Chapter 4 - The Thirteenth Soldier
Ava pulled Cole through the doorway.
I locked it.
"How many?" she asked.
Cole struggled to breathe.
"Too many."
Blood soaked his side, but the wound was superficial.
He had escaped.
Barely.
"They took Elias to Calder," he said.
"Why?"
"The archive."
Of course.
My father had hidden the evidence where Unit Thirteen could reach it.
Or perhaps where only Rex could.
Cole explained his disappearance.
After Kessler escaped, Cole followed him.
He discovered two members of military intelligence helping Kessler leave the base.
The other missing soldiers had followed Cole.
One was dead.
The other had been captured.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because I didn't know who to trust."
I almost laughed.
"Welcome to the club."
Cole looked at Rex.
"He's the reason I found you."
He had planted the cloth marker in the package.
He knew Rex would follow it.
The footsteps outside stopped.
Ava aimed at the door.
Silence.
Then three shots punched through the metal.
We moved.
A service tunnel connected the hospital to an old utility network.
Cole knew the route.
I hated the wheelchair.
Every bump sent pain through my legs.
But pain was information.
It meant I was alive.
We escaped through a maintenance exit.
Hale was waiting.
Ava aimed at him.
He raised both hands.
"I didn't betray anyone."
"Convenient," she said.
Hale tossed her a folder.
The evidence used to arrest him had been manufactured.
Digital signatures.
False transfers.
Security footage altered with a twelve-minute gap.
"Who released you?"
"I released myself."
"That's not reassuring."
"It wasn't meant to be."
Rex approached Hale.
Sniffed him.
Relaxed.
I looked at Ava.
"Good enough for me."
She lowered the weapon.
Hale told us Fort Calder was under lockdown.
Official reason: security breach.
Real reason: Unit Thirteen had taken control of the communications network.
Nine soldiers from the original training room remained inside.
My father too.
And Kessler.
"We need federal authorities," Ava said.
"I tried," Hale replied. "Every message gets intercepted."
Cole looked at me.
"Then we go back."
I glanced at my legs.
"You're kidding."
"No."
He pointed at Rex.
"They need him."
That made me useful.
Dangerously useful.
I hated the plan immediately.
Which meant it might work.
We would let Unit Thirteen believe I was being delivered.
Rex would lead them toward the archive.
Ava, Cole, and Hale would use the distraction to free the hostages and restore communications.
My job was simple.
Stay alive.
I'd done harder things.
We entered Fort Calder through a maintenance gate shortly after midnight.
The training facility looked different empty.
Every corridor carried memories.
Rex remained beside my wheelchair.
We reached Training Bay Four.
The place where my knees had been shattered.
Kessler waited inside.
No mask this time.
His arm was bandaged.
He smiled at Rex.
"There's my favorite dog."
Rex growled.
"Careful," Kessler said. "He almost ruined everything."
"Almost?"
Kessler looked at me.
"You're here, aren't you?"
Four armed operatives surrounded us.
I pretended to be alone.
Hale's team was already moving through the building.
"Where's my father?"
"Alive."
"Show me."
Kessler activated a monitor.
Elias sat tied to a chair.
Beside him was one of the missing soldiers.
Both alive.
"Now," Kessler said, "take us to the archive."
"I don't know where it is."
"Your dog does."
He held out the chemical marker.
Rex sniffed.
Then looked at me.
I gave him the command.
"Find."
He moved.
Kessler pushed my wheelchair behind him.
We crossed the facility.
Down a stairwell.
Through an old armory.
Rex stopped at a concrete wall.
Kessler frowned.
"There's nothing here."
Rex scratched at the floor.
Not the wall.
Kessler found a concealed hatch.
Under it was a tunnel.
We descended.
At the bottom stood a vault door.
XIII.
Kessler's excitement became visible.
"Twenty-two years."
He entered a code.
Nothing.
He looked at me.
"Your father changed it."
"Smart man."
Kessler pressed a gun against my shoulder.
"Open it."
"I don't know the code."
"You know him."
I stared at the keypad.
My father had once taught me that the safest code wasn't a number nobody knew.
It was a number nobody understood.
I typed my mother's birthday.
Red.
Wrong.
My birthday.
Wrong.
Then I remembered the photographs.
MARA — AGE 24.
MARA — AGE 27.
He had documented years.
But one date mattered most.
The day he disappeared.
I entered it.
Green.
The vault opened.
Inside were hundreds of files.
Servers.
Photographs.
Records.
Unit Thirteen's entire history.
Kessler walked in like a man entering a church.
"We finally found it."
"We?"
A voice came through the darkness.
Kessler stopped.
Someone emerged from behind the server racks.
One of the twelve soldiers from Training Bay Four.
Lieutenant Ava Brooks.
My heart stopped.
She pointed her weapon at me.
Kessler smiled.
"Captain Vance, meet Number Twelve."
I stared at Ava.
She had been the person my father told me to trust.
She stepped closer.
"I'm sorry, Mara."
"How long?"
"Long enough."
"Was any of it real?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"More than you think."
Kessler handed her the drive.
"Where's the Director?"
Ava looked at him.
Then at me.
She raised the gun.
But she wasn't aiming at me.
She fired.
Kessler dropped.
Chaos erupted.
Rex lunged toward one operative.
I threw myself from the wheelchair.
Pain exploded through my knees.
Ava fired twice more.
Then she grabbed me.
"We have thirty seconds."
"For what?"
"To get out."
"Why?"
She looked toward the servers.
Red lights began flashing.
"The Director knows we found the archive."
A countdown appeared.
00:29.
00:28.
00:27.
Ava dragged me toward the door.
I grabbed her arm.
"Who is the Director?"
She stared at me.
May you like
"You've known him your entire life."
Then the vault door slammed shut.
