Chapter 2 - The Name From Red Hollow
Jade didn't scream.
She didn't reach for Mercer’s sidearm either.
That surprised me more than anything.
The man in the gray coat stepped out of the elevator with both hands visible.
He was in his mid-fifties, tall, lean, and carried himself like somebody who had spent most of his life in rooms where everyone else was armed.
A thin scar ran from the corner of his mouth toward his jaw.
He smiled at Jade as if they were old friends.
General Hale moved between them.
"Stop."
The man did.
"Still protecting her, Marcus?"
Hale's voice went cold.
"Daniel Voss."
Mercer swore under his breath.
I knew the name.
Everyone in our branch did.
Colonel Daniel Voss had died eight years earlier during an intelligence operation overseas.
There had been a memorial.
A closed casket.
His photograph still hung in one of the command buildings.
At least I thought it did.
But the man standing in front of us looked very alive.
Jade looked at him without blinking.
"You left us."
Voss smiled faintly.
"You survived."
"Seven didn't."
The smile disappeared.
Neither man nor woman moved.
For a few seconds the hospital seemed to disappear around them.
Then Jade said, "Why are you here?"
Voss glanced at her wrist.
"Because you finally showed the number."
Rebecca whispered, "You said you wouldn't come near her."
Voss turned.
"And you believed me?"
Hale stepped closer.
"You have ten seconds to explain why you're standing here instead of in a grave."
Voss looked amused.
"You always were terrible with surprises."
Hale reached beneath his uniform jacket.
Voss raised a finger.
"If you draw, Marcus, people in this building die."
Everything stopped.
I looked around.
Nurses.
Patients.
Families.
A kid sitting beside a vending machine.
Nobody seemed aware anything was wrong.
Voss nodded toward the consultation room.
"Inside."
Hale hated taking orders.
I could see it.
But he hated risking civilians more.
He opened the door.
We moved inside.
Voss came last.
He closed the door behind him.
The room was small.
One examination table.
Six chairs.
A cabinet.
A monitor.
Too many people.
Too little space.
Jade remained nearest the door.
Mercer stood beside her wheelchair.
Rebecca sat against the wall.
Hale faced Voss.
Collins and I stayed near the back.
Captain Reeves entered thirty seconds later, irritated until he saw Voss.
Then his irritation disappeared.
"You."
Voss smiled.
"Captain."
Reeves looked at Hale.
"Sir, this man is supposed to be dead."
"You're catching up."
Voss removed a folded photograph from his coat.
He placed it on the table.
Jade looked at it.
I could see the image from where I stood.
Seven soldiers in dusty gear.
Much younger Hale stood at one end.
Voss stood beside him.
A young woman crouched in front.
Dark hair.
Hard eyes.
Jade.
I almost didn't recognize her.
She was holding a rifle.
Not carrying one.
Holding it the way people do when the weapon has become an extension of their body.
A patch on her shoulder had been scratched out.
Every face but Jade's had a handwritten number beside it.
One through seven.
On Jade's chest, somebody had written Sparrow.
Mercer looked down at her.
"What was this?"
Jade answered without looking away from Voss.
"A reconnaissance unit."
Hale corrected her.
"A deniable reconnaissance unit."
Collins frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," Voss said, "that if they were captured, nobody came looking."
Jade turned toward him.
"Except someone did."
Hale's jaw tightened.
Voss smiled.
"Yes. Marcus did."
I looked at the general.
Hale ignored me.
"Red Hollow was supposed to last eighteen hours," Jade said. "We were sent to identify a weapons corridor and leave."
Mercer asked, "What happened?"
"We were sold."
Nobody spoke.
Jade continued.
"The enemy knew our route before we crossed the ridge. They knew our call signs. Our extraction point. Our backup channel. Everything."
Voss rested a hand on the photograph.
"Six soldiers died."
"Seven," Jade said.
"You lived."
"Seven."
Voss studied her.
"Still carrying him?"
She looked away.
That was the first time Voss hurt her.
Not physically.
But I saw it land.
Hale said, "Enough."
Voss leaned against the examination table.
"Red Hollow was never about Jade."
"Then what was it about?"
"Testing access."
Hale's face hardened.
"What access?"
Voss smiled.
"Mine."
Rebecca stood suddenly.
"Stop playing games."
Voss looked at her.
"You played the longest game here."
Jade turned to Rebecca.
"What does that mean?"
Rebecca said nothing.
Jade's voice sharpened.
"Aunt Rebecca."
The older woman looked at her.
Jade's eyes changed.
"You aren't my aunt, are you?"
Mercer looked from one woman to the other.
