Chapter 4 - THE SECOND SURVIVOR
The base was locked down before dawn.
No vehicle could leave. Every soldier was questioned. Every camera recording from the previous twelve hours was removed and placed under Hayes’s control.
But the intruder had left no fingerprints.
No identification.
No explanation for how he entered a secured building.
Elena sat in the interrogation room while Kane stood behind the observation glass.
Lieutenant Brooks entered first.
He was tall, clean-cut, and known as one of the unit’s most disciplined officers.
“Where were you between twenty-three hundred and midnight?” he asked.
“In the equipment room.”
“Alone?”
“For part of the time.”
“With Sergeant Kane?”
Elena said nothing.
Brooks leaned forward.
“Recruit Ward, you have been here three weeks. In that time, you have violated orders, challenged a superior, accessed restricted records, and been present during an armed breach.”
“I didn’t access the records.”
“Then how did you know your mother’s file existed?”
“Colonel Hayes showed it to me.”
Brooks’s eyes narrowed.
“Colonel Hayes is not conducting this investigation.”
“Then who is?”
“I am.”
Elena looked through the glass toward Kane.
Brooks noticed.
“Sergeant Kane has been protecting you since the first day you arrived.”
“Maybe he knows I need protecting.”
“Or maybe he recruited you for his own reasons.”
The door opened behind them.
Colonel Hayes stepped inside.
“Lieutenant, leave.”
Brooks stood.
“With respect, sir—”
“Leave.”
Brooks obeyed.
Hayes placed a small recorder on the table.
“We found another survivor.”
Elena’s heartbeat jumped.
“From Operation Night Glass?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Samuel Pierce.”
The name meant nothing to her.
Hayes explained that Pierce had been the civilian intelligence analyst attached to the convoy. He was listed as missing and presumed dead.
“He has been living under another identity for eight years,” Hayes said. “He contacted me last night.”
“Where is he?”
“On his way here.”
Kane entered the room.
“What did he send?”
Hayes pressed play on the recorder.
A man’s frightened voice filled the room.
“Captain Ward knew the betrayal came from inside the command structure. She copied the original access logs before the convoy left. The evidence was hidden in a place no investigator would search.”
Elena leaned closer.
“Where?”
The recording crackled.
“She said the person responsible would never search for it because he believed the truth had already been destroyed.”
A burst of static followed.
Then Pierce whispered:
“Look beneath the old memorial.”
The recording ended.
Kane looked at Hayes.
“The memorial wall.”
Hayes nodded.
The old memorial stood at the center of the base, covered in the names of soldiers who had died during previous operations. It had been built shortly after Operation Night Glass.
Elena, Kane, and Hayes reached it under armed escort.
The marble wall was surrounded by soldiers. Nobody spoke as Hayes examined the lower stones.
One name had been engraved incorrectly.
MARA WARD.
The date beneath it was the date of the convoy attack.
Elena touched the stone.
“My mother is listed as dead.”
Kane noticed a narrow gap beneath the plaque.
He removed a knife and carefully pried it loose.
A metal capsule fell into his hand.
Inside was a memory card wrapped in plastic.
Hayes inserted it into a secure reader.
A list appeared on the screen.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Mission routes.
At the top of the document was a code name:
BLACK HAWK.
At the bottom was a signature.
Adrian Voss.
Elena stared at the screen.
Her mother had been telling the truth.
But before Hayes could copy the files, every light on the base went dark.
Gunfire erupted from the eastern gate.
Soldiers shouted.
Then a single message appeared on the screen:
May you like
YOU FOUND THE EVIDENCE.
NOW FIND THE WITNESS.
