Part 2
"Hold him down!" I commanded, slamming my hand into the pool of blood in Reyes's groin.
With my free hand, I deployed the CRoC—a Combat Ready Clamp—a specialized piece of military tourniquet equipment designed for extreme junctional hemorrhages that civilian hospitals almost never stocked. I had kept it in my tactical bag for two years, praying I'd never need...
Part 2
I looked at the camera. Its green indicator was dead.
“Olivia, lock this floor,” I said. “No visitors in or out.”
Langley stepped forward. “You don’t issue orders here.”
Admiral Cole turned on him. “Tonight, you would be wise to listen.”
The room went quiet.
Cole faced the doctors. “Senior Chief Bennett was a Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman assigned to Marine special operations....
Part 2
Command Master Chief Silas Renner pushed through the crowd of paralyzed spectators, his face a mask of absolute fury. Right on his heels was Major Reese Cole, the officer in charge of the training block. Cole’s face was beet red, his eyes darting from the three groaning SEALs on the asphalt to me.
"What the hell is going on...
Part 2
Cross reached me first. I slipped outside his arm, captured his elbow, and sent his momentum past me. He stumbled into Voss, ruining the tackle before it formed. I hooked Cross’s ankle and guided him down, controlling his descent so his skull never touched concrete.
Voss recovered fast. He wrapped both arms around my waist from behind.
“Got you,” he...
Part 2
The taller officer didn’t wait for an invitation. He stepped past the threshold, his heavy boots thudding against my hardwood floor, forcing me back toward the kitchen island. His partner followed, pulling the door shut behind him with a loud click that echoed in the quiet apartment.
"What happened to Ethan?" I asked, my heart hammering a frantic beat...
PART 2
“I need copies of everything,” I said.
Officer Lang nodded. “You’ll get them, but first we need to know who had access to your identification.”
My parents had kept a folder of deployment documents from my first assignment. It contained an old copy of my military ID, emergency forms, and several pages with original signatures. Two months earlier, Dad had...
Part 2
The ocean swallowed us whole.
Lieutenant Tyler Hayes’s grip on my throat was absolute steel. My lungs screamed for oxygen as the freezing Pacific water rushed past my mask. He was kicking wildly, his eyes wide and unseeing behind his flooded visor, terrified by the immense, dark void dragging him down. The partially deployed parachute and heavy ejection seat...
PART 2
The cable snapped tight around my glove and dragged me shoulder-first into the ejection seat.
I released my knife before the lanyard could trap my wrist, grabbed the seat frame, and kicked upward. Evan’s boots struck my ribs as he fought for air above me. The wreckage rolled beneath us, pulling the parachute riser through a jagged opening like...
Part 2
"A file clerk?" Grant repeated, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling. The deadly seriousness in his tone made the entire room hold its breath. Even the waiters stopped moving, the swinging kitchen doors resting still against my back.
Grant pointed directly at me, marooned in the shadows of Table 19. "Let me introduce you to the woman sitting...
PART 2
Grant’s hand reached his brow in a salute so sharp that the guard released me at once.
“Vice Admiral Ellison,” he said, his voice carrying through the ballroom. “Commander Grant Seo, United States Navy. Ma’am, it is an honor to see you again.”
The silence that followed had weight.
Celeste stared at him. “Vice admiral?”
Grant lowered his hand only after I...
