27. Rook
ROOK
Captain Sam Cutter escorted the visitor inside.
Snow and wind followed them through the warehouse door.
Every weapon remained trained on the older man.
He noticed.
He didn’t appear concerned.
His gaze moved across the operators, the weapons, and the operations wall.
Then he saw Sarah.
Everything else disappeared.
Neither moved.
For several seconds, father and daughter stared at each other across the warehouse.
Three years.
Three years of believing.
Wondering.
Grieving.
Henry Parker took one step toward her.
“You’ve gotten stubborn.”
Sarah crossed the distance between them and slapped him.
The sound echoed through the warehouse.
Nobody moved.
Not Sniper.
Not Cobra.
Not even Cutter.
Henry touched his jaw.
“I probably deserved that.”
“You disappeared.”
“I had to.”
“For three years.”
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You left me alone.”
The last words cracked.
Only slightly.
But Rook heard it.
Henry did too.
His face changed.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Sarah struck his chest with both hands.
“You don’t get to use that as an excuse.”
“No.”
“Wade disappeared. Then you disappeared. Mom died believing both of you were gone.”
Pain crossed Henry’s face.
“I know.”
Sarah hit his chest again.
This time Henry caught her wrists.
For one heartbeat, they stood locked together.
Then Sarah threw her arms around him.
Henry closed his eyes and held his daughter.
His hand settled against the back of her head.
Neither spoke.
There weren’t words large enough for three missing years.
Rook looked away.
So did most of the team.
The moment belonged to them.
Finally, Sarah stepped back.
Tears shone in her eyes, but her voice had returned to steel.
“Wade is alive.”
Henry stopped breathing.
Sarah looked toward the monitor.
“We have video recorded six days ago.”
Henry crossed the warehouse.
Fathom restarted the interview.
Wade appeared beneath the interrogation light.
Henry’s breath caught.
A tiny sound.
Most people wouldn’t have noticed.
Rook did.
He recognized what it looked like when hope struck a man hard enough to become pain.
Henry reached toward the screen.
His fingers stopped against the frame.
Not the image.
As though touching Wade might make him disappear.
“He’s alive.”
Sarah stood beside him.
“Yes.”
Henry closed his eyes.
For one brief moment, the experienced intelligence officer vanished.
Only a father remained.
When he opened his eyes, the control returned.
“You found Black Site Theta.”
“We identified the private airstrip,” Rook said. “We leave in four hours.”
“No.”
Every operator focused on Henry.
Rook stepped closer.
“No?”
“The airstrip is compromised.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the extraction event is mine.”
Silence descended over the warehouse.
Sarah stared at him. “You were planning to rescue Wade?”
“For six months.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Warden monitors every person connected to him.”
“You could have found a way.”
“I did. It took three years.”
Sarah’s anger returned.
Henry accepted it without defense.
Rook pointed toward the recent message.
“Warden ordered Wade transferred before your extraction.”
“Yes.”
“They know your plan.”
“Part of it.”
“How much?”
“Enough to move the prisoners. Not enough to know the actual entry route.”
Fathom pulled up the map.
“Where is Theta?”
Henry selected the private airstrip.
“There.”
Sarah released a breath.
The photograph had led them to the right place.
Henry marked a position several miles east of the runway.
“The visible compound is only the administrative and aviation section. The detention facility is built beneath this ridge.”
An underground complex appeared on an older geological survey.
“How do you know?” Rook asked.
“I helped create it.”
The warehouse became very still.
Henry looked toward the Silver Sword emblem.
“Twenty years ago, the Silver Sword established several secure sites for protected witnesses and compromised operatives. Theta was supposed to keep people alive until they could testify.”
“What happened?”
“Warden took control.”
“When?”
“Gradually. Oversight disappeared. Directors changed. The sites stopped protecting witnesses and started keeping them.”
Sarah looked toward Wade’s image.
“You knew he was there?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you find out?”
“Three years ago.”
The pain on her face deepened.
“You found him and didn’t bring him home?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because the moment Warden realized I knew, they moved him. Every time I got close, another site disappeared.”
Henry looked toward the transfer records.
“The Silver Sword marks on those authorizations are mine. I used people still embedded inside the network to keep Wade and the other survivors away from termination orders.”
“You were protecting them,” Fathom said.
“Barely.”
“Why not release them during a transfer?”
“Because Warden separated the access codes. No single person controlled a complete operation. If one part failed, the prisoners were killed.”
Sarah went pale.
Henry continued.
“I needed enough of the original Silver Sword network to breach the facility, disable the termination system, and extract all four survivors simultaneously.”
“And now Warden knows you’re coming,” Rook said.
“Yes.”
“Why come here?”
Henry looked directly at him.
“Because my operation no longer has enough people.”
His gaze moved over Shadow Division.
“But yours does.”
Rook studied him.
Henry Parker had helped create Black Site Theta.
He had operated inside the conspiracy’s systems for years.
He might be their best chance of reaching Wade.
He might also be leading them into another trap.
“You don’t walk into my headquarters and take control of my team.”
“I didn’t come to take control.”
“Then understand this now. Shadow Division follows my command.”
Henry held his gaze.
Two men accustomed to being obeyed.
Two men who had lost people to the same enemy.
Finally, Henry nodded.
“Understood.”
Rook gestured toward the operations table.
“Show us the real entry route.”
Henry removed an encrypted drive from inside his coat.
“I can do better than that.”
He connected it to Fathom’s isolated system.
Construction plans filled the screen.
Security stations.
Underground tunnels.
Detention cells.
Emergency systems.
And a highlighted route into the center of Black Site Theta.
For the first time, Shadow Division had more than a target.
They had a way inside.