Chapter 7 - The Crew She Couldn’t Save
The woman on the intercom provided a live video feed.
The control-room screen flickered.
A narrow metal compartment appeared.
Five exhausted sailors sat chained to a wall.
Their uniforms were faded.
Their faces were thin.
Captain Laura Vance stood behind them with a transmitter held in one hand.
A dark bruise crossed her temple.
Hannah moved closer to the screen.
“Laura.”
Vance’s expression twisted.
“You escaped.”
“I came back for you.”
“Three months ago.”
Hannah’s eyes lowered.
The room turned toward her.
Calloway asked quietly, “You escaped three months ago?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t contact the Navy?”
“I tried.”
She had reached a naval communications station in Guam.
The officer who received her report attempted to detain her.
Hannah escaped before being transferred.
Two days later, that officer died in an apparent car accident.
Every secure channel she contacted led back to the organization controlling Nightglass.
So Hannah disappeared again.
She traveled through cargo ports.
Used false names.
Tracked supply shipments from the hidden platform to the installation.
That trail led her to the underground tunnel.
Pike seized on the admission.
“She entered illegally and withheld intelligence.”
Hannah turned toward him.
“Because people wearing this uniform kept returning prisoners to the enemy.”
Calloway absorbed the accusation without defending the institution.
“What does Vance want from the vault?”
“Nightglass source keys.”
“Why?”
“To erase every record of the network.”
Vance heard through the intercom.
“No,” she said. “To free us.”
Hannah studied her face.
Something was wrong.
Laura’s eyes moved repeatedly toward the upper-left corner.
A coded signal from their deployment days.
WATCHING.
She was being forced to speak.
Hannah answered carefully.
“I can open the vault.”
Calloway looked at her.
She raised one finger slightly.
Wait.
Vance continued.
“Then do it.”
“I need proof the crew is alive.”
The camera moved closer to each prisoner.
Hannah watched their hands.
One sailor tapped two fingers against his knee.
Another blinked three times.
A message.
TWO HOSTILES.
ONE ABOVE.
The prisoners were not beneath the base.
The video was prerecorded or transmitted from elsewhere.
The transport in the tunnel was a distraction.
Hannah looked at the thermal map.
“The container is empty.”
A technician scanned it.
No significant internal heat.
No signal injector.
Calloway’s face hardened.
“Then where is Nightglass?”
Hannah looked toward the ceiling.
“Above us.”
The nearby control-room window reflected a faint red light from the ventilation duct.
A tiny device blinked behind the grate.
The military police officer moved beneath it.
Hannah stopped him.
“It’s already connected.”
The attack had not entered through the tunnels.
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It had been installed inside the interrogation wing before Hannah arrived.
👉 Someone on Calloway’s own command staff had placed Nightglass directly above the room where Hannah would be questioned.
