“Stay with the evacuation team, Lieutenant.”
“Stay with the evacuation team, Lieutenant.”
Captain Ryan Miller didn't even look at her when he said it.
Lieutenant Sarah Walker tightened the straps of her medical pack.
“I’m assigned to field command, Captain.”
Ryan finally turned.
“You're a doctor, Sarah. Let the soldiers handle the dangerous part.”
A few men nearby laughed.
Sarah's jaw tightened.
“People tend to become dangerous when they’re bleeding.”
Ryan smirked.
“Then stay close to the bandages.”
The whistle blew.
The rescue exercise began.
A convoy raced through the training village while smoke machines filled the streets. Thirty soldiers moved toward a simulated ambush site.
Sarah followed with the medical unit.
Then—
CRACK!
A training charge exploded far closer than expected.
Soldiers dropped behind vehicles.
“Contact!” someone screamed.
Sarah immediately ran toward the wounded.
“Medic!”
Ryan shouted from cover.
“Walker! Stay back!”
Sarah ignored him.
She reached a soldier lying beside an overturned vehicle.
His leg was trapped.
“Hold still!”
“I can't feel my foot!”
Sarah examined him.
“Don't move. We're getting you out.”
She looked toward the vehicle.
Something was wrong.
The blast had thrown the vehicle nearly twenty feet.
But the explosive charge was supposed to detonate from the opposite direction.
Sarah looked at the damaged undercarriage.
“Who armed this?”
Ryan approached.
“Training crew.”
“No.”
She pointed beneath the vehicle.
“This detonator was modified.”
Ryan frowned.
“Are you sure?”
Sarah pulled a thin copper wire from the wreckage.
“Absolutely.”
The instructor rushed over.
“What happened?”
Sarah held up the wire.
“Someone changed the firing system.”
The entire exercise stopped.
Colonel Thomas Grant arrived minutes later.
“What are we looking at?”
Sarah handed him the wire.
“Sabotage.”
Grant's expression hardened.
“That's a serious accusation.”
“I know.”
Ryan stepped closer.
“Could be faulty equipment.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Faulty equipment doesn't bypass a safety circuit.”
Silence.
Then Sarah noticed something stamped into the metal casing.
A tiny number.
17-04.
Her face suddenly changed.
Colonel Grant noticed.
“You recognize it?”
Sarah didn't answer.
She reached into her medical pack and pulled out a worn photograph.
The picture showed a military convoy burning beside a mountain road.
Grant stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother.”
Ryan looked over her shoulder.
“What's this?”
Sarah pointed to the damaged vehicle in the photograph.
“My father died in this convoy.”
Nobody spoke.
Sarah's voice became quieter.
“They said an enemy explosive caused the accident.”
Grant's eyes remained fixed on the photograph.
“That was nineteen years ago.”
“Yes.”
She held up the copper wire.
“And this exact wiring pattern was found in his vehicle.”
Ryan's face tightened.
“You're saying someone sabotaged your father's convoy?”
“I’m saying someone has just used the same method here.”
Grant stepped forward.
“Lieutenant, this case was closed.”
“By whom?”
Grant hesitated.
Sarah's eyes narrowed.
“By whom, Colonel?”
Before he could answer, a soldier ran toward them.
“Sir! We found another device.”
Grant turned.
“Where?”
“Inside the command vehicle.”
Everyone froze.
Sarah walked toward it.
The soldier handed her a small metal cylinder.
Sarah examined it.
Then she saw an inscription.
Her breathing stopped.
It was her father's initials.
J.W.
Ryan whispered, “That's impossible.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
She looked toward Colonel Grant.
“It's not impossible.”
Her voice trembled.
“Someone kept this.”
Grant's face went pale.
Sarah suddenly noticed something else.
A tiny red light was blinking beneath the cylinder.
Beep.
Everyone stepped back.
“Get away from it!” Sarah screamed.
The cylinder beeped again.
Then stopped.
No explosion came.
Instead, a small screen illuminated.
One sentence appeared.
IF SARAH WALKER IS READING THIS, THE MAN WHO KILLED HER FATHER IS STILL INSIDE THIS BASE.
Sarah stared at the screen.
Ryan slowly turned toward the officers surrounding them.
Then one of the soldiers whispered:
“Sir…”
He pointed at the command building.
Someone was standing behind the glass.
Watching Sarah.
And when the figure raised one hand—
Sarah recognized the face.
It was the last person she expected to see.
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