Grant refused medical evacuation.

Dana eventually allowed him onto the Coast Guard cutter after a medic closed the wound above his eyebrow.

Owen remained in custody.

For the first time, he began cooperating.

He told investigators Vale had kept emergency cash, passports, and offshore account codes inside the abandoned station on Block Island.

Vale wasn't escaping by boat.

He was retrieving everything he needed to disappear permanently.

The Coast Guard moved toward the island.

Marcus kept Miles and me at the facility.

This time I didn't argue.

We watched updates arrive.

Agents landed near the station shortly before dawn.

Vale's security team opened fire from inside.

No one was seriously injured.

Grant remained behind the tactical line.

At least that was what Dana told me.

I suspected Grant's definition of behind was flexible.

At 5:52 A.M., federal agents entered the building.

Two guards surrendered.

One ran.

Vale was nowhere inside.

Then Grant noticed an old maintenance tunnel leading toward the cliffs.

The tunnel did not appear on modern maps.

It had been built decades earlier when the station monitored shipping traffic.

Grant remembered it from records he had studied years ago.

Dana's team entered.

The tunnel led to a narrow concrete platform above the water.

Vale stood at the edge.

A small speedboat waited below.

He held a gun.

Grant emerged behind the agents.

Vale saw him.

For the first time in three years, the two men faced each other without aliases, screens, or middlemen.

“Evan.”

Vale almost sounded pleased.

Grant looked at him.

“That name belongs to a kid you tried to kill.”

“And Grant?”

Grant paused.

“Grant belongs to my family.”

Vale laughed.

“You really believe they'll take you back?”

Grant said nothing.

“You lied to your wife from the day you met her.”

Still nothing.

“You let your son mourn you.”

Grant's face tightened.

Vale smiled.

“You think prison scares me?”

He pointed the gun toward himself.

“I've already destroyed the only thing you wanted.”

Grant took one slow step forward.

“No.”

Vale's smile faded.

“My family knows the truth.”

“Some of it.”

“Enough.”

“You think your wife will forgive you?”

Grant looked toward the ocean.

The same ocean that had separated us for three years.

“I don't know.”

Vale frowned.

Grant continued.

“That's her decision.”

Something shifted in Vale's expression.

He had spent his life controlling people through secrets.

Grant was finally refusing to control what happened next.

Sirens echoed in the distance.

Vale glanced toward the waiting speedboat.

Then he raised his weapon.

Dana shouted.

“Drop it!”

Vale fired.

The shot struck concrete.

Agents returned fire.

Vale stumbled.

His gun fell into the water.

Grant lunged forward as Vale lost his footing near the edge.

For one impossible second, Grant caught the wrist of the man who had destroyed our lives.

Vale dangled over the Atlantic.

He looked up at Grant.

“Let me go.”

Grant's grip tightened.

I would later learn that Dana expected Grant to release him.

Owen expected it.

Even Vale expected it.

Grant didn't.

He pulled Conrad Vale back onto the platform.

Agents dragged Vale away in handcuffs.

When Dana asked Grant why he had saved him, Grant gave a simple answer.

“Because my son has already spent enough of his life wondering what happened to people who disappeared into the ocean.”