25. Wynn
WYNN
Ghost drove as though death were sitting in the back seat.
Considering the men shooting at us, it nearly was.
Bullets struck the rear of the armored vehicle.
Lucas pushed me down beside him and fired through the shattered window.
Boone took the opposite side.
“Two vehicles!” he shouted.
“Make that three!”
Ghost glanced into the mirror.
“Seat belts.”
Boone stared at him.
“You’re worried about traffic safety now?”
The road curved sharply along the mountainside.
Ghost never slowed.
The vehicle tilted.
My shoulder slammed against Lucas’s chest.
He lowered his rifle long enough to wrap one arm around me.
“I’ve got you.”
“I know.”
The words came without hesitation.
Lucas looked down at me.
Something passed between us.
Something new.
Not the desperate trust of the battlefield.
Something steadier.
A beginning.
The vehicle struck another turn.
Boone flew sideways.
Russ caught his vest and dragged him back into his seat.
“I told you to buckle up,” Ghost said.
Boone fastened the belt.
“I liked you better dead.”
“I was quieter.”
“That’s true.”
A bullet punched through the rear door.
Lucas shoved me lower.
“Boone, front wheel!”
Boone steadied his rifle against the broken window.
The pursuing vehicle appeared around the bend.
Headlights.
Armored grille.
A gunman leaned through the passenger window.
Boone fired several controlled shots into the exposed wheel assembly.
The wheel buckled.
The vehicle swerved toward the cliff wall, struck it, and rolled.
Metal and sparks filled the road behind us.
“Two left,” Boone said.
Ghost turned onto a narrow dirt road.
Trees swallowed us.
The headlights behind us disappeared.
Not because they stopped.
Because Meridian knew another route.
Hawk studied the damaged tablet.
“They’re paralleling us on the southern road.”
“How far to the aircraft?” Adam asked.
“Eight minutes.”
“We don’t have eight,” Lucas said.
Ghost looked at him in the mirror.
“Then you’d better shoot faster.”
Lucas’s eyes hardened.
“You’ve been dead for eight years.”
“And this is when you want answers?”
“This is when I want to know whether you’re driving us into another trap.”
“If I wanted you dead, I would’ve left you on the ledge.”
“You could’ve killed me years ago.”
Ghost’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“No. I couldn’t.”
Something in his voice silenced Lucas.
For a few seconds, only the engine and distant gunfire filled the vehicle.
I studied Ghost.
The scar across his face started near his temple and disappeared beneath his collar.
His dark hair had gone gray around the edges.
He looked like a man who hadn’t slept peacefully in years.
“You knew about the threat,” I said.
His gaze moved to the mirror.
“What threat?”
“The message Lucas carried.”
LET HER GO OR SHE DIES.
“You knew Minser was watching us.”
Ghost looked back toward the road.
“Yes.”
Lucas leaned forward.
“You knew?”
“I knew someone inside the operation had compromised our identities.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I told command.”
“Which commander?”
“General Kane.”
Everyone in the vehicle went still.
Ghost laughed bitterly.
“Yes. I made the same mistake you did. I trusted the chain of command.”
Lucas’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“What happened?”
“Three days after I reported it, our convoy was hit.”
“The Kandahar explosion,” Adam said.
Ghost nodded.
“Six men died.”
“Your body was identified,” Lucas said.
“By Kane’s people.”
“You let us bury an empty casket.”
“No.”
Ghost looked at him in the mirror.
“You buried someone. We still don’t know who.”
Horror twisted through me.
Some unidentified soldier had been buried beneath Ghost’s name.
His family had mourned the wrong man.
“Your wife,” I whispered. “Melissa believed you were dead.”
“She had to.”
“You let her believe it?”
“I kept her alive for two years.”
Ghost’s voice changed.
“Then Kane found her.”
I barely managed the question.
“He killed her?”
“Yes.”
Grief filled that single word.
“And I wasn’t there to save her.”
Lucas flinched.
Ghost had made the same choice he had.
Disappear.
Let the woman he loved grieve.
Convince himself her pain was better than her death.
But Kane had killed Melissa anyway.
“Did Minser threaten her?” Lucas asked.
“Not at first.”
“Then who?”
“General Kane.”
Adam’s expression hardened.
“You’re certain?”
“I heard the order.”
“What order?”
“Kill everyone connected to the observation post.”
Ghost glanced toward Lucas.
“That included our families.”
Lucas reached for my hand.
His fingers closed around mine.
Ghost saw it.
“I warned you to leave Wynn.”
Lucas went motionless.
“That was you?”
“The tag was mine.”
I stared at Ghost.
LET HER GO OR SHE DIES.
“You destroyed our marriage.”
My voice shook with anger.
Ghost didn’t defend himself.
“I was trying to keep you both alive.”
“You don’t know that it worked.”
“Yes. I do.”
“How?”
“Two weeks after your divorce was finalized, the surveillance team watching you disappeared.”
Cold spread through me.
“What surveillance team?”
“Three men followed you for months. Home. Work. The grocery store. They photographed everyone you met.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Lucas’s grip tightened.
“Why didn’t I see them?”
