Chapter 4 - Eight Went InThe photograph had been taken thirty-six hours before everything went wrong.
I remembered because Eli hated cameras.
He was standing at the far right, sunglasses on, middle finger almost—but not quite—raised behind Mason's head.
Mason Reed had been our team leader.
Forty-one. Former Ranger. Terrible singer.
Beside him stood Dani Alvarez, our medic, nineteen years old and convinced instant coffee could be improved with hot chocolate powder.
Then Jonah Price.
Sam Keller.
Rina Cho.
Peter Dalca.
Elias Rourke.
And me.
Eight.
The Army called us Task Unit Chimera because senior officers enjoy naming terrible ideas after mythological creatures.
Our assignment wasn't officially combat.
That was the first lie.
We were supposed to locate intelligence personnel stranded after the collapse of the Kandar provincial government and guide them toward an extraction point.
Seventy-two hours maximum.
Minimal engagement.
Low profile.
Then the valley erupted.
Government forces dissolved.
Militia units changed allegiance.
Roads closed.
Our helicopter took fire on insertion.
Within two days, Mason and Sam were dead.
Dani was wounded.
And somehow command landed on me.
Twenty-two years old.
Staff sergeant.
Too frightened to sleep and too angry to admit I was frightened.
By the fifth day, we'd collected forty-one civilians from three separate locations.
Teachers.
Interpreters.
Two embassy families.
A journalist with a broken ankle.
Children.
People who had trusted us because we wore American flags.
Then headquarters transmitted the withdrawal order.
Enemy armor had entered the valley.
Air support couldn't reach us.
Extraction was canceled.
We were told to destroy sensitive equipment and attempt evasion in teams.
I refused.
Technically, I disobeyed a direct order.
That fact disappeared from official summaries later.
Heroism sounds better when paperwork cooperates.
We moved the civilians south.
Eli stayed behind at the communications relay to create false radio traffic and convince militia forces we were heading east.
He was supposed to join us six hours later.
He never did.
For twelve years, I had replayed that decision.
Why did I let him stay?
Why didn't I return?
Why had I chosen forty-one lives over one?
People called it leadership.
They weren't there when his mother asked me if he'd suffered.
I had lied.
“No.”
I had no idea.
Now, sitting inside Fort Redstone's secure command room, I stared at the old photograph beneath fluorescent lights.
Colonel Cole sat across from me.
General Weller stood near the screen.
Two military intelligence investigators had arrived from division headquarters.
Captain Shaw and Sergeant Kane had been ordered elsewhere.
I didn't know whether I was relieved or disappointed.
One investigator, Major Lena Brooks, tapped the photograph.
“Could Rourke be alive?”
I looked at her.
“Anyone can be alive if you never find the body.”
Cole shook his head.
“We intercepted militia communications saying he was killed.”
“You intercepted people claiming he was killed.”
“We also found blood at the relay.”
“Blood isn't a body.”
Brooks watched me carefully.
“You've considered this before.”
“For years.”
“And?”
“And eventually you either stop talking to ghosts or become one.”
Weller folded his arms.
“The attack today was sophisticated.”
“It wasn't an attack.”
Brooks looked up.
“Shots were fired into an occupied building.”
“Deliberately wide.”
“You're certain?”
“If someone with that access wanted me dead, I wouldn't be sitting here.”
Cole leaned back.
“That doesn't make me feel better.”
“It shouldn't.”
Brooks displayed a map.
“The maintenance van entered through Gate Seven using credentials belonging to a contractor named Aaron Pike.”
“Real person?”
“Dead six months.”
“Cause?”
“Cancer.”
“Credentials should've been canceled.”
“They were.”
Weller frowned.
“So someone reactivated them internally.”
Brooks nodded.
“Which means we may have a base-security compromise.”
I stared at the map.
Gate Seven.
Substation.
Training facility.
Drainage ditch.
The route formed something.
Not geographically.
Tactically.
I stood.
“Move the photograph.”
Brooks looked confused.
“What?”
“Put the route map full-screen.”
She did.
I traced the sequence.
Power station first.
Communications junction second.
Training building third.
Escape route west.
My skin prickled.
“I know this.”
Cole stood.
“What?”
“It's Halberd.”
His face changed.
“No.”
Brooks looked between us.
“Halberd?”
I pointed to the map.
“Chimera contingency protocol. Infiltration of a friendly facility believed compromised.”
Weller stared.
“You had protocols for infiltrating American bases?”
“For allied installations overseas.”
Cole stepped closer.
“Cut utilities. Disable communications. Isolate command. Create a controlled diversion.”
“Then leave through infrastructure instead of primary gates.”
Brooks studied it.
“Rourke knew this?”
“He wrote half of it.”
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The evidence was moving from impossible toward terrifying.
Brooks asked, “If he survived, why wait twelve years?”
I sat down.
“That is the question.”
A knock interrupted us.
An MP entered.
“General, we found something else in the van.”
He carried a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a cheap flip phone.
Brooks took it.
“Powered?”
“Yes, ma'am. One saved audio file.”
She connected it to an isolated system.
The recording began.
Static.
Breathing.
Then a man's voice.
Older than I remembered.
Rougher.
But unmistakable.
“Mara.”
My heart stopped.
Colonel Cole grabbed the edge of the table.
The voice continued.
“If you're hearing this, they finally put you where I needed you.”
Static crackled.
“You still think Kandar was a failed extraction.”
I looked at Cole.
He wouldn't meet my eyes.
The recording continued.
“It wasn't.”
Brooks stopped breathing.
“The valley wasn't lost by accident. Someone sold our route. Someone inside command.”
Cole went rigid.
The voice became quieter.
“I stayed because I found the transmission.”
My mouth went dry.
“I tried to send it. They jammed me. Then they came.”
A long silence followed.
When Eli spoke again, there was pain behind his words.
“I survived, Mara.”
My eyes burned.
I hated myself for it.
“But not because they let me.”
Another pause.
“For twelve years, I've been following the money.”
Numbers appeared on screen.
Bank transactions.
Defense contracts.
Companies.
Names.
Then Eli said the sentence that changed everything.
“The person who betrayed Chimera is at Fort Redstone.”
Weller straightened.
Brooks immediately looked toward the door.
The recording wasn't finished.
“And Mara…”
Eli exhaled.
“Don't trust Nathan Cole.”
Every eye in the room turned toward the colonel.
Cole slowly sat down.
I stared at him.
He stared back.
Twelve years ago, Nathan Cole had commanded the extraction force.
He had also been one of the officers who knew our route.
I remembered his voice over the radio.
Vance, you have eight minutes.
I remembered screaming that Eli was missing.
I remembered Cole ordering the helicopter into the air anyway.
I remembered hating him.
Cole whispered, “Mara, I can explain.”
Weller stepped between us.
“Colonel, don't move.”
Cole's face hardened.
“Thomas—”
“Don't.”
Military police entered.
Major Brooks removed Cole's access badge.
He didn't resist.
But as they escorted him toward the door, he stopped beside me.
“Mara.”
I didn't look at him.
“There's something Rourke doesn't know.”
That made me turn.
Cole's eyes held mine.
“I wasn't the one who abandoned him.”
The MPs pulled him forward.
May you like
He looked over his shoulder.
“You were.”
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