Chapter 2 - Eleven Men Came Home
Mara stared at the dead satellite phone.
Mercer didn't move.
"You recognized him," he said.
Mara slowly lowered the handset.
"Major Elias Rourke."
Mercer's jaw tightened.
"Rourke died."
"I heard him die."
Seven years earlier, Raven Flight had been sent into the Hindu Kush under conditions that should have grounded every aircraft in the region.
A reconnaissance team had been trapped in a collapsing valley.
Eleven men.
Enemy fighters were moving toward them.
Weather had closed the normal extraction corridor.
Command had denied a rescue flight.
Mara had gone anyway.
Officially, Raven Six had never existed.
Neither had the modified stealth aircraft she'd flown.
The mission was buried because admitting it happened would have revealed technology the government wasn't prepared to acknowledge.
Mara remembered the radio traffic.
Men shouting coordinates.
Gunfire.
A warning from Rourke.
Then an explosion.
She had landed on terrain barely wide enough for the aircraft.
Eleven men boarded.
Rourke didn't.
His last transmission had been:
"Go."
Mara had obeyed.
She had hated herself for it ever since.
"Why now?" she asked.
Mercer shook his head.
"Yesterday morning this case appeared outside my house."
"Security cameras?"
"Disabled for eleven minutes."
Mara looked toward the office door.
"Someone knew I'd be here."
"Yes."
"And they knew you'd come."
"Yes."
Mara's eyes narrowed.
"Then Kane wasn't random."
Mercer looked uncomfortable.
"We don't know that."
"We're about to."
They returned to the bar.
Kane sat at a table with his friends.
Frank stood behind the counter.
Mara walked directly to Kane.
"Why did you start filming me?"
His face reddened.
"My buddy did."
"Why?"
"Because you were acting like some badass."
"Who told you about this place?"
"What?"
"The Rusty Anchor."
Kane shrugged.
"Everybody knows it."
Mara leaned closer.
"Who told you I'd be here?"
That changed him.
Only slightly.
But Mara saw it.
Mercer saw it too.
Kane looked away.
"No one."
Mara pulled out a chair.
"Try again."
Kane remained silent.
Mercer said, "Recruit Kane, lying to a senior officer during an official inquiry would be an exceptionally poor beginning to your career."
Kane swallowed.
"A message."
"What message?" Mara asked.
"Some account sent me fifty bucks."
Frank muttered something under his breath.
Kane continued.
"They said there'd be a woman here pretending to be military. Said if I confronted her on livestream, it'd blow up."
Mara's stomach tightened.
"Show me."
Kane opened his phone.
The account had vanished.
But the payment remained.
$50.11.
Mara stared at the number.
Eleven.
Again.
"Did they tell you to grab me?"
"No."
Mara believed him.
Kane's stupidity belonged to Kane.
But somebody had arranged the collision.
Mercer's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed almost immediately.
"When?"
He listened.
"Secure everything."
He ended the call.
Mara waited.
"The livestream has passed two million views."
"That's not what they called about."
"No."
Mercer looked at Frank.
"Do you have somewhere private?"
Frank nodded.
"Upstairs."
They moved into an old storage room.
Mercer shut the door.
"The Pentagon received a package twenty minutes ago."
Mara crossed her arms.
"What was inside?"
"Footage."
"Of today?"
"No."
Mercer met her eyes.
"Of Raven Six."
Mara felt the room tilt.
"Impossible."
The aircraft's onboard recordings had been destroyed.
At least that was what she'd been told.
Mercer opened his phone.
The video began.
Night-vision imagery.
Mountains.
Tracer fire.
Then Mara heard her younger voice.
"Raven Six approaching extraction point."
She closed her eyes.
Seven years disappeared.
She was back in the cockpit.
Warning alarms.
Wind screaming.
A mountain face filling half the windshield.
Then the recording showed the impossible landing.
Eleven men running toward the aircraft.
One carrying another.
A figure farther away waved them forward.
Rourke.
Mara whispered, "Stop."
Mercer paused the footage.
She forced herself to look.
"Continue."
The aircraft lifted.
The camera angle changed.
Rourke was still on the ground.
Then another man appeared behind him.
Not enemy.
American.
Rourke turned.
The recording ended.
Mara looked at Mercer.
"Who was that?"
"We're enhancing it."
"Rourke wasn't alone."
"No."
"Why wasn't this in the report?"
"Because nobody knew."
Mara paced once across the room.
The entire foundation of the mission shifted beneath her.
Maybe Rourke hadn't died during the extraction.
Maybe someone had stayed with him.
Maybe someone had made sure he never returned.
Mercer received another message.
He opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Mara and Mercer both stared.
It had been taken minutes ago.
Through the window of The Rusty Anchor.
Someone outside had photographed them.
Beneath it was a sentence.
ELEVEN CAME HOME BECAUSE ONE WAS LEFT BEHIND.
Frank called from downstairs.
"Mara!"
She ran.
The front door stood open.
Kane was gone.
His three friends remained.
One pointed outside.
"He got a message and just ran."
Mara grabbed Kane's abandoned phone from the table.
A new message filled the screen.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO RAVEN SIX REALLY SAVED.
Below it was an address.
Mercer saw it.
"No."
Mara grabbed her jacket.
"Mara."
"They took seven years from me."
"It's bait."
"I know."
"Then don't walk into it."
She looked at him.
"I'm not walking."
Twenty minutes later Mara pulled into an abandoned municipal airfield.
One hangar stood open.
No lights.
She entered.
Her footsteps echoed.
A projector suddenly switched on.
A face appeared on the hangar wall.
Major Elias Rourke.
Older.
Scarred.
Alive.
Mara couldn't breathe.
Recorded Rourke looked directly into the camera.
"Mara, if you're watching this, Mercer brought you the case."
She stepped closer.
"That means he still hasn't told you."
The recording paused.
Behind Mara, a hangar door began sliding shut.
May you like
Then Rourke's voice returned.
"Ask Nathan Mercer why he ordered me to stay behind."
