Chapter 12 - The Iron Gate
""They're taking him to the private holding annex in Omaha,"" Miller whispered, watching through the chain-link fence. ""Once he crosses the state line, our local injunction is worthless.""
""Get me to that gate,"" Nathan ordered.
Miller lunged forward, pushing the chair across the wet asphalt of the access alley. They hit the facility's driveway just as the driver of the black van started the engine, the exhaust spitting white plumes of vapor into the freezing air.
Nathan reached down, gripped the release lever on his left wheel, and leaned his full weight forward. ""Stop!"" he bellowed. His voice was not the weak rasp of a hospital patient; it was the commanding roar that had led twenty men through an ambush in the Arghandab valley.
The staff member holding the umbrella froze. Hale, with one foot on the van’s running board, turned in disbelief. His face, illuminated by the van’s interior dome light, twisted into sheer shock.
""Nathaniel Vance?"" Hale stammered, stepping back toward the van door. ""How did you... you cannot be here. This is a secure state perimeter!""
From inside the van, a small face pressed against the tinted glass. ""Daddy!"" Leo’s muffled scream cut through the engine noise.
Nathan wheeled himself directly in front of the van’s heavy chrome bumper, blocking the narrow driveway between the high concrete walls. The driver hit the horn—a loud, angry blast that vibrated in Nathan’s teeth—but Nathan did not blink. He sat twenty inches off the wet asphalt, his head held high, his medals exposed to the glare of the headlamps.
""Shut it off,"" Nathan said to the driver, his eyes burning into the windshield.
Hale stepped around the door, his umbrella shaking in his hand. ""Sergeant Vance, you are in violation of three separate state injunctions. I have the legal custody transfer right here. The driver will run you over if you don't clear the path.""
""No, he won't,"" Miller said, stepping out of the mist and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Nathan's chair, his arms crossed over his chest, his military beret now sitting firmly on his head. ""Because if that van moves an inch, this becomes vehicular assault on an active military escort.""
""This child is being moved for his own protection!"" Hale shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. ""His father has no legal home!""
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Nathan lifted the brown cowhide ledger from his lap and opened it to page 142.
""My father's land was never forfeit, Hale,"" Nathan said, every syllable dripping with cold authority. ""The direct allotment payments cleared through the Treasury Department every month on the first. Thomas Vance committed bank fraud. And you certified a fraudulent abandonment affidavit without running the federal title search.""
