Chapter 18 - THE SURVIVOR WHO NEVER CAME HOMERebecca contacted Maya three nights later.
A diner outside Richmond.
Midnight.
Alone.
Maya naturally brought Marcus.
“You're terrible at following instructions,” Rebecca said from the booth.
Maya stopped.
Rebecca Shaw was older now.
Gray threaded through dark hair.
A scar crossed her neck.
But she was unquestionably the woman from the photograph.
Marcus stayed near the entrance.
Maya sat.
“You were at Nightfall.”
“Yes.”
“Why aren't you in the report?”
“Because I wasn't supposed to exist.”
Rebecca explained that she had embedded with Ghost 7 shortly before the operation.
Cole knew.
Daniel knew.
Thomas knew.
Maya did not.
Her memory of those days remained fragmented.
Rebecca had escaped the compound hours before the final attack carrying evidence against Hale.
Ghost 7 stayed behind to destroy the mentor list.
Maya stared at her.
“You left them.”
Rebecca's eyes hardened.
“They ordered me to.”
Maya understood that pain.
“You survived for them.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Just like you.”
Then she placed a sealed envelope on the table.
“What is this?”
“The reason I stayed hidden.”
Inside was a list of seven names.
Morrison.
Nathan Caldwell.
Evelyn Hale.
Jonathan Vale.
Thomas Reeves.
Two others.
Maya recognized the sixth.
Her mother.
The seventh name was blacked out.
Rebecca leaned forward.
“Nightfall wasn't designed to destroy Ghost Seven.”
Maya felt cold.
“Then what?”
“To force the original Ghost founders into the open.”
Thomas.
Nathan.
Maya's mother.
Morrison.
Hale had been hunting the network's creators.
Maya whispered,
“Who's the seventh?”
Rebecca looked toward Marcus.
Then back at Maya.
“I don't know.”
“But they're alive?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
May you like
Rebecca's expression tightened.
“Because that person sent me the photograph.”
