40. Wade
WADE
The transport level had become chaos.
Operators moved through the corridor.
Cell doors stood open.
Alarms screamed.
Men who had spent years buried beneath stone were finally fighting their way toward freedom.
I barely noticed any of it.
My attention remained fixed on Sarah.
My little sister.
Alive.
Standing inside a mountain in northern Pakistan dressed like an operator and looking ready to kill anyone who stood between her and me.
Not a memory.
Not a dream.
Real.
I had barely found her.
Now she was walking back into danger with Rook.
Every instinct I possessed screamed at me to follow.
Then Sarah looked beyond me.
Her expression changed.
The anger disappeared.
Emotion flooded her face.
“Dad.”
The word struck like a rifle round.
Slowly, I turned.
A man stood at the far end of the transport corridor.
Frozen.
Absolutely frozen.
Jack Parker.
My father.
He looked older.
His hair had turned almost completely gray. A beard covered his jaw, and years of grief had cut deep lines into his face.
But he was still Dad.
For several seconds, no one moved.
No one spoke.
The alarms continued screaming.
Gunfire echoed through the distant tunnels.
Yet the corridor around us seemed to go silent.
My father stared at me as if his mind couldn’t accept what his eyes were seeing.
As if the mountain had handed him a miracle he no longer believed he deserved.
“Wade.”
My name barely escaped him.
My throat closed.
Five years.
Five years of believing I would never see my family again.
Five years of wondering whether they had moved on.
Whether they had healed.
Whether they had forgotten me.
They hadn’t.
Dad took one step.
Then another.
He moved faster each time.
He stopped directly in front of me and stared.
His eyes traveled over every scar.
Every bruise.
Every piece of damage five years had left behind.
His hand lifted.
Stopped.
Then touched my shoulder.
Real.
Solid.
Alive.
His eyes filled.
“You stubborn son of a bitch.”
I laughed.
Then I started crying.
That only made me laugh harder.
“I learned from you.”
That destroyed what remained of his control.
Dad caught the back of my neck and pulled me forward.
We collided in a fierce embrace.
Neither of us cared who saw.
Neither cared about the tears.
Neither cared that a war still raged around us.
My father had found his son.
And for the first time in five years, I was home.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I tightened my arms around him.
“For what?”
“I should have found you.”
“You never stopped looking.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
“It was.”
He pulled back.
“I failed you.”
“No.” I gripped his shoulders. “They betrayed us. Reeves betrayed us. You didn’t.”
Pain crossed his face at the name.
“He stood beside us at your funeral.”
“I know.”
“He handed Sarah the flag.”
Rage entered his eyes.
“He’s still inside this mountain.”
Dad looked toward the upper levels.
“So is Madow.”
An alarm changed pitch.
Fathom’s voice came through the radio attached to Sniper’s vest.
“Collapse sequence initiated. Everyone has less than twelve minutes to clear the facility.”
Sniper turned toward the survivors.
“Reunion over. We move.”
Dad caught my arm.
“I’m getting you out.”
“Sarah stayed with Rook.”
“I know.”
“You left her?”
His eyes narrowed.
“She doesn’t take orders from me.”
“She never did.”
“Apparently she takes some from Rook.”
I looked toward the corridor where my sister had disappeared.
Dad followed my gaze.
Something almost amused moved through his expression.
“Don’t start.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
The mountain shook again.
Concrete split along the wall.
Sniper stepped between us.
“You can argue about Rook after we’re no longer beneath several million tons of rock.”
Dad took one side of Hale.
Dawson took the other.
Together, we moved toward the eastern exit.
I looked back once.
Sarah was somewhere behind us.
So was Rook.
So were the men who had stolen five years of my life.
I had to trust her.
That might have been the hardest thing the mountain demanded from me.
Northern Access Level
Alan Madow ran.
Not walked.
Not retreated.
Ran.
The command center had emptied behind him.
Technicians abandoned their stations.
Security teams fled toward exits that were already sealed.
Alarms screamed through the mountain.
Black Site Theta was falling.
Madow shoved through a steel door and entered the private elevator.
He pressed his palm against the biometric scanner.
The doors closed.
The secure drive rested inside his coat.
With the names on it, he could bargain.
Disappear.
Rebuild.
Men like Alan Madow always had another identity waiting.
The elevator climbed toward the hidden landing pad.
I followed Sarah through the northern access corridor.
Falcon covered our rear.
Cobra had gone to disable the demolition network, though his exact words had been, “I’m going to argue with some explosives.”
I decided not to ask.
