All Chapters of THE BIKER'S NEW FOUND MATE : Chapter 201 - Chapter 210

The Dalton investigation became official on a Tuesday.Forsythe's office released a formal statement confirming an active inquiry into a classified defense program and the involvement of a senior elected official. No names in the statement. Standard procedure for an active investigation. But within forty eight hours every major news outlet had Dalton's name and a version of the story that was incomplete but pointed in the right direction.Dalton issued a denial the same afternoon. Measured. Professional. Prepared in advance which meant he'd known it was coming for at least a week. He called the allegations fabricated and politically motivated and said he welcomed a full and transparent review of his record.His lawyer was on television that evening.I watched it with Eva in the common room. Neither of us said much. The legal process was going to take the time it took and there was nothing we could do to accelerate it and nothing Dalton could do to stop it given the redundancy of the d

Phoenix finished his sentence."We could be walking into something built specifically around the investigation's momentum," he said. "Someone who knows we're active and capable and uses the Dalton exposure as a hook to pull us toward a meeting we can't fully prepare for.""Yes," I said. "That's possible.""But we place the advertisement anyway," he said."We place the advertisement anyway," I said. "Because the alternative is ignoring the one lead that points above Dalton and waiting for the next thing to find us instead."Phoenix accepted that. He didn't like it fully but he accepted it because the logic was sound and he was someone who followed sound logic even when it made him uncomfortable.Eva drafted the advertisement that afternoon.The format the letter specified was a personal message column. Four lines maximum. The wording the writer had requested was specific. A phrase that would read as ordinary to anyone scanning the column without context and would read as confirmation t

We left at eight in the evening.Eva drove the first two hours. I took over after that. The road north was mostly empty once we cleared the city. Long stretches of highway with flat land on both sides giving way to coastal terrain as we moved further north. The sky was clear and the temperature was dropping and by the time we reached the coastal region proper there was frost on the road edges.Phoenix was on a continuous monitoring channel. Not talking constantly. Just present. Available if something developed.Hayes knew we were moving. I'd briefed her before we left. She had no operational role tonight but she knew the location and the timeline and if we didn't check in by six in the morning she had instructions.Reaper knew too.I'd gone to his room before leaving. He was awake. He usually was in the evenings now. The treatment protocol had stabilized his sleep patterns somewhat but evenings were still his active hours and we'd both stopped fighting that.I told him where we were g

Forsythe answered on the fourth ring.It was past midnight and she answered on the fourth ring which told me either she was still working or she slept the way people slept when they were running a major investigation. Lightly. With the phone close."It's me," I said. "I'm sorry for the hour.""Don't be," she said. Her voice was alert. Fully awake. "What do you have.""Dalton's defense is using the program's theoretical foundation to argue legitimate scope," I said. "You've seen the preliminary filing.""Yesterday morning," she said. "It's a problem. The foundational documents we have are the modified versions. The program's own records. They do support a broad interpretation of scope.""The original version exists," I said. "Pre-modification. Written by the scientist who built the framework before the program expanded beyond his intended design. It explicitly excludes forced enhancement and forced control. It directly contradicts the scope argument Dalton's team is making."A pause."

The Dalton trial date was set on a Monday.Fourteen months from now. Standard timeline for a case of this complexity involving classified material and a sitting senator with significant legal resources. Forsythe had warned us it would take time and she'd been right and the formal announcement of the date meant the process was moving on schedule which was the best outcome available.Dalton had resigned from his committee positions three months earlier. Not from his senate seat. His legal team had advised against anything that looked like an admission. But the committee positions were gone and with them the budget authority and the classified briefing access that had made the program possible. He was still present in the institutional landscape but he was diminished. Visibly. In the way that people who had operated through accumulated authority became diminished when that authority was systematically removed.Webb had completed her cooperation agreement. Full testimony. Everything she kn