THE WOMAN THEY REFUSED TO TRUST — UNTIL THE ENEMY STARTED RUNNING
THE WOMAN THEY REFUSED TO TRUST — UNTIL THE ENEMY STARTED RUNNING
The first thing Sergeant Mason Reed noticed about the woman was that she wasn't wearing a name tag.
The second was the blood on her boots.
“You lost, ma’am?”
The woman looked at him through dark protective glasses.
“No.”
Reed glanced at the old rifle case hanging from her shoulder.
“This is a restricted combat zone.”
“I know.”
“Then you know civilians aren't allowed here.”
She finally looked directly at him.
“I’m not a civilian.”
Reed laughed.
“Everybody says that until the shooting starts.”
The woman said nothing.
She simply placed the case on the concrete and opened it.
Inside was a rifle unlike anything Reed had seen at Fort Calder.
Custom barrel.
Unusual scope.
No markings.
No serial number.
His smile disappeared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters to me.”
She assembled the rifle with movements so precise they almost looked rehearsed.
Reed stepped closer.
“Name?”
“Call me Raven.”
“That's not a name.”
“It’s enough.”
Before Reed could answer, the alarm siren exploded across the base.
INCOMING CONTACT.
Soldiers rushed toward the defensive wall.
Someone shouted from the observation tower.
“Movement! Eastern ridge!”
Reed grabbed his binoculars.
Six figures emerged from the dust.
Then twelve.
Then more.
“Enemy patrol,” he said.
A young lieutenant raised his rifle.
“Distance?”
“Too far for standard engagement.”
Raven was already moving.
She climbed onto the roof of a damaged vehicle and dropped into a prone position.
Reed stared at her.
“Hey! Get down!”
She ignored him.
“Wind?”
Reed blinked.
“What?”
“Wind speed.”
“Eight knots.”
“Wrong.”
He looked at the flag above the command post.
The fabric snapped violently toward the east.
Raven adjusted her scope.
“Fourteen.”
Reed's expression changed.
“How would you know?”
She squeezed the trigger.
CRACK.
One enemy fell.
The soldiers froze.
Raven cycled the bolt.
CRACK.
A second.
CRACK.
A third.
Three targets.
Three shots.
The remaining attackers disappeared behind the ridge.
Nobody spoke.
Finally, Reed whispered,
“Who the hell are you?”
Raven lowered the rifle.
“Someone who doesn't miss.”
Twenty minutes later, Colonel Hayes ordered everyone into the command bunker.
Raven stood against the wall.
No one knew where she had come from.
No one knew who had authorized her.
And no one could explain why her rifle had no military identification.
Reed couldn't stop staring at her.
Then he noticed something on her wrist.
A tiny black symbol.
Three vertical lines crossed by a circle.
His stomach tightened.
He had seen it before.
Two years earlier.
Inside a classified intelligence report.
Project Nightglass.
A covert sniper program officially terminated after an entire team disappeared during an operation in Syria.
Reed quietly searched the military database.
One name appeared.
Evelyn Cross.
Status: Killed in action.
Reed looked up.
Raven was watching him.
“You shouldn't be searching for me,” she said.
Reed stood.
“You died two years ago.”
Her expression didn't change.
“That's what the report says.”
“Why?”
“Because someone needed me to stay dead.”
Before Reed could ask another question, every light in the bunker went red.
An alarm sounded.
Colonel Hayes grabbed the radio.
“What happened?”
A terrified voice answered.
“Sir, our eastern defenses are down.”
“How?”
A pause.
Then:
“Someone opened the gates from inside.”
Everyone looked at everyone else.
Reed slowly turned toward Raven.
She was already picking up her rifle.
“You knew this was coming.”
Raven looked at him.
“I didn't come here to defend the base.”
“Then why are you here?”
She walked toward the exit.
“To find the person who betrayed it.”
Outside, explosions shook the ground.
Enemy vehicles were pouring through the eastern gate.
Soldiers scrambled into position.
Reed shouted,
“Raven! Where are you going?”
She stopped.
“North tower.”
“That's exposed!”
“I know.”
“You'll be killed!”
She looked back at him.
“No.”
Her voice was strangely calm.
“Someone else will be.”
She disappeared into the smoke.
Reed followed.
Then he saw something that made his blood run cold.
Raven wasn't climbing toward the battlefield.
She was climbing toward the command tower.
Toward Colonel Hayes.
Reed raised his weapon.
“Raven!”
She stopped halfway up the stairs.
“What?”
“Who are you really?”
For the first time, her expression broke.
Pain flashed across her face.
Then she whispered:
“My real name is Evelyn Cross.”
Reed lowered his rifle.
“I knew it.”
“No.”
She looked toward the bunker.
“You knew the name.”
A distant explosion shook the tower.
Raven tightened her grip on the rifle.
“You don't know what they did to me.”
Then she turned toward the command room.
“And you definitely don't know who ordered my death.”
Reed stared after her.
Because suddenly he understood.
The enemy outside wasn't the real threat.
The real enemy had been inside the base the entire time.
And Raven hadn't returned from the dead for revenge.
She had returned with proof.
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