“Fathom,” I said. “Where is Madow?”
“Private elevator moving toward the northern landing pad.”
“How far?”
“Two levels above you.”
Sarah accelerated.
I caught her vest.
“Together.”
“I remember.”
We reached the access stairs.
The mountain shook beneath another detonation.
Not Cobra’s.
A support charge.
Madow’s collapse sequence had begun.
We climbed.
At the top, Falcon opened the steel door.
Freezing wind struck us.
Snow swirled across a concealed landing pad carved into the mountainside.
A helicopter waited near the edge.
Rotors turning.
The pilot sat behind the controls.
Alan Madow sprinted toward it.
I raised my rifle.
“Stop!”
Madow turned and fired.
The round struck the doorframe beside Sarah.
I pulled her behind cover.
Falcon fired at the helicopter.
The pilot ducked.
Madow ran toward the aircraft.
Sarah leaned around the steel door and fired.
Her round hit Madow’s leg.
He collapsed in the snow.
The pistol flew from his hand.
The helicopter pilot lifted off without him.
Falcon fired again, but the aircraft disappeared into the storm.
Madow rolled onto his back.
His hand moved toward his coat.
I crossed the distance and kicked his wrist aside.
A small backup weapon fell into the snow.
Madow stared up at me.
For the first time, the powerful director looked human.
Afraid.
I held my rifle loosely.
Not aimed.
Not yet.
“You know,” I said, “I flew a long way for this.”
Madow glanced toward the empty landing pad.
Searching for guards.
Searching for another escape route.
There wasn’t one.
For the first time in his life, he was alone.
Exactly like the men he had betrayed.
Exactly like the teams he had sacrificed.
Exactly like six operators left to die on a frozen mountain.
I stepped closer.
“Hammer.”
Madow’s face tightened.
“Tex.”
Wind drove snow across the landing pad.
“Viking.”
His hand pressed against the wound in his leg.
“Ridge.”
Sarah stood behind me, rifle trained on his chest.
“Ghost.”
Madow’s eyes moved toward the mountain.
“Bishop.”
Each name landed like a blow.
I stopped in front of him.
“You remember them?”
Madow swallowed.
“I didn’t pull the trigger.”
“No. You just gave the order.”
“You don’t understand what they discovered.”
“Then explain it.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Do you think this ends with me?”
“No.”
My voice remained calm.
“But you’re where it starts.”
Madow reached inside his coat.
Sarah raised her rifle.
“Don’t.”
He slowly removed a secure drive and held it between two fingers.
“This contains every name. Every operation. Everyone who financed Project Nightfall.”
I took it from him.
Madow smiled through his pain.
“You need me to decrypt it.”
“Maybe.”
I secured the drive inside my vest.
“But I don’t need you standing.”
Madow looked past me.
A new figure stepped onto the landing pad.
Colonel Jonathan Reeves.
His rifle was aimed at Sarah.
“Drop your weapons.”
Sarah froze.
Madow smiled.
Reeves stepped closer.
“Now.”
I let my rifle hang from its sling.
Sarah slowly lowered hers.
Reeves glanced toward Madow.
For one second, his attention shifted.
That was all Sarah needed.
She drew the knife from her boot and threw it.
The blade struck Reeves’s shoulder.
He fired.
I hit Sarah and drove her into the snow as the round passed over us.
Falcon opened fire from the doorway.
Reeves fell behind a concrete barrier.
Madow crawled toward his pistol.
Sarah rolled, grabbed the weapon first, and aimed it at him.
“Don’t move.”
Madow stopped.
Gunfire erupted between Falcon and Reeves.
Then silence.
Falcon advanced toward the barrier.
“Reeves is gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?” I demanded.
A steel maintenance door stood open beyond the landing pad.
“He went back inside.”
Sarah rose.
Her eyes locked on the doorway.
Reeves was heading into the collapsing mountain.
Toward the prison exits.
Toward Wade.
She reached for her rifle.
I caught her arm.
“We have less than ten minutes.”
“My brother is down there.”
“So is your father.”
“And Reeves knows it.”
The mountain shook beneath our feet.
Madow smiled from the snow.
“He’ll kill Wade before he lets him leave.”
Sarah looked at me.
Fear entered her eyes.
Then rage replaced it.
I hauled Madow upright and shoved him toward Falcon.
“Get him off this mountain.”
Falcon grabbed the director.
“What about you?”
I picked up my rifle.
“We’re going after Reeves.”
Sarah was already moving toward the open door.
Together, we ran back into the mountain.