do you know I won't bring the police?"

"Because you want the exclusive," Claire said. "And because I have something else for you. Something that wasn't in the upload."

"What is it?"

"The names," Claire lied. "The names of the people who killed my mother-in-law."

She hung up.

"We can't get to Queens in an hour," David said.

"We're not going to Queens," Claire said. She looked at Aris. "Can you trace Mary's phone? The one she used to call me?"

Aris nodded. "If it's on. And if I can hack a cell tower."

"Do it," Claire said. "David, check the bodies. See if they have a radio. Or a car key."

David walked to the snow-covered mounds that had been Syndicate soldiers. He searched their pockets, his face pale but his hands steady.

"Got one," he said, holding up a set of keys.

"What about the car?" Sarah asked.

"Down the road," David said. "They must have parked it before they hiked in."

They found the black SUV a quarter-mile down the track. It was running, the heater blasting.

They piled in. Aris sat in the front passenger seat, laptop open.

"I've got a ping," he said. "It's faint, but it's there. Mary's phone is moving."

"Where?" Claire asked, driving fast down the mountain road.

"South," Aris said. "Toward the city."

"They're taking her to a safe house," David said. "Or a disposal site."

"Keep tracking it," Claire said.

Her phone buzzed again.

It was a notification. A Twitter alert.

*#VanceMystery trending worldwide.*

Elena hadn't waited. She had released the tease. The world was waking up to the fact that the Vance empire was built on bones.

"It's starting," Claire said. "The pressure. The eyes."

"That makes Mary a liability," Aris said. "If the Syndicate thinks she's compromised... they'll kill her."

"Not if they think she has something they need," Claire said.

"What do they need?"

"Me," Claire said.

She looked at the road ahead, the headlights cutting through the darkness.

"They need the person who started the fire."