Rebecca began crying.
"No."
One word.
Eight months of knowing Jade.
Eight years of hidden history.
And somehow that single word felt heavier than all of it.
Jade did not move.
"Who are you?"
Rebecca wiped her face.
"I was assigned to you after Red Hollow."
"Assigned by who?"
"Hale."
Jade turned toward the general.
He looked guilty.
Not ashamed.
Guilty.
"You told me she was family."
"I told you what I thought would keep you alive."
"You lied."
"Yes."
"About what else?"
Hale looked toward Voss.
"More than I should have."
Jade swallowed.
She was angry now.
Still controlled.
But the control looked fragile.
"Start talking."
Voss clapped slowly.
"Finally."
Hale ignored him.
"After Red Hollow, we discovered there had been an internal breach. Someone inside command had given your unit's information to the network you were tracking."
"Who?"
"We didn't know."
"You had eight years."
"We suspected people."
"Names."
Hale hesitated.
Jade leaned forward.
"Names."
"Voss was one."
She laughed once.
No humor.
"I figured that out."
"He disappeared three days after your rescue."
"You declared him dead."
"Because we found enough blood at the crash site to believe he was."
Voss smiled.
"You believed what I wanted you to believe."
Hale turned on him.
"Why are you here?"
Voss's expression changed.
The amusement left.
"Because your engineers aren't trapped by accident."
Reeves stepped forward.
"What?"
"The collapsed bridge was deliberate."
"How do you know?"
"I planned it."
Collins took one step toward him.
Mercer blocked him.
Voss looked at Reeves.
"The engineers found something under the bridge."
"What?"
"A buried communications node."
Jade stiffened.
Hale said, "Red Hollow network."
Voss nodded.
"Part of it."
"Why would they build a node beneath a supply route?"
"They didn't. The route was built over it years later."
Jade stared at the map.
"The three stones."
Voss nodded.
"Mark the access tunnel."
Hale said, "You set the marker for her."
"I needed someone who could recognize it."
"You could have contacted me."
"I don't trust you."
"Yet you walk into my hospital?"
"I trust her."
Jade stared at him.
"That's rich."
Voss looked almost sad.
"You still think I betrayed Red Hollow."
"You did."
"No."
The room went silent.
Jade's hands tightened.
Voss pointed at Hale.
"He did."
Hale's face went still.
Mercer said, "Careful."
Voss laughed softly.
"Ask him who changed your extraction point."
Jade turned.
Hale didn't answer.
"General?"
He looked at her.
"I changed it."
Jade seemed to stop breathing.
"Why?"
"We had intelligence the original site was compromised."
"From who?"
Hale looked at Voss.
Voss smiled.
Jade understood.
"You trusted him."
"I did."
"And seven people died."
Hale swallowed.
"Yes."
Jade looked away.
The room felt too small.
Voss said, "But I didn't provide that intelligence."
Hale said, "You signed it."
"Someone used my credentials."
"Convenient."
"Look at the timestamps."
Hale's expression shifted.
Voss continued.
"The authorization was entered while I was airborne over the western corridor."
Jade looked at him.
"Then who used your credentials?"
Voss pulled a small black drive from his coat.
"That's what the engineers found."
Reeves reached for it.
Voss closed his hand.
"No."
"You admitted to sabotaging the bridge."
"I collapsed the bridge after I knew the node had been discovered."
"Why?"
"To keep the engineers alive."
Reeves stared at him.
"By trapping them?"
"If the network knew they had reached the node, they would already be dead."
Jade asked, "Who is the network?"
Voss looked at her.
"The same people who buried you."
"Names."
"I have one."
He glanced toward Hale.
"Only one."
Hale said, "Say it."
Voss looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca turned white.
Jade saw it.
"Rebecca?"
The older woman shook her head.
"No."
Voss slowly placed the drive on the table.
"Everything is there."
Jade reached toward it.
Rebecca lunged.
She grabbed the drive first.
"Don't."
Mercer caught her wrist.
"Rebecca."
She struggled.
"She can't see it."
Jade stared at her.
"Why?"
Rebecca's eyes filled again.
"Because if you see what's on that drive, you will never forgive me."
Jade's voice dropped.
"What did you do?"
Before Rebecca could answer, the hospital lights went out.
The monitor died.
The hallway outside erupted in shouts.
Emergency lights turned red.
Then somebody knocked three times on the consultation-room door.
Pause.
Two more knocks.
Jade's face went rigid.
Hale looked at her.
"What is it?"
She whispered, "Red Hollow signal."
May you like
The handle began turning.
And someone on the other side said, "Sparrow, open the door."
