Chapter 2 - The Voice From Operation Lantern
Evelyn didn't breathe.
General Hale stood six feet away.
The telephone remained pressed against her ear.
"Who is this?"
Static.
Then:
"You know who."
Daniel.
Impossible.
Evelyn turned slightly away from Hale.
"Prove it."
The voice was silent for a second.
Then he said:
"The blue door."
Her knees nearly weakened.
Nobody knew about the blue door.
It had been inside the detention compound during Operation Lantern.
On the night of the rescue, Evelyn and Daniel had been trapped behind it while enemy soldiers searched the corridor outside.
Daniel had whispered a ridiculous promise.
If we survive this, you're buying breakfast.
They had survived the room.
Only Evelyn had supposedly survived the mission.
"What about it?" she whispered.
Daniel answered:
"You still owe me breakfast."
The line disconnected.
Evelyn stared at the receiver.
Hale stepped closer.
"What happened?"
She placed the phone down slowly.
"Nothing."
He watched her carefully.
"Evelyn."
"Who has access to this room's secure line?"
"Several command staff."
"Can incoming calls be traced?"
"Usually."
"Trace that one."
Hale studied her.
"Who called?"
She looked at him.
Daniel's warning replayed inside her head.
Don't trust General Hale.
"I don't know."
Hale's eyes narrowed.
That was the first lie Evelyn had ever told him.
He knew it.
She knew he knew it.
But he didn't challenge her.
Instead he reached for the phone.
"I'll have signals pull the routing data."
Evelyn closed the Lantern folder.
"I'm taking this."
"That's why I brought it."
She tucked the file under her arm.
"Anything else?"
Hale hesitated.
"There is one thing."
Evelyn waited.
"Someone has been asking questions about the twelve civilians."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
"Where?"
"Two of them were contacted privately. One received an envelope. Another found photographs inside his mailbox."
"Photographs of what?"
Hale's mouth tightened.
"Lantern."
Evelyn felt sick.
There should have been almost no field photography from that operation.
"Show me."
Hale pulled out his phone and displayed an image.
Evelyn stared.
The photograph showed a rocky hillside at night.
Six shadowed figures moved toward an abandoned building.
She recognized herself immediately.
Someone had photographed the team entering the operation.
"Who took this?"
"That's what we're trying to determine."
"Was there anything written with it?"
Hale swiped to another image.
A note.
Three words.
SHE LEFT ONE.
Evelyn's stomach tightened.
"What does that mean?"
"We hoped you knew."
She didn't.
But something from that night suddenly returned.
A sound.
A voice.
Someone calling from the eastern cell block as Evelyn's team moved the twelve rescued Americans toward the extraction tunnel.
She had turned.
Daniel had grabbed her shoulder.
We have twelve. That's the package.
Evelyn had heard the voice again.
A woman.
American.
Then gunfire erupted.
They had been forced to move.
Evelyn looked at Hale.
"There may have been another prisoner."
His face changed.
"You never reported that."
"I reported hearing a voice. Intelligence determined it belonged to a local detainee."
"What if they were wrong?"
Evelyn looked at the note.
SHE LEFT ONE.
For three years, she had carried twelve names as proof they had succeeded.
Now those same twelve might be proof they had failed someone else.
"I need access to the complete archive."
Hale shook his head.
"Not alone."
"You said someone already accessed it."
"Which is exactly why I'm not letting you walk into this without protection."
"Protection from whom?"
"I don't know."
"Then protection isn't the answer."
Hale stepped closer.
"You're emotionally connected to this."
"Of course I am."
"That's why—"
"No."
Evelyn's voice stayed quiet.
"If somebody survived that compound and we left them there, I'm going to find out."
Hale studied her for several seconds.
Then he nodded.
"Secure archive. Twenty hundred hours."
"I'll be there."
Evelyn left.
For the rest of the afternoon, the base appeared normal.
That bothered her.
Soldiers walked between buildings.
Vehicles moved through checkpoints.
People complained about meetings, coffee, schedules.
Meanwhile, somewhere inside the supposedly secure military network, a dead man's credentials had opened one of the most sensitive files of Evelyn's career.
At 5:40 p.m., she entered her office.
Something was wrong.
Her desk drawer was open.
Evelyn stopped in the doorway.
She never left it open.
She reached behind her and quietly locked the door.
Then approached.
Nothing seemed missing.
Laptop.
Documents.
Personal notebook.
She checked the drawer.
Inside lay a photograph.
Evelyn had never seen it before.
She picked it up.
Daniel Reyes stood beside a vehicle.
Alive.
The image had been taken recently.
She knew because behind him was a billboard advertising a model of phone released only eight months earlier.
Evelyn stared at his face.
Older.
Thinner.
But Daniel.
On the back someone had written:
YOU SAW WHAT THEY NEEDED YOU TO SEE.
