Chapter 4 - THE FIRST FILE
I turned so fast that the folder slipped from my hand.
Sergeant Barrett stood between me and the stairwell door.
His face looked pale beneath the harsh emergency light.
He raised both hands.
“I’m not armed.”
“That doesn’t make you safe.”
His eyes moved to the open folder.
“You found it.”
“You left it?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know?”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and held it toward me.
A photograph filled the screen.
Ranger lying on the floor of his kennel.
Beside him, tucked beneath his front paw, was a hospital access card.
My access card.
I touched my scrub pocket.
Empty.
“I lost that this morning,” I said.
“You didn’t lose it.”
Barrett swiped to the next image.
Security footage from the K9 facility showed a gloved hand sliding my badge beneath the kennel door at 2:13 a.m.
The person’s face was hidden.
“Ranger started barking,” Barrett said. “When I came in, he wouldn’t let me take the badge.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“I did.”
“To Mercer?”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the last time I reported something involving Captain Donovan, three men disappeared.”
The name hung between us.
I stepped closer.
“What do you know?”
Barrett’s breathing became shallow.
“I was a private when Ghost Unit returned from the Shah Dara mission.”
“They never returned.”
“Officially.”
My pulse slowed.
Danger always did that to me.
“What did you see?”
“A transport plane landed at Fort Talon before sunrise. No flight number. No lights. Six wounded soldiers came off.”
“Ghost Unit had thirteen members.”
“I know.”
“Was I one of them?”
He stared at my face.
“I don’t know. Everyone was covered.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Ranger was there.”
My chest tightened.
Barrett swallowed.
“He was still a young dog. Blood all over him. He kept trying to crawl back inside the plane.”
I looked down at the DNA report.
“Who took my blood?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who created this file?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know more than you’re saying.”
His eyes shifted toward the dark stairs below us.
I heard it too.
A soft scrape.
One shoe against concrete.
Someone was standing one level down.
Barrett moved beside me.
“Did you tell anyone you were coming here?”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
The stairwell door below opened.
A shadow crossed the wall.
I closed the folder and pushed it beneath my scrub top.
Barrett reached for the emergency fire extinguisher.
The footsteps came closer.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Then Dr. Lawson appeared on the landing.
Her hands were shaking.
“Emily.”
I relaxed slightly.
“What are you doing here?”
She looked at Barrett, then at me.
“There are military police in my office.”
“Why?”
“They found stolen narcotics in my desk.”
Barrett cursed under his breath.
Dr. Lawson’s eyes filled with fear.
“They’re saying I altered your medical records.”
My stomach dropped.
“What records?”
“The blood tests. The scans. The DNA report.”
She took one step closer.
“I never ordered them.”
A phone rang below us.
Not mine.
Not Barrett’s.
Not Lawson’s.
We all looked toward the lower landing.
May you like
A man’s voice answered softly.
“Yes. She has the file.”
