A truck engine roared.
Headlights flashed.
She jumped aside as a maintenance vehicle tore through the gate.
By the time security arrived, it was gone.
Harrow was among the first officers there.
“What happened?”
Olivia looked at him.
He looked concerned.
Convincingly concerned.
“Someone attacked me.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Harrow ordered the camp locked down.
Olivia watched him.
Was he acting?
Or had she misunderstood what she overheard?
At dawn, she confronted the civilian.
His name, she had learned, was Warren Vale.
She told him everything.
He listened.
“Harrow said the phrase?”
“Yes.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“And the other person?”
“Unknown.”
Vale rubbed his chin.
“Did Harrow say anything else?”
“‘That’s why we accelerate.’”
Vale looked worried.
“Then we pull him.”
“No.”
“Olivia—”
“If you arrest him, we lose the network.”
“If he’s Meridian—”
“We don’t know that.”
“You heard the phrase.”
“I heard half a conversation.”
Vale stared.
She continued.
“If Harrow were trying to expose Meridian, he might use the same words.”
“You’re defending him?”
“I’m refusing to convict him because I’m angry.”
That answer made Vale pause.
“You’ve changed.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Olivia looked away.
“People died the last time I acted before I understood the whole picture.”
Vale’s expression softened.
“Karsen wasn’t your fault.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I read the report.”
“I lived it.”
For the first time, there was pain in her voice.
Vale said nothing.
Training continued despite lockdown.
The pressure changed everyone.
Lance became quieter.
Derek avoided Olivia altogether.
Kyle apologized for tearing her map.
She stared at him.
“Why?”
He looked embarrassed.
“Because it was stupid.”
“That’s not why.”
Kyle sighed.
“Because if we were outside this camp, doing something real, I could’ve gotten you killed.”
Olivia nodded.
“Now you’re learning.”
Tara began spending more time near her.
One afternoon, Tara asked:
“Were you really dead?”
Olivia stopped.
“Who told you that?”
“No one.”
“Then why ask?”
“I saw Sergeant Pulk looking at an old memorial database.”
Olivia’s pulse quickened.
Tara continued.
“One woman looked like you.”
“Lots of people look alike.”
“The name was different.”
Olivia turned.
“What name?”
Tara hesitated.
“Evelyn Cross.”
For the first time, Olivia’s mask broke.
Tara whispered:
“That’s you, isn’t it?”
Olivia grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the storage shed.
“Never say that name again.”
Tara looked frightened.
“Why?”
“Because people died protecting it.”
“You were special operations?”
Olivia released her.
“I was nothing.”
“Colonels don’t salute nothing.”
“Tara.”
“I won’t tell anyone.”
Olivia studied her.
“Why are you helping me?”
Tara laughed bitterly.
“Because my brother died overseas two years ago.”
Olivia said nothing.
“He was an intelligence officer.”
“What was his name?”
“Daniel Bishop.”
Olivia’s face changed.
She knew the name.
Not personally.
From Karsen.
Daniel Bishop had transmitted one of the final intelligence packets before Olivia’s team entered the ridge.
Tara saw recognition.
“You knew him.”
“No.”
“You did.”
“I knew his work.”
Tara’s eyes filled.
“How did he die?”
Olivia couldn’t answer.
The official story said helicopter crash.
The classified report said Meridian interception.
The truth was worse.
Daniel Bishop had discovered the betrayal before anyone else.
And someone had silenced him.
Olivia placed a hand on Tara’s shoulder.
“Your brother tried to warn people.”
“Warn them about what?”
Before Olivia could answer, an alarm sounded across camp.
All cadets were ordered to formation.
Harrow stood before them.
Beside him were military police.
A locker had been searched.
Classified equipment recovered.
The locker belonged to Lance Mercer.
Lance stared in disbelief as officers held up Olivia’s missing memory card.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Harrow’s expression was hard.
“It was found under your mattress.”
“That’s impossible.”
Olivia watched from formation.
Lance looked at her.
“You think I took it?”
She did not answer.
He stepped toward her.
“I didn’t.”
Military police restrained him.
Lance shouted:
“Someone put it there!”
As they dragged him away, he looked directly at Olivia.
Then he said something so quietly only she heard.
“Ask your colonel why he was at Karsen.”
