Chapter 2 - Shadows of the Past
The fluorescent light overhead flickered, casting a sudden shadow across the white-tiled wall. My name wasn't just Clara Hayes; it was what remained after the fire, after the classified debriefing, after the government stamped Deceased across an operational file to bury a mistake that had cost twelve lives.
“You have the wrong person,” I said, keeping my voice flat, civilian, ordinary.
“My shoulder still carries shrapnel from the Hindu Kush extraction, Clara,” Carter replied, his voice dropping an octave, devoid of threat but heavy with undeniable recognition. “And the only corpsman in three combat zones who could place a cricothyroidotomy blindfolded while taking incoming mortar fire was you. They called you the Ghost of Kandahar because you never missed a pulse.”
My hand twitched toward my pocket again, stopping myself before the muscle memory betrayed me further. “That person died in a ravine outside Ghazni.”
“Clearly not,” Carter said, glancing down the hallway to ensure we were still alone. “And right now, someone else knows she didn't.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The man who brought you your mail this morning. The one in the gray sedan parked across the street.” Carter leaned in closer. “He wasn't dropping off letters. He was placing a tracker, and he’s not military intelligence. He’s private. Which means the contract on your old unit has been reopened.”
The hospital around us suddenly felt vulnerable. County General had glass doors, open corridors, and hundreds of vulnerable patients. If someone was hunting Echo Team, my presence here had just put every person in this building in the crosshairs.
“Why now?” I whispered, the protective wall I had built over five years beginning to crack. “We buried that life.”
“Because,” Carter said grimly, “the black-budget ledger that was supposed to be destroyed during our last rotation has resurfaced. And someone is systematically hunting down every surviving member to tie up loose ends. You saved that boy today, Clara. You used your old signature move in a public room. On camera.”
May you like
My stomach dropped. The security feed.
“We don't have much time,” Carter continued, reaching into his flannel jacket and pulling out a burner phone and a small encrypted drive. He pressed them into my hand before I could refuse. “Pack your locker. Meet me at the loading dock in twenty minutes. If you stay, they won't just kill you—they'll burn this entire hospital to the ground to get to you.”
