39. Sarah
SARAH
The blast door exploded inward.
Steel screamed.
Concrete shattered.
Dust filled the corridor.
I entered behind Rook with my rifle raised and my heart trying to beat its way through my chest.
“Clear left!” Falcon shouted.
“Clear right!”
“Moving!”
Shadow Division flooded into the transport level.
Rook dropped the first mercenary.
Falcon took the second.
Cobra appeared through the smoke and solved a problem at the intersection with another explosion.
As usual.
I barely noticed.
I wasn’t looking for enemies.
I was looking for one man.
Wade.
The corridor stretched ahead.
Steel doors.
Security checkpoints.
Transport bays.
Blood streaked the concrete floor.
My pulse thundered.
Every breath hurt.
Every step felt impossible.
Five years.
Five years of searching.
Five years of dead ends.
Five years of men telling me to accept that my brother was dead.
Now he was somewhere inside this mountain.
Alive.
Close.
A burst of gunfire erupted ahead.
Rook caught the back of my vest before I could run toward it.
“Stay with me.”
“That could be Wade.”
“It could also be twenty mercenaries waiting for you to come around that corner.”
I hated that he was right.
Rook signaled Falcon toward the left wall.
Cobra moved right.
We advanced together.
A figure appeared at the far end of the corridor.
Rifle raised.
Rook fired.
The man dropped.
Another mercenary stepped from behind a transport vehicle.
Falcon took him down.
Then Fathom’s voice came through my headset.
“Rook, Sniper has the prisoners.”
I stopped breathing.
“Say that again.”
“Five survivors. Wade is with them.”
Wade.
Alive.
Moving.
Fighting.
My knees nearly buckled.
“Where?”
“Approaching your position from the western stairwell.”
I started toward it.
Rook caught my arm again.
“Together.”
“Rook—”
“Together, Sarah.”
The mountain shook.
Dust fell around us.
I wanted to scream at him.
I wanted to shove him away and run.
Then I remembered my promise.
If he said move, I moved.
If he said wait, I waited.
Together.
I nodded.
We cleared the final intersection.
The western stairwell door opened.
Sniper emerged first.
Shark followed.
Then Reef.
Behind them came men in stolen tactical gear and bloodstained prison clothes.
Thin.
Bearded.
Scarred.
Armed.
Men the world believed were dead.
My eyes moved from one face to another.
Not him.
Not him.
Not—
Wade stepped through the door.
The world stopped.
The gunfire disappeared.
The alarms faded.
The explosions became distant thunder.
For one terrible second, I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
He was older.
Thinner.
A beard covered the lower half of his face. A scar cut through one eyebrow. Five years of suffering had been carved into every line.
But his eyes…
I knew those eyes.
I had known them my entire life.
Wade stared at me.
As if he couldn’t understand what he was seeing.
As if I were a memory created by five years of darkness.
“Sarah?”
His voice was rough.
Broken.
But it was his voice.
“Wade.”
My rifle slipped from my hand.
The sling caught it against my body.
I ran.
Rook shouted something behind me.
I didn’t hear it.
Wade dropped his weapon as I reached him.
His arms closed around me.
Solid.
Real.
Alive.
A sound tore out of me.
Half laugh.
Half sob.
I struck his shoulder with my fist.
“You idiot.”
Wade held me tighter.
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
His body went still.
“I stood beside a coffin with nothing inside it, and I buried you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?”
I pulled back far enough to look at him.
Tears blurred his face.
“You disappear for five years, get yourself imprisoned inside a mountain, and all you can say is you’re sorry?”
Wade studied me.
Then the corner of his mouth lifted.
“What the hell are you doing here? Have you been working out?”
I stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?”
I laughed.
I couldn’t help it.
Five years disappeared beneath the absurdity of that question.
“You’re standing inside an underground prison after being declared dead, and you’re worried about me?”
“You’re my little sister.”
“I haven’t been little for a long time.”
Wade looked me over.
“You got taller.”
“That’s what you’re going with?”
“You got older too.”
I smacked him again.
Wade laughed.
A real laugh.
The sound broke whatever control I had left.
I threw my arms around him and cried against his shoulder.
Behind us, Sniper laughed.
“Definitely siblings.”
Other men joined him.
Rough laughter filled the transport corridor.
Men who hadn’t laughed in years.
