Chapter 9 - THE QUESTION MICHAEL ASKED THE ARMY
Daniel met Emma at her attorney’s office.
He did not arrive dramatically.
No uniform.
No folder full of secret evidence.
He placed his phone on the table and explained.
Six weeks before the cliff incident, the Colorado National Guard public-affairs office received an unusual civilian inquiry.
Michael had contacted them.
Not using his own name.
He used the name of one of his development companies.
He claimed he was evaluating nearby property for an outdoor leadership retreat.
His questions concerned military helicopter activity over the region.
“What kind of questions?” Emma asked.
“Whether training flights used that part of the park during winter. Whether storms grounded us. Whether there were predictable corridors.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“Why would anyone answer him?”
“They mostly didn’t. Public affairs gave him general public information. Nothing operational.”
“Then how do you know it was Michael?”
“The contact number.”
Investigators had connected it to a business phone controlled by Michael.
Daniel continued.
“I recognized the company name after the case became public.”
Emma stared at him.
“So he checked whether helicopters would be there.”
“Yes.”
That explained Michael’s words when he heard the blades.
That’s impossible.
He had not simply been surprised by rescue.
He believed he had researched rescue away.
Daniel added something else.
“The helicopter that found you was not on a training route.”
“What was it doing?”
“We had been diverted because Ashley’s beacon activated.”
The pieces finally touched.
Michael had selected a location he believed unlikely to receive aerial traffic during worsening weather.
Ashley, realizing what he intended, triggered the one thing he had not calculated.
An emergency signal.
Emma looked at Daniel.
“Is that your secret?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Emma waited.
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“What?”
“The beacon signal wasn’t the first thing connected to Michael that reached us.”
Emma frowned.
Three days before the trip, the same development company had called again.
This time asking whether civilian satellite emergency devices could summon military aircraft directly.
Public affairs explained that they could not; rescue response depended on civilian coordination and available assets.
Michael apparently wanted to know whether an emergency beacon guaranteed a helicopter.
It did not.
Emma stared at the table.
“He knew Ashley carried one.”
“Possibly.”
“Then he knew she might use it.”
“Or he wanted to understand the risk.”
Michael had not planned only the cliff.
He had studied rescue probability.
Weather.
Air traffic.
Emergency beacons.
He had tried to calculate how long Emma could disappear before anyone reached her.
The criminal case widened.
But Daniel’s revelation also created a new question.
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If Michael knew Ashley’s beacon might destroy the plan, why allow her to bring it?
Ashley’s answer would reveal the part of their relationship neither she nor Michael had told investigators yet.