“Because they were trained.”
Ghost looked at him.
“And because Minser knew exactly what you’d look for.”
Lucas’s face emptied of emotion.
“Minser ran the team.”
“Yes.”
The truth settled inside the vehicle.
Evan Minser hadn’t merely watched us from the shadows.
He had used Lucas’s training against him.
He had manipulated our marriage.
Our divorce.
Our lives.
“He wanted Lucas isolated,” I said.
Ghost nodded.
“Why?”
“Because Lucas had seen something at the observation post.”
Lucas frowned.
“I saw weapons moving through the mountains.”
“You saw one shipment.”
“So?”
“It wasn’t weapons.”
“What was it?”
Ghost didn’t answer.
A vehicle burst through the trees beside us.
Meridian had reached the parallel road.
A gunman stood through the roof hatch.
“Down!” Lucas shouted.
Automatic fire ripped through our vehicle.
Glass exploded.
Ghost jerked the wheel.
The armored sides protected us, but the windshield began to fracture.
Hawk fired through a narrow opening.
The gunman disappeared.
The enemy vehicle remained beside us.
Ghost glanced toward the road ahead.
A concrete bridge crossed a deep gorge.
Barely wide enough for one vehicle.
He accelerated.
The Meridian driver did the same.
Boone looked through the shattered rear window.
“You know there’s only room for one of us?”
“Yes,” Ghost answered.
“Which one?”
Ghost smiled.
“Us.”
Both vehicles reached the bridge together.
Metal struck metal.
The impact threw everyone sideways against their restraints.
The Meridian vehicle pressed against us, trying to force us off the road.
Ghost held the wheel steady.
The bridge railing appeared ahead.
Lucas raised his rifle.
The enemy driver crouched behind armored glass.
“No shot.”
“Don’t need one,” Ghost said.
He slammed on the brakes.
The Meridian vehicle surged ahead.
Its driver tried to correct.
Too late.
Ghost accelerated and struck its rear quarter panel.
The enemy vehicle spun across the bridge.
It broke through the railing and disappeared into the gorge.
We didn’t hear it hit the bottom.
Boone stared at Ghost.
“I’m beginning to like you again.”
“I’ll try harder.”
The second vehicle appeared behind us.
Hawk checked the map.
“Three minutes to the aircraft.”
Ghost accelerated.
“Tell the pilot to start the engines.”
“What pilot?” Russ asked.
“One I trust.”
Boone groaned.
“Your record with trustworthy people isn’t inspiring.”
“He won’t shoot us.”
“That’s my favorite kind of pilot.”
Lucas leaned forward.
“What was in the shipment?”
Ghost’s smile vanished.
“The beginning of Fate.”
“What does Fate do?” I asked.
“It identifies instability.”
“Political?” Adam asked.
“Economic. Military. Personal.”
“That sounds like intelligence gathering.”
“It was supposed to be.”
Ghost took another turn.
“Fate was designed to predict conflict before it happened. Riots. Civil wars. Government collapses. Terrorist attacks.”
Hawk lowered the tablet.
“Predictive modeling.”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
“Minser and Kane realized predicting conflict wasn’t nearly as profitable as creating it.”
My stomach turned.
“Meridian.”
“Meridian is the operational side of Fate,” Ghost said. “Fate identifies where a country is vulnerable. Meridian applies pressure.”
“A murdered official.”
“A missing aid shipment.”
“A bomb in the right marketplace.”
“A rumor placed inside the right military unit.”
“And when the government begins to collapse, they sell weapons to both sides. They secure mining rights, oil contracts, reconstruction agreements, and private-security deals.”
Lucas looked toward the mountains.
“They manufacture wars.”
“Yes.”
The financial transactions I’d uncovered hadn’t followed the attacks.
They had funded them.
Every ruined village.
Every murdered family.
Every child locked inside that warehouse.
Not random casualties of war.
Profits.
“How many countries?” I asked.
“Fate is currently active in eleven.”
“Currently?”
Ghost met my eyes in the mirror.
“Three are scheduled to collapse within the next six months.”
No one spoke.
The scale of it was impossible.
“You said Lucas saw the first shipment,” Adam said. “What was inside?”
“Servers. Data-storage systems. The original Fate program.”
Lucas shook his head.
“We were told they were missile-guidance components.”
“You were never supposed to learn the truth.”
“Why didn’t they kill me then?”
“Minser argued you could still be useful.”
“For what?”
“Access to the Brave.”
Adam’s gaze sharpened.
“The team didn’t exist eight years ago.”
“No. But Kane knew it would.”
Ghost looked at him.
“He helped create it.”
The words struck every man.
General Kane hadn’t infiltrated the Brave.
He had been there from the beginning.
Approving missions.
Selecting personnel.
Guiding operations.
Learning every man’s strengths and weaknesses.
“He built us,” Boone whispered.
“He built a weapon,” Ghost corrected. “One he believed he could control.”
Lucas’s fingers tightened around mine.
“What changed?”
“Adam.”
Every gaze turned toward the commander.
Ghost continued.
“Kane wanted a team that followed orders without asking questions. He got men who followed Adam. Not him.”