Men who had been buried alive.
Wade held me as if he were afraid I might disappear.
“I saw your picture,” he whispered.
I pulled back.
“What?”
“The interrogator showed me surveillance photographs from Alaska. You were standing near the warehouse.”
His expression changed.
“I knew you never stopped looking.”
“Not once.”
“I hoped Dad had made you.”
“No one makes me do anything.”
“That hasn’t changed.”
“Neither has your terrible judgment.”
Wade smiled.
His hand touched my face.
“You’re real.”
“So are you.”
For a second, we simply looked at one another.
Five years stood between us.
Too much pain to understand in one moment.
Too many questions to ask in the middle of a war.
But he was alive.
We would have time.
We had to.
I finally noticed the men standing behind him.
Wade turned.
“Grant Barrett. Jackson Cole. Luke Dawson. Eric Hale.”
One by one, they met my eyes.
I had known their names for five years.
I had seen their photographs on casualty reports.
Read the letters they had written to their families.
Searched for proof that they had survived.
Now they stood in front of me.
Not prisoners.
Not victims.
Operators.
Warriors.
Survivors.
I looked at Wade.
“We’re bringing all of you home.”
Grant glanced toward the shaking ceiling.
“Not to rush the reunion, but this place feels like it’s about to come down.”
Fathom’s warning exploded through our radios.
“He’s right. Madow initiated a facility purge.”
Rook immediately lifted his weapon.
“What kind of purge?”
“The kind involving demolition charges. I’m detecting power surges along the internal support grid.”
Wade’s expression hardened.
“He’s going to collapse the prison.”
“With everyone inside,” Rook said.
The moment of peace ended.
Rook faced the group.
“Sniper, take the survivors to the eastern exit. Shark and Reef go with him.”
Wade reached for his rifle.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Reeves is still inside.”
“And you can barely stand.”
Wade stepped toward Rook.
“I survived five years waiting for the chance to put him down.”
Rook didn’t move.
“Then survive another ten minutes and help your men get out.”
The two stared at each other.
Neither looked willing to bend.
I stepped between them.
“Wade.”
He looked at me.
“You promised you’d bring them home, didn’t you?”
His eyes shifted toward the four men beside him.
I saw the answer.
“Yes.”
“Then finish the mission.”
Wade closed his eyes.
Only for a second.
When he opened them, the operator had regained control.
He picked up his rifle.
“Fine.”
Sniper grinned.
“That wasn’t a yes.”
Wade looked at him.
“My whole family hates you.”
“Your sister said the same thing.”
Rook pointed toward the exit.
“Move.”
Wade reached for my hand.
For one second, I was a little girl following her big brother home.
Then I pulled back.
“I have to stay with Rook.”
His expression hardened immediately.
“No.”
I almost laughed again.
“Don’t start.”
“You just got me back.”
“And I’m not losing you again. Get your men out. I’m stopping Madow from burying this place.”
Wade looked at Rook.
“If anything happens to her?—”
“I know,” Rook said.
Something silent passed between them.
A warning.
A promise.
Then Wade turned toward the eastern exit.
I watched him disappear down the corridor with his men.
Alive.
My brother was alive.
And now I had one more reason to make sure Alan Madow never escaped the mountain.
Command Center
Alan Madow watched the reunion on the security feed.
Sarah Parker had found her brother.
Rook had reached the prison wing.
The surviving prisoners were armed and moving toward the eastern exit.
Five years of control disappeared before his eyes.
A technician turned toward him.
“Sir…”
Madow didn’t answer.
“Shadow Division has seized the transport level.”
The monitors flickered.
One by one, the camera feeds went dark.
Madow reached beneath the console and removed a secure drive.
Everything Black Site Theta had collected.
Prisoner files.
Operational records.
Payment ledgers.
Names.
Enough evidence to bring down everyone connected to Project Nightfall.
He slid it into his coat.
“Begin the collapse sequence.”
The technician stared at him.
“Our people are still inside.”
Madow drew his sidearm.
The technician went pale.
“Begin it.”
Hands trembling, the man entered the command.
Warning lights illuminated throughout the mountain.
Madow turned toward the private elevator leading to the northern landing pad.
He hadn’t lost.
Not yet.
As long as he possessed the drive, he still held power.
And Alan Madow had spent his entire life surviving men who believed they had defeated him.