Page 266 of Hidden Tide
“Simon didn’t bring Captain Marquez here only because he helped Daniel. He knows where the film is.”
“Where?”
“He wouldn’t tell them.”
“Then we make sure he lives long enough to tell us.”
Naomi looks toward the ferry landing.
Toward me.
“Calle’s father gave it to him.”
Ben’s gaze finds mine across the dark water.
Dad didn’t hide the film inside the compass.
The compass is the key.
Captain Marquez knows where it leads.
“Go,” I whisper.
Ben can’t hear me without the radio.
He hears me anyway.
He turns and follows Scott and Piers into the ship.
The camera on Scott’s vest shows a passage tilting toward the submerged stern. Water covers the floor. Emergency lights flash above them.
The tactical officers move ahead.
They reach the second stairwell.
“Red door,” Scott says.
One officer uses Naomi’s key.
The lock turns.
Ben pulls the door open.
Captain David Marquez is chained to a pipe inside the compartment. He is in his seventies, with silver hair, a gray beard and blood covering one side of his shirt.
Another man lies unconscious beside him.
“The third hostage,” Piers says.
Captain Marquez lifts his head.
His eyes find Scott’s body camera.
“Elena?”
Agent Marquez steps from behind the barrier beside me.
“I’m here, Dad.”
