Mortar fire.
Miller shouting through the radio.
Hayes firing behind the eastern barrier.
Jenkins dragging ammunition through smoke.
Then the encrypted receiver.
Her father’s voice.
“Captain Vance, leave the post immediately.”
“My people are still here.”
“The directive is final.”
“They’ll die.”
Silence.
Then Richard’s answer.
“Some losses are operationally necessary.”
Claire opened her eyes.
Reynolds covered the microphone.
“Take the deal. They remove the death penalty. You plead guilty. Life imprisonment, possible review in thirty years.”
Claire looked at him.
“You think I ran.”
“The evidence is devastating.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He looked away.
He had seen the drone footage.
What he had not seen were the forty-five missing seconds.
The helicopter.
The masked operators.
The forced extraction.
The communications blackout.
Or the flash drive hidden inside Claire’s right combat boot.
“How do you plead?” Judge Harrison asked.
Richard met his daughter’s gaze.
