The sixth operator had not been recovered with the main team.
That part he knew.
What he did not know was that a separate surveillance element detected movement near the burn site fourteen hours later.
A rescue team found one man alive.
Severe burns.
Smoke injury.
Multiple fractures.
No identification on his body.
The extraction had been handled through a different compartment because the sixth operator’s presence on the mission itself was protected by a separate program.
Ethan pushed the page away.
“You found him.”
“Yes.”
“Alive.”
“Yes.”
His vision blurred.
“And nobody told us.”
The suited man folded his hands.
“At the time, his survival created an immediate security problem. His legal identity had already been exposed to hostile collection. The decision was made to relocate him under protection before contact with the returning team.”
“We thought he burned to death.”
“I know.”
Ethan stood.
The chair hit the wall behind him.
“Do you?”
The commanding officer stepped forward, but Ethan held up a hand.
“No. Let him answer. Do you know what it is to wake up for three years hearing a man shout that he’s going back for you? Do you know what it is to stand at a memorial with five names and realize the one person who vanished for the rest of us doesn’t even get a line of stone?”
The suited man’s face finally changed.
“No,” he said. “I don’t.”
Ethan breathed hard.
That honesty stopped him more effectively than any defense could have.
He looked down at the page.