A knock hit the door.
Evelyn spun.
"Major Hart?"
Captain Cole.
She slid the photograph into her pocket.
"One second."
She opened the door.
Cole stood outside carrying two folders.
His demeanor was different now.
Careful.
Almost nervous.
"I wanted to bring the revised extraction plan."
"Leave it with operations."
"I could."
He didn't move.
Evelyn waited.
Cole lowered his voice.
"Something happened after the briefing."
"What?"
"A man approached me in the parking structure."
Evelyn's pulse quickened.
"Who?"
"Never seen him."
"What did he want?"
"He asked what General Hale told us about you."
Evelyn became very still.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing."
"Did he identify himself?"
"No."
"Describe him."
"Forties. Maybe fifty. Civilian clothes. Gray jacket. Had an old scar beside his right ear."
Evelyn felt the air leave her lungs.
Cole noticed.
"You know him?"
No.
She knew the scar.
Daniel had received it during Operation Lantern.
A piece of metal had torn the skin behind his ear when a bullet hit the communications unit beside his head.
"Major?"
Evelyn grabbed her jacket.
"Where did he go?"
"He drove away."
"What vehicle?"
"Black SUV. No plate."
She moved toward the hall.
Cole followed.
"What's happening?"
"I don't know yet."
"Does this involve Lantern?"
Evelyn stopped.
"Captain, whatever you think you owe me after this morning, forget it."
"I don't follow."
"Stay out of this."
"You're telling me somebody approached me because of you and I should stay out?"
"Yes."
"That's not happening."
Evelyn looked directly at him.
"This isn't a chance to prove yourself."
Cole's expression hardened.
"I know."
For the first time, she believed him.
At exactly eight o'clock, Evelyn entered the secure archive section with Hale.
Two intelligence officers waited inside.
The Lantern files had been moved onto an isolated system.
Hale inserted an authorization card.
The screen awakened.
"Show all access events from the last seven days," Evelyn said.
One officer typed.
A list appeared.
Daniel Reyes's dead account had logged in four times.
Each session accessed different material.
Personnel lists.
Detention compound imagery.
Extraction footage.
Then Evelyn noticed one final file.
"What is LANTERN-13?"
The intelligence officer frowned.
"I've never seen it."
Hale leaned forward.
"Open it."
The officer clicked.
ACCESS DENIED.
"Override."
Another attempt.
DENIED.
Hale entered his general officer credentials.
The file opened.
A video appeared.
The timestamp was three years old.
Evelyn stepped closer.
Night-vision footage showed the detention compound.
The angle came from a drone.
Her team appeared along the western wall.
Twelve rescued Americans moved behind them.
Then the camera shifted.
Eastern building.
Second floor.
One window.
A figure was standing behind the glass.
A woman.
Her wrists appeared restrained.
She was pounding against the window.
Evelyn stared.
The woman turned toward the drone.
For one instant her face became visible.
Evelyn whispered:
"Oh my God."
Hale looked at her.
"You recognize her?"
Evelyn did.
Every American intelligence officer old enough to remember the scandal would recognize that face.
Dr. Rebecca Sloan.
CIA cryptographic specialist.
Reported killed four years before Operation Lantern.
The video froze.
Text appeared over the image.
ASSET 13: RECOVERY PROHIBITED.
Cole had somehow followed them downstairs and stood at the archive entrance with a security officer.
"What the hell does that mean?"
Hale turned sharply.
"You shouldn't be here."
Cole ignored him.
Evelyn stared at the words.
Recovery prohibited.
Not impossible.
Prohibited.
Someone had deliberately ordered the rescue team not to recover Rebecca Sloan.
"Who issued that designation?" Evelyn asked.
The intelligence officer typed.
The system loaded.
Then stopped.
"That's strange."
"What?"
"The authorization record was removed."
Hale leaned closer.
"Recover it."
"I'm trying."
Suddenly every screen went black.
Emergency lights turned red.
The archive door locked automatically.
Cole stepped toward it.
"What happened?"
The intelligence officer typed rapidly.
"We've lost network access."
Hale reached for the emergency phone.
Dead.
Evelyn's eyes moved to the dark monitor.
Then white text appeared.
One sentence.
EVELYN, YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES.
A second line appeared.
ASK HALE WHY DANIEL HAD TO DIE.
Everyone turned toward the General.
Hale's face went pale.
Evelyn slowly faced him.
"What does that mean?"
He didn't answer.
"General."
Hale stared at the screen.
Then at Evelyn.
"There are things about Lantern you were never told."
Cole moved away from the door.
"What things?"
Hale opened his mouth.
Before he could answer, something struck the locked archive door from the other side.
Once.
Then again.
Evelyn reached toward the security panel.
The door indicator changed from red to green.
May you like
Someone outside had just unlocked it.
The handle slowly began to turn...
