The alarms screamed across the base.
The alarms screamed across the base.
Red lights began flashing above the motor pool.
Soldiers reached for their radios.
Major General Thomas Whitaker grabbed Claire's arm.
“Move.”
Claire didn't move.
“My brother is alive?”
“Claire, we don't have time.”
“You just told me my brother is alive!”
Whitaker looked directly into her eyes.
“Yes.”
Her voice broke.
“Where?”
The general hesitated.
Then he said the one thing she never expected.
“He's inside this base.”
Claire's breath caught.
“What?”
“He came here because he knew you were coming.”
Behind them, Sergeant Mason Reed stepped forward.
“Sir, what's happening?”
Whitaker turned sharply.
“You're done asking questions.”
Reed froze.
“Sir?”
“Hand over your weapon and identification.”
Reed's face went pale.
“Why?”
“Because your name appears in a classified investigation connected to Operation Raven.”
The entire motor pool went silent.
Reed slowly reached for his sidearm.
Claire's eyes narrowed.
“Don't.”
Reed stopped.
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
Claire stepped closer.
“I know you made me kneel in front of thirty soldiers.”
Reed's jaw tightened.
“That was discipline.”
“No.”
Claire looked at the general.
“It was a test.”
Whitaker's expression changed.
“What do you mean?”
Claire pointed toward the concrete.
“He wasn't interested in my uniform.”
She touched the small mark beneath her ear.
“He wanted to see this.”
Whitaker's face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because someone told him to look for it.”
Reed suddenly turned toward the crowd.
“Everyone back!”
A soldier shouted,
“Reed, put your hands where I can see them!”
Reed ignored him.
His eyes remained locked on Claire.
“You shouldn't have come back.”
Claire felt her heart stop.
“You knew who I was.”
Reed said nothing.
Whitaker stepped forward.
“How long?”
Reed's expression finally cracked.
“Six months.”
Claire stared at him.
“You've been watching me for six months?”
“I was told to monitor you.”
“By whom?”
Reed looked at the general.
“You already know.”
Whitaker's face went cold.
“Say the name.”
Reed shook his head.
“You don't want me to.”
Claire stepped between them.
“Say it.”
Reed looked at her.
Then whispered:
“Colonel Victor Hale.”
Whitaker's expression changed instantly.
“Impossible.”
Claire frowned.
“Who is Victor Hale?”
Whitaker didn't answer.
Reed did.
“The commander of Operation Raven.”
Claire's heart pounded.
“My commander died six years ago.”
Reed shook his head.
“No.”
He looked toward the dark end of the motor pool.
“He disappeared.”
A vehicle suddenly accelerated across the far end of the compound.
Guards shouted.
Whitaker grabbed his radio.
“Security, lock down Gate Three!”
Static.
Then a voice came through.
“General, Gate Three is already open.”
Whitaker froze.
Claire looked at him.
“That's not possible.”
The general slowly lowered his radio.
Someone had overridden the base security system.
Claire suddenly remembered the message on the back of her brother's photograph.
IF THEY EVER FIND YOU, TRUST GENERAL WHITAKER.
She turned the photograph over again.
There was something else.
A faint indentation beneath the handwriting.
She held it under the flashing red light.
A second message appeared.
DON'T TRUST THE GENERAL.
Claire stopped breathing.
Whitaker saw her expression.
“What is it?”
She didn't answer.
He stepped closer.
“Claire?”
She slowly looked up.
“Who wrote this?”
Whitaker stared at the photograph.
His face became unreadable.
“I don't know.”
Claire took one step backward.
“You're lying.”
“I said I don't know.”
“You knew my brother was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Operation Raven wasn't destroyed.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew someone was looking for me.”
Whitaker's voice dropped.
“Yes.”
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
The general looked away.
“Because I was trying to keep you alive.”
“By lying to me?”
“By protecting you from the people who killed your team.”
Claire's voice trembled.
“You said my brother was alive.”
“He is.”
“Then take me to him.”
Whitaker hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Claire whispered,
“Where is he?”
The general finally answered.
“Underground.”
The motor pool went silent.
“There is an old command bunker beneath this base,” Whitaker continued. “Officially, it was sealed six years ago.”
Claire stared at him.
“And unofficially?”
“Someone has been using it.”
Suddenly every radio on the motor pool came alive.
One voice spoke through the static.
A man's voice.
Older.
Tired.
But unmistakably familiar.
“Claire?”
Her knees nearly gave out.
She dropped the photograph.
“My God…”
Whitaker grabbed her shoulder.
“Don't answer.”
The voice came again.
“Claire, if you can hear me…”
She began crying.
“Evan?”
The entire motor pool froze.
The voice whispered:
“Don't trust Whitaker.”
Claire looked at the general.
Whitaker's face had gone completely white.
Then the voice continued.
“They didn't erase us because we failed.”
A pause.
“They erased us because we found out who was giving the orders.”
Claire stared at Whitaker.
“Who?”
The radio crackled.
And her brother answered:
“The person standing beside you.”
Whitaker slowly reached for his weapon.
Claire stepped backward.
Every soldier raised their rifles.
Then—
the lights went out.
And in the darkness, someone whispered directly behind Claire:
“Welcome home, Raven One.
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