Chapter 9 - WASHINGTON WAS WAITING FOR MERain covered Washington when our aircraft landed.
The Pentagon looked exactly as it always had.
Massive.
Impersonal.
Secure.
But now I saw it differently.
Somewhere inside that building, someone had ordered my death.
Marcus Vale greeted me personally.
He hugged me.
I had to resist recoiling.
“You look terrible.”
“Sterling has a heavy hand.”
Vale smiled.
“Still joking.”
“Still breathing.”
His smile briefly faded.
We walked through familiar corridors.
Every person who greeted me became a question.
Friend?
Enemy?
Harbor?
Vale brought me into his office.
Coffee waited.
Two cups.
He remembered exactly how I took mine.
That somehow made everything worse.
“Elena, you've been through enough.”
He placed paperwork before me.
Administrative leave.
Thirty days.
“You deserve rest.”
“I want to finish Camp Vora.”
“It's finished.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“Elena.”
Just my name.
But the mentor disappeared.
The superior officer remained.
“Let other people handle it.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm ordering you.”
There it was.
I stood.
Vale sighed.
“You always were stubborn.”
“You taught me.”
“Yes.”
His expression became strangely sad.
“That may have been my greatest mistake.”
I left.
As the elevator doors closed, my phone vibrated.
A message from Hayes.
WE FOUND THE LEDGER.
May you like
Then another.
AND YOUR NAME IS IN IT.
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