Chapter 5 - The Message Sent to Barrett
Rourke moved the formation into a secure administration building.
Military police locked down the training yard.
No shooter was found in the immediate tree line.
Only a shallow firing position hidden beneath camouflage netting.
It had been prepared before sunrise.
Inside were boot impressions, an empty water bottle, and one spent battery from a laser designator.
No rifle casing.
No sign that a live round had been chambered.
Whoever created the position wanted to frighten them.
Or send a message.
Barrett sat in an interview room with Rourke and Claire.
Danner demanded to attend.
Rourke refused.
Luke placed his phone on the table.
The night before, he received a photograph of his father tied to a chair.
The message beneath it read:
PUT THE COIN BESIDE ROWAN DURING TRAINING.
SAY NOTHING.
Luke’s hands shook.
“I thought they’d kill him.”
“Who sent it?” Claire asked.
“Blocked number.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“My father disappeared two days ago. The sheriff said there was no evidence of a crime.”
Rourke examined the message.
“Why was the coin already in your possession?”
Luke looked toward Claire.
“Danner gave it to me.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What did he say?”
“That it belonged to your father and would make you lose focus.”
Rourke’s expression hardened.
“Did he tell you where he got it?”
“No.”
Luke admitted Danner also instructed him to place two sandbags in Claire’s rucksack.
He claimed it was a test.
“Danner said officers like her needed humiliation before they learned obedience.”
Claire leaned forward.
“Did your father ever talk about Daniel Rowan?”
Luke stared at the floor.
“Only once.”
“What did he say?”
“That your father wasn’t dead when they left him.”
The room became completely silent.
Luke explained that his father, Sergeant Paul Barrett, woke from nightmares for years.
He drank heavily.
On one anniversary of the mission, he whispered that Daniel had survived the first attack.
“He said Danner changed the extraction grid,” Luke continued. “The helicopter went to the wrong valley.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire’s fingers closed around the sniper coin.
Luke looked at it.
“My dad kept saying someone watched from the ridge. Someone who saw everything.”
The hidden laser position had been on a ridge overlooking the yard.
The caller knew details from the mission.
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And Paul Barrett had disappeared just before Claire found the coin.
👉 Luke’s father knew Daniel was alive after the attack—but his disappearance suggested someone was still protecting the original betrayal.
