Chapter 5 - The Man Behind The Mission
The voice came from the other side of the locked door: “I was the one who ordered your team to die.”
I stepped back.
Not because I was afraid.
Because my mind refused to accept what my ears had just heard.
The storage room felt smaller.
The air felt heavier.
Daniel stood completely still.
That scared me more than the voice.
Because Daniel Cross was not someone who froze.
Not during gunfire.
Not during explosions.
Not when people were dying.
But now he looked like he had just seen a ghost.
“Daniel,” I whispered.
He did not answer.
His eyes stayed fixed on the door.
“Who is it?”
For several seconds, there was only silence.
Then Daniel finally spoke.
“Someone who should have been buried with the rest of us.”
My fingers tightened around the photograph.
The picture of my team.
The picture with the unknown figure standing behind us.
The picture that had already changed everything I thought I knew.
The door handle moved.
Slowly.
Someone on the other side was trying to open it.
Daniel stepped forward.
I grabbed his shoulder.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You don’t know who that is.”
Neither did I.
But I knew something else.
We had spent six years searching for answers.
And answers did not come without danger.
The lock clicked.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
The person outside was waiting.
Almost like they wanted us to know they were there.
Like they wanted us to feel the same fear they had carried for years.
Dr. Reyes whispered.
“Sarah…”
His voice was low.
“What is happening?”
I looked at him.
For the first time since arriving at Mercy General, I had no reassuring answer.
No professional response.
No calm explanation.
Because this was no longer about a hospital attack.
No longer about armed criminals.
No longer about protecting patients.
This was about a past I had buried.
And someone had just dug it up.
Daniel slowly moved toward the door.
“Stay behind me.”
I almost laughed.
Six years ago, I would have listened.
Today?
I was different.
“Not happening.”
He looked back.
“You’re a nurse now.”
“Yes.”
I stepped beside him.
“But I’m still me.”
For a moment, something passed through his expression.
Not surprise.
Something closer to respect.
Then the lights suddenly returned.
The door opened.
But nobody was there.
Only an envelope sitting on the floor.
Daniel immediately stopped.
“Don’t touch it.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because whoever left that knows exactly what they’re doing.”
I stared at the envelope.
My name was written across the front.
Sarah.
No last name.
No title.
Just Sarah.
A name only people close to me used.
People who knew me before I became someone else.
Daniel crouched down carefully.
He examined the edges.
The paper.
The seal.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“This is from our unit.”
My chest tightened.
“That’s impossible.”
“Yes.”
He picked it up slowly.
“That’s why it’s terrifying.”
He opened the envelope.
Inside was another photograph.
But this one was different.
It was taken after the mission.
After the explosion.
After everyone was supposedly dead.
My hands went cold.
Because in the background of the photo was a hospital.
This hospital.
Mercy General.
I stared.
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You recognize it.”
I nodded slowly.
“That’s impossible.”
“What?”
I pointed.
“That window.”
I remembered.
Six years ago.
The night I was found after the mission.
The official story was that I had been recovered miles away from the target location.
But this photo showed something else.
Someone had brought me here.
Someone had hidden me.
Someone had changed my entire life.
Dr. Reyes moved closer.
“Sarah…”
I looked at him.
“I came here because of this.”
His face changed.
“What?”
“I didn’t know it.”
I looked back at the photograph.
“But maybe I was always supposed to.”
Daniel studied the image.
“There’s more.”
He turned the photo over.
A message was written on the back.
Five words.
Ask the doctor who saved you.
Nobody spoke.
Slowly, my eyes moved toward Dr. Reyes.
He looked confused.
Then nervous.
“Why are you looking at me?”
I said nothing.
Because suddenly, memories I had ignored started connecting.
The first day I arrived at Mercy General.
The interview.
The paperwork.
The way Dr. Reyes had looked at my records.
The way he had immediately trusted me.
Too quickly.
I had always thought he was simply kind.
Now I wondered.
Had he known something?
“Dr. Reyes,” Daniel said.
His voice was different.
More cautious.
“What exactly happened when Sarah came to this hospital?”
Dr. Reyes looked between us.
“I don’t understand.”
“Answer the question.”
The doctor stepped back.
“I hired her because she was qualified.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Silence.
The kind of silence that revealed more than words.
My heart started beating faster.
“Doctor…”
He looked at me.
And I saw something I had never seen before.
Fear.
Not confusion.
Not concern.
Fear.
“I didn’t know this day would come.”
The words hit harder than I expected.
Daniel immediately moved.
“What do you mean?”
Dr. Reyes looked at the floor.
“Six years ago, a woman was brought into this hospital.”
I stopped breathing.
“What woman?”
He looked at me.
“You.”
The room went completely silent.
“No.”
“Yes.”
He swallowed.
“You were injured. Barely conscious. You had no identification. No records. Nothing.”
I stared at him.
“But that’s not what happened.”
“Because someone changed the records.”
My mind raced.
“You knew?”
Dr. Reyes looked ashamed.
“I knew enough.”
“Enough to hire me?”
“Enough to protect you.”
The anger came suddenly.
Not because he helped me.
Because he kept the truth from me.
“You let me believe I was starting over.”
“I was trying to give you a chance.”
“A chance built on a lie?”
He looked away.
“I was afraid if you remembered everything, they would find you.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Who?”
Dr. Reyes did not answer.
That was the moment I knew.
He was not hiding because he was guilty.
He was hiding because he was terrified.
Then the hospital alarm sounded again.
Not the security alarm.
Something different.
A code.
A patient emergency.
But no one moved.
Because every monitor in the storage room suddenly turned on.
Old screens.
Screens that were not connected.
All showing the same image.
A live camera feed.
A room.
A person sitting in a chair.
A person wearing a black mask.
Daniel stared.
“No.”
The masked person leaned toward the camera.
Then spoke.
“Sarah.”
My entire body froze.
The voice was distorted.
But familiar.
Too familiar.
The person removed the mask.
Daniel took one step back.
Because he recognized the face.
I looked at him.
“Who is that?”
Daniel could barely speak.
“That’s…”
The screen flickered.
The person smiled.
And said my old mission name.
The name nobody at Mercy General knew.
The name I had not heard in six years.
Then the camera zoomed closer.
And the person whispered:
“Sarah, you’re looking at the man who ordered your first mission…”
Daniel’s face turned pale.
May you like
Because the man on the screen was wearing the same uniform as our commander...
And he was supposed to be dead.
