Chapter 6 - The Soldiers Who Were Supposed to Be Dead
Thomas Vale had once carried Emily through a burning village after shrapnel tore through her leg.
She had watched his coffin lowered into the ground three months later.
Now he stood ten feet away, alive, armed, and pointing a rifle at General Reed.
Emily kept her weapon lowered but ready.
“Thomas.”
Vale’s expression did not change.
“Colonel.”
“You died in Karsin.”
“That is what Reed told you.”
Emily glanced at the soldiers behind him.
She recognized two more faces.
Sergeant Mara Quinn.
Lieutenant Noah Briggs.
Both listed among the twenty-three Aegis members lost during Black Winter.
General Reed slowly raised his hands.
“Vale, whatever Richard told you is a lie.”
Vale’s finger tightened near the trigger.
“His name is Voss.”
Emily stepped between them.
“Where is Daniel?”
“Preparing for extraction.”
“Extraction to where?”
Vale looked at the screen displaying Liam inside the locked vehicle.
“That depends on you.”
“Unlock the vehicle.”
“The boy is not in danger.”
“He is trapped.”
“So were we.”
Bitterness sharpened Vale’s voice.
Emily studied him.
A thin scar circled his neck. Small metallic marks dotted the skin behind his ear.
“You were held with Daniel.”
“For six years.”
“By Orion?”
Vale laughed.
“Orion was a name Reed gave us so we would stop asking who funded the mission.”
Reed spoke.
“Directorate Orion existed long before Aegis.”
“Yes,” Vale said. “And Aegis supplied it with subjects.”
Emily turned toward Reed.
“Is that true?”
“No.”
Vale gestured toward the childhood room.
“Ask him why your medical records were inside the Aegis recruitment archive before you ever joined the Army.”
Emily remembered the hidden folder on the silver drive.
EMILY HALE, AGE SIX.
Reed’s silence became an answer.
“You knew,” she said.
“I knew your father had submitted research to military intelligence.”
“Research on me.”
“I did not learn your identity until after you joined Aegis.”
“You recruited me because of what he did.”
“We recruited you because you were the best officer in your class.”
“And because my nervous system survived his experiments.”
Reed looked away.
The betrayal hurt more because part of Emily had still trusted him.
Vale lowered his rifle slightly.
“Reed sent us into Black Winter knowing the facility contained a neurochemical weapon.”
Reed shook his head.
“We believed the compound had been removed.”
“You believed what you were told because you needed the mission approved.”
“Thomas, I spent six years searching for survivors.”
“No. You spent six years protecting the program.”
Emily stepped closer to Vale.
“Daniel sent me a signal not to trust command. Was he referring to Reed?”
“He was referring to everyone.”
A loud metallic impact echoed through the facility.
The monitor showing Liam went dark.
Emily raised her weapon.
“What happened?”
Vale touched an earpiece.
His expression changed.
“The vehicle’s external control has been interrupted.”
“By whom?”
Before he could answer, the facility shook.
An explosion struck somewhere above them.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Emergency alarms screamed.
Vale shouted orders.
His soldiers moved toward the corridor.
General Reed seized the moment and struck Vale’s rifle aside.
A shot hit the ceiling.
Chaos erupted.
Emily pushed Reed backward.
“Stop.”
Another explosion shook the floor.
The reinforced glass in the medical rooms cracked.
The live image of Daniel vanished.
Richard’s voice returned through the speakers.
“You never learned, Emily. Every institution eventually chooses itself over the people it claims to protect.”
The red door at the top of the staircase unlocked.
Emily ran.
Reed and Vale followed with their soldiers.
Outside, black smoke rose near the tree line.
The armored command vehicle burned beside the road.
Emily’s heart stopped.
“Liam.”
She sprinted toward it.
Dr. Chen lay on the grass with blood on his forehead.
The rear doors had been blown open.
The vehicle was empty.
Emily dropped beside him.
“Where is my son?”
Chen struggled to focus.
“A woman.”
“What woman?”
“She hacked the lock. She said she was Aegis.”
“Describe her.”
“Dark hair. Scar on her right hand.”
Mara Quinn pushed through the soldiers.
“Ava.”
Reed stared at her.
“Ava Sinclair died in Poland.”
Mara shook her head.
“No. Ava has the scar Chen described.”
Emily grabbed the doctor’s shoulders.
“Where did she take Liam?”
“She carried him toward the woods before the explosion. He was conscious. He was not fighting her.”
Liam had trusted the woman.
Why?
Emily found his wooden airplane on the ground near the vehicle.
A strip of paper had been wrapped around one wing.
She opened it.
A child’s handwriting covered the page.
Mommy, the lady knows Daddy. She says Grandpa is watching through the birds. We are going where the cameras cannot see.
Below Liam’s message, another line had been written in an adult hand.
FOLLOW THE WHITE STONES. COME ALONE.
Emily looked toward the woods.
A path of small white stones began beyond the smoke.
Reed caught her arm.
“It is a trap.”
“Everything is a trap.”
Vale stepped between them.
“Ava would not hurt the boy.”
“You thought she was dead.”
“We all thought each other was dead.”
Emily checked the ammunition in her pistol.
“I am going.”
“We go together,” Reed said.
“The note says alone.”
“Richard may have written it.”
“No. Liam wrote the first part. He would not have done that if he felt threatened.”
Vale studied the tree line.
“Ava taught Daniel escape routes during training. She uses white markers when radio signals are compromised.”
Reed looked at him.
“You trust her?”
“I trust who she was.”
Emily slipped Liam’s airplane into her belt.
“That is more than I can say for anyone else.”
She entered the woods alone.
The stones led through dense trees and down a ravine.
After ten minutes, Emily heard water.
A narrow creek crossed the path.
On the opposite bank stood a woman in a torn black jacket.
A scar marked her right hand.
Ava Sinclair.
Liam stood beside her.
Emily’s relief nearly weakened her knees.
“Mommy.”
He started toward her.
Ava stopped him gently.
“Wait.”
Emily raised her weapon.
“Let him cross.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
“First, you need to see what your father hid inside your son’s toy.”
Emily removed the wooden airplane.
Ava held up a small scanning device.
A light flashed near the airplane’s tail.
“Tracker?” Emily asked.
“More than that.”
Ava tossed her a knife.
Emily cut open the wooden tail.
Inside was a microchip wrapped in plastic.
The chip bore the Task Force Aegis emblem.
“It has been transmitting Liam’s location for three years,” Ava said.
“Who placed it there?”
“Daniel.”
Emily stared at her.
“That is impossible.”
Ava shook her head.
“Daniel returned to Briar Glen eighteen months ago.”
Liam looked up at Emily.
“He watched me at the playground.”
Emily’s pulse roared in her ears.
“Daniel was here?”
Ava’s expression filled with sadness.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he come home?”
“Because he believed the man watching Liam was General Reed.”
A gunshot cracked from the trees.
Ava jerked backward.
Blood spread across her shoulder.
Emily grabbed Liam and pulled him behind a rock.
More shots tore through the branches.
Ava raised her weapon.
“Run east,” she shouted. “Daniel left a message beneath the old railway bridge.”
Emily lifted Liam.
“What message?”
May you like
Ava fired toward the attackers.
“The truth about why he stayed away.”
