Chapter 4 - THE THREAT FROM THE SHADOWS
While my mother and General Graves were in the kitchen, four miles away at Fort Aldridge headquarters, Colonel Marcus Sterling stood inside the lobby security room.
Sterling was a broad-shouldered man with iron-gray hair and cold, calculated eyes. He was reviewing the high-definition security footage from the visitor's desk.
"Enhance frame forty-two," Sterling commanded the technician.
The screen zoomed in on the pink paper sticking out of my backpack. The digital image cleaned up, clearly displaying the tenant's name: Elena Vance.
Sterling's expression didn't change, but his jaw muscles tightened. He reached into his pocket, pulled out an encrypted satellite phone, and walked out into the corridor.
"It's Sterling," he said into the receiver. "We have a breach. Elena Vance is alive, and she’s in the city. General Graves just abandoned his post to retrieve her."
"That is unacceptable, Colonel," a synthetic voice responded over the secure line. "If the logistics ledger from twelve years ago surfaces, the entire shadow operation collapses. General Graves is becoming a liability."
"I will handle Graves," Sterling said coldly. "Deploy the strike team to the Aldridge Street registry records. Find where she lives. Terminate the mother and the child before Graves can move them to a military safehouse. Make it look like a home invasion."
"And the General?"
"If he gets in the way," Sterling ordered, "eliminate him too. We can frame it as a rogue officer getting caught in a civilian crossfire."
Back at our apartment, the air had grown thick with urgency. Nathaniel was on his radio, issuing rapid orders to his private detail.
"We need to pack only essentials, Elena," Nathaniel said, checking the window blinds. "Sterling has ears everywhere in this district. Once his intelligence team realizes I canceled my Pentagon briefing, he will cross-reference my location."
"I don't have much to pack," my mother said, quickly throwing a few clothes into a duffel bag.
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I ran to my room and grabbed my favorite wooden bird my grandfather had carved for me. But as I walked back into the living room, a red laser dot flickered across the wall right behind my mother's head.
"DOWN!" Nathaniel roared.
