Her throat tightened.
“Marcus—”
“Everybody says it. Nobody gets left behind. We put it on walls. We say it at ceremonies.”
He swallowed.
“But you actually came back.”
Sarah reached out and placed her good hand on his shoulder.
“I told you before deployment.”
Marcus nodded.
“Nobody gets left behind.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Marcus’s expression changed.
“There’s something you need to know.”
Sarah leaned closer.
“Before I lost consciousness at the clinic, I heard Vance speaking over one of the mercenary radios.”
“What did he say?”
“He wasn’t talking to the hit team.”
Marcus closed his eyes, pulling at the memory.
“He kept saying, ‘The old man can’t find out.’”
Sarah went still.
“What old man?”
“I don’t know.”
“Pendelton?”
“Maybe.”
Marcus opened his eyes.
“But then Vance said something else.”
Sarah waited.
“He said, ‘If Pendelton sees the code, we lose control of Jenkins.’”
Sarah’s pulse jumped.
“Jenkins?”
“That’s what I heard.”
“My name?”
“Yes.”
She looked at her bandaged hand.
0-7-K-9-E-X-V.
Until that moment, she had believed the final V referred to Vance.
The old manual described the last character as a command identifier.
But what if she had been wrong?
What if the code existed before Vance mattered?
What if none of it meant what she thought?
Sarah stood.
Marcus watched her.
“Captain?”
“I need to know who created that code.”
The task force operated from a restricted bunker beneath the Pentagon.
There were four members.
Sarah.
Hutch.
Special Agent Maya Lin from NSA cyber operations.
And Arthur Finnerty, a Department of Justice prosecutor whose permanent expression suggested sleep had personally betrayed him.
Maya occupied six monitors.
Finn covered three walls with documents.
Hutch supplied coffee.
Sarah supplied impatience.
“I pulled Vance’s financials,” Maya said one evening.
“And?”
“He’s filthy.”
Finn looked up.
“That is not a legal classification.”
“It should be.”
Maya touched a screen.
A web of accounts appeared.
“Decommissioned allied weapons disappear from storage. Six weeks later, identical serial blocks appear in unstable border regions. Violence increases. Congress approves emergency defense spending.”
Another window opened.
“Apex Solutions receives the contract.”
A photograph appeared.
Richard Sterling.
Fifty-eight.
Silver hair.
Billionaire.
Chief executive of one of the country’s largest defense technology corporations.
Finn pointed toward the photograph.
“Sterling funds both sides.”
Sarah studied the data.
“He creates the threat, then sells the government the solution.”
“Exactly.”
Hutch folded his arms.
“Vance handles logistics?”
Maya nodded.
“Satellite blind spots. Inventory irregularities. Missing audit records.”
Sarah leaned toward the screen.
“Who signs the procurement authorizations?”
Silence.
Maya enlarged a classified document.
The signature line was redacted.
“Above my current access.”
Sarah looked at her.
“Get access.”
Maya grinned.
“That’s why I like you.”
Finn moved to another board.
“There’s something else.”
He held up an old photocopy.
“Your code.”
Sarah took it.
At the top:
CONTINGENCY PROTOCOL 07-K9-EXV.
