She heard the clicking of a keyboard.
Sarah waited inside the quiet office with her heart pounding. Through the wall, she could still hear the younger men’s muffled voices.
They continued pressing Richard.
The silence on the telephone stretched beyond ten seconds.
Then the duty officer returned.
Every trace of boredom had vanished.
His voice carried an immediate and unmistakable urgency.
“Ma’am, keep everyone there.”
Sarah gripped the phone.
“What?”
“Do not allow those men to leave. Assistance is already moving.”
His voice dropped into an intense whisper.
“Now.”
Inside the secure, windowless Joint Special Operations Command Operations Center, Staff Sergeant Rodriguez stared at his computer monitor while cold fear spread through him.
The name Richard Cain had triggered an access warning unlike anything he had previously encountered. The system bypassed multiple levels of ordinary security and revealed one heavily redacted file.
Most of the page consisted of black bars.
Only a handful of words remained visible.
Project Shadow Forge.
Operation Nightshade.
The Reaper of Kandahar.
At the top of the record, crimson letters...