PART 5 — THE COLONEL’S SECRET
Olivia found Voss before midnight.
He was alone in his temporary office.
She locked the door.
“Were you at Karsen Ridge?”
Voss stopped writing.
“Who told you that?”
“Answer.”
He leaned back.
“No.”
“Wrong answer.”
“Olivia—”
She placed both palms on his desk.
“Were you there?”
Voss looked at her for a long time.
Then said:
“Yes.”
The word hit harder than she expected.
“You told me you read the report.”
“I did.”
“You attended my funeral.”
“Yes.”
“You never said you were there.”
“I wasn’t on the ridge.”
“Where?”
“Command aircraft.”
Olivia stepped back.
“You were command?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Liaison.”
“For whom?”
Voss hesitated.
Olivia understood.
“Meridian?”
His face changed.
“No.”
“You knew about them.”
“Not then.”
“You knew enough to lie.”
Voss stood.
“I kept something from you because if I told you three years ago, you would have gotten yourself killed.”
“My team already died.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Her voice rose.
“You didn’t carry Mateo for two kilometers after his leg was destroyed. You didn’t listen to Harris call for his daughter while we ran out of morphine. You didn’t hold Singh’s radio while he begged command for extraction and heard someone cancel it.”
Voss looked devastated.
Olivia’s eyes burned.
“You were on that command net.”
“Yes.”
“Did you hear Blue Lantern Seven?”
“Yes.”
“Who said it?”
“I don’t know.”
She laughed without humor.
“Of course.”
“It came through an encrypted relay.”
“Who had access?”
“Six people.”
“Names.”
“Three are dead.”
“Names.”
“Two disappeared.”
“Names.”
“One is still serving.”
Olivia froze.
“Who?”
Voss looked toward the locked door.
Then back at her.
“Warren Vale.”
The room became very quiet.
Olivia stared.
“Vale was on the command net?”
“Yes.”
“He told me he read the report.”
“He helped write it.”
“He told me Meridian believed I betrayed the mission.”
Voss nodded.
“That may be true.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know whether he was using you.”
Olivia thought of the packet.
The fake records.
Her deliberately humiliating arrival.
Vale had engineered all of it.
“You think Vale is Meridian.”
“I think Vale has survived too many operations that killed everyone around him.”
Olivia’s mind raced.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I received a message.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What message?”
Voss opened a drawer.
He removed a printed note.
THE WOMAN FROM KARSEN IS ALIVE.
COME TO CAMP VALIANT ALONE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO BURIED HER.
Olivia read it twice.
“When?”
“Three days before you arrived.”
“Who sent it?”
“Unknown.”
She looked at him.
“Someone wanted both of us here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
A knock sounded.
Three short.
Two long.
Voss stiffened.
Olivia stepped aside.
He opened the door.
Sergeant Pulk entered.
He looked at both of them.
“Captain Harrow is gone.”
“What?”
“He left camp twenty minutes ago.”
“Lockdown?”
“Still active.”
“How?”
“Used a command vehicle.”
Olivia cursed.
“Where?”
“North checkpoint.”
They moved immediately.
Security footage showed Harrow driving alone.
But Olivia noticed something.
“Freeze.”
Pulk paused the footage.
“Zoom passenger side.”
There was no passenger.
But the seat belt was buckled.
Someone had been sitting there recently.
Voss looked at her.
“Or he didn’t want the alarm sounding.”
Olivia examined the footage.
“Different timestamp.”
“What?”
“The exterior clock says 22:41. Security overlay says 22:47.”
Pulk leaned closer.
“Six-minute delay.”
“Someone looped the cameras.”
Voss turned.
“Who has access?”
Pulk answered.
“Communications staff. Captain Harrow. Senior command.”
“And Vale,” Olivia said.
They found Harrow’s vehicle twelve kilometers north.
Empty.
Driver door open.
No blood.
No signs of struggle.
Only a note taped to the steering wheel.
Seven dots.
One black triangle.
And beneath it:
THE DEAD SHOULD NOT INVESTIGATE THEIR OWN FUNERAL.
Olivia stared at it.
Voss whispered:
“They know you.”
“No.”
“What?”
Olivia touched the paper.
“They know Evelyn Cross.”
“That’s you.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Voss frowned.
“Olivia?”
She looked at him.
“Evelyn Cross was never my real name either.”