Chapter 6 - The Man Who Left Them Behind
The aircraft wasn't carrying weapons.
That was the first piece of good news.
The second was that Mara knew Raven Six better than anyone alive.
The bad news was everything else.
Daniel Cross had remotely activated the aircraft using an autonomous flight package that officially did not exist.
Its course toward Washington would trigger a national security response.
If intercepted, the aircraft would be destroyed.
So would the evidence stored inside its encrypted flight core.
Cross wasn't trying to attack Washington.
He was trying to force the government to erase the final evidence.
Mara understood immediately.
"He wants us to shoot it down."
Rourke nodded.
Mercer contacted command.
Interceptors had already launched.
Twenty-eight minutes.
Mara needed an aircraft.
She got one.
Not Raven Six.
A fast training jet from a nearby base.
Rourke climbed into the second seat.
"You sure?"
"No."
"Good."
They launched.
For the first time in seven years, Mara heard the call sign over military radio.
"Raven Six, identify."
No answer.
Interceptors approached.
Mara pushed harder.
She saw the black aircraft ahead.
Memory flooded back.
The Hindu Kush.
The eleven men.
Rourke shouting.
Warning alarms.
She forced it away.
"Can you access it?"
Rourke worked the control unit.
"Trying."
A voice entered their headset.
Daniel Cross.
"Mara."
"Daniel."
"You don't remember me."
"I remember leaving you behind."
"No. You remember what they told you."
Cross explained.
He had been part of Hale's covert operation.
He was supposed to recover the prototype after Rourke's team.
But Cross discovered the network was larger than Hale.
He disappeared intentionally.
For years, he manipulated both sides.
Including Tyler.
"Why?"
"Because heroes attract attention."
"You used a kid to expose me."
"I needed the world watching when Mercer saluted you."
The livestream had not been humiliation for its own sake.
It had been a flare.
Cross wanted Mara's identity public so the government could no longer quietly erase her.
"You could have contacted me."
"And you would have trusted me?"
"No."
"Exactly."
The interceptors closed.
Five minutes.
Rourke gained partial access.
"Navigation only."
"Enough."
Mara moved alongside Raven Six.
She transmitted an old authentication code.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Then she remembered.
During the Hindu Kush extraction, the damaged computer had refused commands.
Mara had created a manual pilot phrase.
Not official.
Not recorded.
Something ridiculous she'd said while terrified.
"Come on, sweetheart. Take us home."
Raven Six responded.
AUTONOMOUS CONTROL DISENGAGED.
Rourke laughed.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Mara smiled for the first time.
"Never underestimate bad programming."
They redirected the aircraft.
Interceptors broke away.
Raven Six landed safely.
Daniel Cross disappeared from the network.
But the evidence survived.
Hale was arrested.
Investigations began.
Mercer publicly admitted his role.
Tyler issued no dramatic online apology.
Mara respected that.
Instead, he returned to The Rusty Anchor.
He stood in front of her.
"I was wrong."
"Yes."
"I grabbed you."
"Yes."
"I embarrassed you."
"You tried."
Tyler almost smiled.
Then he became serious.
"My father was one of them."
Mara nodded.
"He was."
"Did he do anything brave?"
Mara looked at him for a long moment.
"Your father carried a wounded man almost half a mile under fire."
Tyler's eyes filled.
"He never told me."
"Most brave people don't."
Tyler looked down.
"I'm not like him."
"Not yet."
That stayed with him.
But the story wasn't finished.
Three nights later, Mara received a package.
Inside was a single photograph.
Daniel Cross.
Standing beside Raven Six.
Recent.
On the back:
HALE WAS NEVER IN CHARGE.
Below that was another sentence.
ASK ROURKE WHO GAVE THE ORIGINAL ORDER.
Mara looked across the room.
Rourke was reading over her shoulder.
His face went pale.
"No."
"What?"
He took one step backward.
Mara had never seen Elias Rourke afraid.
Not until then.
He whispered a name.
"General Evelyn Vance."
May you like
Mara stopped breathing.
That was her mother's name.