Adam’s expression revealed nothing.
But I saw the betrayal in his eyes.
The Brave wasn’t merely in Meridian’s way.
Their independence had made them a threat.
“What’s inside the Geneva file?” Lucas asked.
“Everything Kane thought was destroyed. The original Fate code on an encrypted drive. Meridian’s financial network. Names of government officials, contractors, intelligence officers, and politicians. And the list of future targets.”
I thought of the encrypted directories.
Orion.
Janus.
Aegis.
Fate.
“If we release it…”
“Meridian collapses,” Ghost said. “So do several governments.”
The forest opened.
A small airstrip appeared below us.
A black military transport waited at the far end.
No markings.
No lights.
Its rear ramp was already lowered.
The engines were running.
Ghost accelerated toward it.
The remaining Meridian vehicle emerged from the trees behind us.
Too close.
A weapon appeared through its roof.
Not a rifle.
A launcher.
“Rocket!” Hawk shouted.
Ghost drove directly toward the aircraft.
“Everyone brace!”
The launcher fired.
A streak of flame raced across the runway.
Ghost jerked the wheel.
The rocket struck the ground beside us.
The explosion lifted the vehicle.
We slammed down hard.
The engine died.
The aircraft sat less than a hundred yards ahead.
Behind us, Meridian’s vehicle accelerated.
Armed men poured onto the runway.
“Go!” Adam shouted.
Doors flew open.
The Brave exited firing.
Lucas dragged me from the vehicle.
Ghost ran toward the aircraft.
Russ helped the injured pilot while Boone limped beside them, providing cover.
Hawk protected the right flank.
Adam moved along the left.
Bullets struck the runway around us.
“Stay behind me!” Lucas shouted.
I held the pistol he had given me.
“I’m still here!”
The aircraft’s engines roared as the pilot increased power.
Meridian’s men spread across the runway.
Lucas fired.
One fell.
Boone dropped another.
But more emerged from the trees.
We weren’t going to reach the aircraft.
A man stepped from the Meridian vehicle.
Tall.
Dark hair.
Military posture.
He didn’t carry a weapon.
He didn’t need one.
The soldiers around him stopped firing.
Lucas stopped running.
“Minser.”
Evan Minser smiled.
“Hello, brother.”
Ghost had used the same word.
It sounded different from Minser.
Cold.
Possessive.
Wrong.
Lucas pushed me behind him.
Minser’s gaze moved toward me.
“Wynn Spencer. You caused quite a problem.”
“I’ve been told worse.”
Boone glanced at me.
“We really need a new team phrase.”
Minser smiled.
“I understand why Lucas couldn’t forget you.”
Lucas’s rifle rose.
“Say her name again.”
“And what? You’ll shoot me?”
Minser spread his arms.
“Go ahead.”
A red light appeared against Lucas’s chest.
Then another.
Snipers.
Minser looked toward the aircraft.
“You won’t reach it. You won’t reach Geneva. And Elise Moreau has less than twenty-four hours to live.”
I stepped around Lucas.
His arm immediately blocked me.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“The access codes.”
“I don’t have them.”
“No. But Lucas does.”
I looked at him.
Lucas’s confusion matched mine.
Minser laughed.
“He still doesn’t know.”
“Know what?”
Minser pointed toward the metal tag around Lucas’s neck.
The one Ghost had sent six years ago.
LET HER GO OR SHE DIES.
“The message wasn’t the only thing hidden on that tag.”
Lucas removed it.
Turned it over.
Nothing else appeared.
Minser’s smile widened.
“Heat it.”
Ghost’s voice came through Lucas’s radio.
“Don’t.”
Minser looked toward the aircraft.
“You never told him?”
Ghost stood at the top of the ramp.
A rifle rested against his shoulder.
Minser called across the runway.
“You let him carry the key for six years.”
Lucas stared at the metal tag.
“What key?”
“The final encryption sequence for Fate,” Minser said.
My blood went cold.
The Geneva drive was protected by more than the bank.
Even if we reached the box, we couldn’t decrypt Fate without Lucas.
That was why Meridian had watched him.
Why Ghost had forced him to leave me.
Why General Kane had kept him inside the Brave.
Lucas wasn’t only marked for death.
He carried the key to the most dangerous intelligence weapon ever created.
Minser extended one hand.
“Give me the tag, and I’ll let Wynn live.”
Lucas looked at me.
I saw his decision before he made it.
He would surrender.
For me.
Again.
I caught his wrist.
“No.”
“Wynn.”
“Not this time.”
Minser’s expression hardened.
“You have ten seconds.”
I tightened my grip on Lucas.
Behind Minser, the aircraft engines roared louder.
Ghost’s voice came through our radios.
“Five seconds.”
“For what?” Adam asked.
The runway lights went dark.
Every light.
Total blackness swallowed us.
Ghost shouted one word.
“Run.”
Lucas grabbed my hand.
The Brave opened fire.
We raced toward the waiting aircraft as bullets ripped through the darkness.
And somewhere behind us, Evan Minser laughed.
Not because we had escaped.
Because Lucas was carrying exactly what Meridian needed.