Chapter 12 - The Men Who Survived My Last Mission
Three members of my final unit remained alive besides me.
Chief Aaron Blake had lost both legs.
Petty Officer Nathan Ross carried shrapnel near his spine.
Lieutenant James Ward woke from a coma two months earlier.
Robert knew Ward had seen the Carter drone above the compound.
If Ward testified, my father’s defense collapsed.
The military hospital entered lockdown.
I arrived with Morris and a federal tactical team.
My uniform sleeve had been bandaged where Vincent’s bullet grazed me.
The hallway smelled of disinfectant and rain.
Aaron Blake sat in a wheelchair outside Ward’s room holding a pistol he had taken from a guard.
“You look terrible,” he said.
“You look short.”
He laughed.
That was how we spoke when fear stood nearby.
Nathan emerged from the room.
“Ward remembers the drone operator.”
“Who?”
“He says it was a woman.”
I stopped.
Robert was not the only person involved.
Ward woke fully when I entered.
His voice remained weak.
“The screen reflected her face.”
“Who?”
He looked toward the doorway.
Margaret stood there.
My mother had come with federal protection.
Ward stared at her.
“That’s her.”
Margaret went pale.
“No.”
“You operated the drone,” I said.
“I don’t know how.”
“Then why does he recognize you?”
She pressed both hands against her mouth.
Memory returned slowly.
After delivering the metal case overseas, Robert brought her into a mobile command trailer.
He told her the drone carried surveillance equipment needed to locate me.
He asked her to place her hand on a biometric pad.
The pad authorized the strike.
She had not flown the drone.
She had activated it.
My father built the system so the final authorization belonged to her.
If evidence surfaced, Robert could blame Margaret entirely.
She began shaking.
“I killed them.”
“No,” I said. “Robert designed it.”
“I pressed the pad.”
“You were deceived.”
“Two men died.”
Aaron rolled closer.
“Mrs. Carter, the man who built the lie owns the crime.”
Margaret looked at him.
“That does not remove my hand.”
“No,” he said. “But it tells us where to aim the truth.”
An alarm sounded.
The hospital elevator opened.
Robert emerged wearing a stolen medical coat.
He held a syringe against a nurse’s throat.
Agents raised their weapons.
He looked directly at me.
“Tell them to lower their guns.”
I did not.
He pressed the needle into the nurse’s skin.
“It contains enough potassium to stop her heart.”
I recognized the desperation in his eyes.
Not fear of prison.
Fear of being seen clearly.
“You won’t leave this building,” I said.
“I don’t need to.”
He looked toward Ward’s room.
“I only need him silent.”
Then the fire doors behind him closed.
Margaret had pressed the emergency lockdown.
Robert turned.
She stepped into the corridor.
“You used me to kill our daughter.”
He laughed.
“You wanted her home.”
“I wanted her alive.”
“For once,” he said, “choose your husband.”
Margaret looked at me.
May you like
Then at the nurse.
She walked toward Robert.
