Chapter 1 - The Baton Hit Beside Her Hand
The wooden baton slammed into the gravel inches from Claire Rowan’s fingers.
Dust exploded across her face.
“Stay down, princess.”
Sergeant First Class Wade Danner lifted the baton again.
Claire remained on one knee, her left palm pressed into the burning gravel as she fought to stay conscious.
Blood ran from a cut near her brow.
Her olive-drab shirt was soaked through with sweat.
Behind her, ten soldiers stood near the concrete barriers and stacked tires.
No one moved.
Some looked uncomfortable.
Corporal Luke Barrett still wore a smug smile.
Claire planted one boot beneath herself.
Her muscles shook as she forced her body halfway upright.
“You’ll need more than fear.”
Danner’s jaw tightened.
He raised the baton higher.
Then Claire’s overloaded rucksack shifted across the gravel.
Two heavy sandbags slid from the open top.
The formation went silent.
Major Caleb Rourke saw them first.
He stepped forward, bent, and lifted one.
“Who put these in her pack?”
No one answered.
Barrett’s smile disappeared.
Danner stopped with the baton still raised.
Claire’s fingers scraped through the gravel.
They touched something cold.
A worn silver coin lay beside her hand.
She closed her fingers around it.
The design pressed into her skin.
A sniper’s crosshairs.
An eagle.
And a tiny dent along the edge.
Claire knew that coin.
It had belonged to her father.
A man officially reported dead twelve years earlier.
She looked toward Danner.
The color drained from his face.
“Why are you afraid of this?” she asked.
Before he could answer, a red laser dot appeared at the center of Claire’s chest.
Every soldier froze.
Rourke turned sharply toward the distant tree line.
“Nobody move.”
Claire looked down at the red dot.
Then back at Danner.
His grip loosened around the baton.
The cruelty in his eyes had vanished.
What remained was fear.
Not fear for Claire.
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Fear of whoever was watching them.
👉 The silver coin should have been buried with Claire’s father—but someone had placed it in the gravel moments before the laser appeared.
