15. Rook
ROOK
Gunfire hammered across the docks.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the falling snow.
Rook leaned around the shipping container and fired toward two mercenaries advancing from the western warehouse.
One dropped behind cover.
The second retreated.
Sarah moved beside him.
Not behind him.
Beside him.
Exactly where an operator would position herself.
“Marcus is moving,” Sniper reported.
“Direction?”
“Northwest along the ridge. Two guards with him.”
Rook touched Sarah’s shoulder.
“Stay with me.”
She gave him a look.
Not annoyed.
Offended.
Another round struck the container above them.
Sarah leaned around the edge and fired twice.
Two distant figures collapsed into the snow.
She returned to cover.
Rook blinked.
“Or don’t.”
For the first time, the corner of her mouth twitched.
Not quite a smile.
Close.
“Six hostiles advancing from the east,” Falcon warned.
Rook pivoted.
The attackers moved between stacked equipment and shipping containers.
Fast.
Disciplined.
Using cover.
Professionals.
“Reef, Maverick, intercept.”
“Moving,” Reef answered.
Shadow Division opened fire.
The fight became immediate.
Violent.
Snow erupted beneath boots.
Rounds struck steel.
Men shouted commands.
Falcon dropped one attacker from the repair platform.
Reef and Maverick cut off two more near the workshop.
Cutter emerged from behind the marine engine and pulled an injured dock worker to safety before returning fire.
Rook saw movement near Sarah’s position.
A muzzle flash.
A rifle barrel.
Too close.
Sarah grabbed the front of his vest and shoved him sideways.
A bullet struck the container where his head had been.
Steel fragments sprayed across the dock.
Her pistol barked once.
The shooter disappeared behind a stack of equipment.
Sarah calmly reloaded.
“You’re welcome.”
Rook stared at her.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“I’m really not.”
“You almost smiled.”
“You imagined it.”
“Twice.”
She ignored him.
Fathom’s voice entered the channel.
“I have Lane’s personnel file.”
“Talk to me.”
“Colonel Marcus Lane. Military intelligence. Former special operations liaison. He oversaw the inquiry into Wade’s missing team.”
Sarah’s face hardened.
“What else?” Rook asked.
“Lane participated in the preliminary review of our mountain operation.”
Rook’s blood chilled.
“Before or after?”
“Both.”
That made no sense unless Marcus already knew the mission was compromised.
“What was his role?”
“Threat assessment and operational security.”
Sarah looked toward Rook.
Marcus had been responsible for determining whether Rook’s mission was secure.
Then Rook’s team walked into an ambush.
“That doesn’t prove he ordered it,” Rook said.
“No,” Fathom agreed. “But it gives him access.”
“Any connection to Thornton?”
“Lane served under Thornton for four years.”
Another line joined the conspiracy.
Thornton controlled the investigation.
Marcus controlled mission security.
Both had connections to teams destroyed during classified operations.
“Rook,” Sniper said. “Lane’s running.”
Rook looked toward the ridge.
Marcus and his guards descended toward the western access road.
A black SUV waited near the bottom.
One of the few vehicles Cobra hadn’t disabled.
“Cobra, stop that SUV.”
“I can’t.”
Rook didn’t like the answer.
“Why not?”
“It’s outside the charge line.”
Falcon fired.
The SUV’s rear tire exploded.
It fishtailed.
Recovered.
Kept moving.
Marcus’s guards returned fire toward the harbor while he ran for the passenger door.
Sarah stepped from cover.
Rook caught her arm.
“Don’t.”
She turned toward him.
Snow swirled between them.
“If he gets away?—”
Her voice cracked.
Only slightly.
But it cracked.
The first break in her armor.
Rook saw the grief behind it.
The guilt.
The exhaustion.
Five years of chasing a man who controlled every answer she received.
“If he gets away, more people die.”
She believed it absolutely.
Rook tightened his hand around her arm.
“And if you run across an open dock, you die.”
“I can reach him.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to order me around.”
“No,” Rook said. “But I’m not watching another person run into a kill zone when I can stop it.”
The words landed between them.
They weren’t only about Sarah.
They were about Viking.
Ridge.
Bishop.
Every man Rook couldn’t stop from sacrificing himself.
Sarah saw it.
Her anger shifted.
Not gone.
Understood.
Fathom’s voice snapped through the radio.
“Additional vehicles approaching from the north.”
Headlights appeared beyond the harbor entrance.
Three black SUVs accelerated toward the docks.
Reinforcements.
Marcus reached his vehicle.
The passenger door opened.
Sniper’s voice tightened.
“I have a shot.”
“Can you disable him without killing him?”
“Not through the vehicle.”
Marcus climbed inside.
The SUV accelerated into the storm.
Sarah watched it disappear.
Pain flashed through her gray eyes.
Then she looked at Rook.
“He’s connected to your mountain.”
“I know.”
“I saw his authorization on one of the operational files.”
“That means he had access. It doesn’t prove he gave the order.”
“He buried my brother’s investigation.”
“We’ll prove that too.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then help me understand.”
Gunfire continued around them.
But for one second, Sarah looked only at Rook.
“Wade trusted him.”
The words were barely audible.
“Marcus was his commanding officer.”
Rook understood the betrayal then.
Marcus hadn’t merely investigated Wade’s disappearance.
He had sent Wade on the mission.
Then carried out the investigation into his own decisions.
“He lied to all of us,” Sarah said. “He stood beside my family and promised he would bring Wade home.”
Her eyes returned to the road where Marcus had vanished.
“He carried my brother’s casket even though there was nothing inside it.”
An empty casket.
A symbolic funeral.
Five years without a body or an answer.
Rook’s anger became something colder.
“Is Wade dead?”
Sarah hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Hope and agony lived inside those three words.
For five years, she hadn’t known whether she was hunting her brother’s killer or trying to find him alive.
Rook released her arm.
Not because he wanted her to run.
Because he understood now.
“We find Marcus,” he said.
Sarah met his eyes.
“We find Wade.”
The promise crossed between them.
Before she could answer, the first reinforcement vehicle broke through the harbor gate.
Rook raised his rifle.
“Take cover!”