Chapter 19
TOMCAT
The night was still and silent as we moved into position, shadows swallowing us whole.
The isolated airfield hangar loomed ahead—a hulking structure in the darkness, hiding its secrets behind walls of steel and glass.
It was the heart of the Aegis Aerospace Systems override program.
A corrupted operation born from greed, arrogance, and a deadly disregard for human life.
We’d traced the threads here, pieced together enough proof to know the depth of their betrayal.
Now we needed something tangible to ensure their downfall.
My body was wound tight, anticipation and fury bleeding together.
This wasn’t just club business. This was personal.
A vendetta that had burned under my skin for more than two weeks.
Their security didn’t include physical guards to keep from being conspicuous and because they didn’t trust anyone outside the organization.
But infiltrating their security system had been a bitch.
Still, no one could keep Wizard out of anywhere he wanted to go.
He had cleared the way for Cruze and Rebel to finish the job so we could breach the facility undetected.
We moved silently—King and Blaze flanking my left, with Kevlar and Fallon to my right. Cruze led us toward the maintenance entrance, swiftly dismantling the lock with practiced ease. Rebel slipped inside first to disable the security system with the skill of a ghost.
I followed close, my eyes adjusting quickly to the dim interior. The gentle hum of servers and equipment masked the whisper of our footsteps. At the far end, a row of glass-walled offices spilled warm pools of light onto the concrete floor, silhouettes of people pacing anxiously within.
Rebel threw me a quick nod—the security system was down. Our time was limited now. Once we breached, we’d have mere minutes before Aegis would realize something was wrong.
I took point, leading us toward the offices, my weapon steady and ready.
Adrenaline pulsed beneath my skin, but my hands were sure and calm as we closed in.
I’d flown countless combat missions and pulled dangerous operations before, but nothing had ever felt quite as significant as this.
This was justice—for Carson, Linden, and every pilot whose life had been risked or lost by this sinister experiment.
We moved as one unit, silent predators hunting in the dark, Kevlar and Fallon moving in concert behind me.
The offices came into clearer view, and I recognized the faces inside.
Two Aegis project leaders—the same fuckers who had tried to rush my next test flight—stood behind a bank of monitors.
A third figure leaned against a desk, wearing a Navy uniform.
My gut twisted in recognition. Commander David Sinclair—one of the military liaisons who’d personally signed off on our test flight data.
Betrayal burned cold in my chest, my pulse roaring in my ears. Sinclair had been entrusted with pilot safety, tasked with safeguarding his people from exactly this kind of greed. Yet here he was, complicit in a scheme that had needlessly claimed lives—including Carson’s.
I didn’t hesitate. Didn’t waver.
Sinclair saw me first, his eyes widening in shock as I raised my weapon, my stare unwavering. “Connelly—”
I didn’t let him finish. My finger squeezed the trigger with a precision born from years of experience, the crack of gunfire echoing sharply through the space. Sinclair crumpled to the floor, and chaos erupted behind the glass. With two more squeezes of the trigger, the project leaders joined him.
When we walked into the lab, the three technicians scrambled, panic etched on their faces as they reached for the monitors. They were desperate to destroy evidence and save their own asses. But they weren’t fast enough. Not even fucking close.
Blaze took one of them to the ground, Rebel was on the second before he could blink, and King subdued the last one before he could reach the emergency alarm.
Kevlar’s barrel pressed firmly against the man’s temple in case we needed him to get past a security layer.
I moved straight to the bank of computers, wasting no time as I secured drives and extracted files, dumping them methodically into the bag I carried.
Except the actual program. That would be destroyed.
We moved quickly, efficiently, gathering everything we needed to ensure the destruction of the override program was absolute. Backups destroyed, and servers wiped. We left no room for Aegis to rebuild or recover.
“Got everything?” Kevlar’s expression was hard.
I checked the screens one last time, ensuring nothing of value remained accessible. “Yeah. We’re done here.”
Kevlar knocked out the guy he’d been holding and tossed him into a heap with the other man and woman he’d been working with.
“Good.” King jerked his chin at Blaze. “Burn it.”
Blaze’s expression was calm, almost serene, as he methodically placed incendiary charges. It took only minutes before the hangar began to burn. Smoke billowed dark and thick as flames devoured the equipment and records.
We wouldn't leave a single loose end—no unanswered questions, no breadcrumbs leading back to the Hounds. We would construct meticulously detailed false trails for the six lives we’d just extinguished.
Digital footprints, creating fabricated conversations, travel records, and financial histories to ensure their disappearances would seem plausible.
And tie up physical details—vehicles left at airports, hotel rooms booked overseas, and paper trails matching their falsified plans.
Each persona would vanish seamlessly, leaving behind narratives so believable that no one would question where they'd gone or why.
This was what we did—what we specialized in.
To the outside world, a couple of those six people—already loners with no family—would simply move on, take new jobs, and relocate to new cities.
One would go AWOL and become nothing but a dishonorable memory.
And so on for all the rest. But their reality ended tonight, in the dark flames consuming the override program.
Life would continue without interruption.
No one would ever search for them because there would be nothing left to find.
Within an hour, we were away from the burning hangar, watching safely from a distance.
The building glowed in the distance as I uploaded all the data we’d collected to a secure dummy server Wizard had set up for this mission.
I sent it all in an anonymous report to military oversight.
Every scrap of evidence straight to the people who could shut Aegis down permanently.
Then I closed the computer, dropped it into a burn bag, and tossed it to Blaze. He’d make sure it was nothing but molten metal so it couldn’t be traced.
Finally, the truth was out, delivered in a way that left no room for doubt or deception. The other people responsible for this operation would pay the price. Not with a bullet this time, but many of them would lose the life they had now.
As I stood there with exhaustion finally creeping in, the weight of what we’d done settled over me. Carson’s justice had been served, the pilots’ safety restored, and Linden’s protection secured.
The only thing left was to return to her side—the woman who had unknowingly become my everything.
When I turned my bike back toward the compound, I felt lighter, as if the weight I’d been carrying had finally lifted.
I was going home. To her.