Chapter 2 - Natalie didn't move.Colonel Daniel Voss stood at the end of the corridor.
His face was thinner than she remembered.
His hair had turned almost completely gray.
But there was no mistaking him.
Natalie had seen his photograph on the memorial wall.
She had stood at the ceremony where his family received the folded flag.
Colonel Voss had supposedly died eighteen months ago during the same operation that destroyed Natalie's convoy.
Yet there he was.
Alive.
Watching her.
“Sir?”
Voss raised one finger.
“Not here.”
Natalie looked around.
“Where?”
“Somewhere nobody can hear us.”
“You're dead.”
Voss stared at her.
“So are you.”
Natalie's grip tightened around the crutch.
“What does that mean?”
“It means somebody changed the official record.”
He walked toward her.
Natalie did not step back.
She had survived too much to be intimidated by a ghost.
Voss stopped three feet away.
“They've been watching you since you woke up.”
“Who?”
“People with access to military systems.”
Her jaw tightened.
“My file.”
“Yes.”
“Who sealed it?”
Voss's expression darkened.
“You don't want to know.”
“I asked anyway.”
Voss looked toward the dining facility.
“Sergeant Briggs wasn't insulting you because of your injury.”
Natalie frowned.
“Then why?”
“He was testing you.”
“For what?”
“To see whether you still reacted like the woman who disappeared in Afghanistan.”
Natalie's mind raced.
“I didn't disappear.”
Voss stared at her for several seconds.
“That's what they want everyone to believe.”
Before Natalie could ask another question, footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Voss stepped backward.
“Forget you saw me.”
“Sir.”
“Do not trust your chain of command.”
The footsteps grew louder.
Voss moved through a side door.
Natalie followed him.
The room beyond was empty.
A storage area.
No second exit.
She spun around.
Voss was gone.
Her phone suddenly unlocked.
One new message waited.
HE LIED TO YOU.
Natalie stared at it.
Then another message appeared.
BUT NOT ABOUT BRIGGS.
She barely had time to process it before someone called her name.
“Lieutenant Carter!”
Captain Elena Ward hurried toward her.
Ward was one of the few people Natalie trusted.
She had served beside Natalie overseas.
She had helped carry the wounded after the explosion.
She was also the person who had visited Natalie every week during rehabilitation.
“You disappeared,” Ward said.
“I needed air.”
Ward looked at her crutch.
“You okay?”
Natalie nodded.
Then she hesitated.
“Captain, do you remember Colonel Voss?”
Ward's face changed.
Only slightly.
But Natalie noticed.
“Of course.”
“His death.”
“Yes.”
“You were there?”
Ward swallowed.
“No.”
Natalie studied her.
“Where were you?”
“On another mission.”
“Which one?”
Ward stared at her.
“Natalie, what's wrong?”
A terrible feeling crawled beneath Natalie's ribs.
“You didn't answer.”
“I don't remember the operation number.”
“You don't remember?”
Ward's expression hardened.
“You've been through trauma. You're not thinking clearly.”
Natalie immediately became alert.
“I'm thinking perfectly clearly.”
Ward reached toward her shoulder.
Natalie stepped away.
“Don't.”
Ward froze.
For a moment, hurt flashed across her face.
Then something else.
Fear.
“Listen to me,” Ward whispered. “Go back to your room. Lock the door. Don't open it for anyone.”
“Why?”
Ward glanced toward the hallway.
“Because Briggs just received a call.”
Natalie's eyes narrowed.
“What call?”
Ward's voice dropped.
“The call they make when they need someone disappeared.”
A minute later, Natalie was sitting alone in her barracks room.
Door locked.
Lights off.
Crutch against the wall.
Her service pistol was on the desk.
She stared at it.
Then at the classified documents stored inside her recovery binder.
The first page contained her name.
Lieutenant Natalie Carter.
Service number.
Deployment history.
Injury report.
But halfway down the page, she saw something she'd never noticed before.
A black rectangle covered a paragraph.
Someone had manually redacted it.
Natalie pulled out a pocket knife.
She carefully lifted the edge of the paper.
Underneath the black ink was a single line.
OPERATION NIGHT GLASS.
Natalie stopped breathing.
She knew that name.
Everyone in her unit knew that name.
Because Night Glass wasn't an operation.
It was a massacre.
An entire extraction team had vanished.
Nobody survived.
At least, according to the official report.
Natalie stared at the page.
Then she remembered something.
A flash of fire.
A helicopter.
Someone screaming her name.
And a voice saying:
“Carter, if they tell you you're the only survivor, don't believe them.”
Natalie's door handle moved.
She froze.
Someone was trying to open it from the outside.
Slowly.
Quietly.
She reached for her pistol.
The handle stopped.
Three knocks.
Natalie raised the weapon.
A man's voice came through the door.
“Lieutenant Carter?”
She recognized it.
Sergeant Briggs.
“Open the door.”
Natalie didn't answer.
Briggs knocked again.
“Ma'am, we need to talk.”
Natalie checked the pistol.
Loaded.
Safety off.
May you like
Then Briggs whispered something that made the blood drain from her face.
“I know what happened at Night Glass.”
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