Chapter 4 - THE FIANCÉ WITH ORDERS TO KILL
The first bullets struck the corridor doors thirty seconds later.
Daniel sealed the security partition while Nathan dragged a steel cabinet across the entrance.
Caroline stood beside Evelyn, gripping the pistol with both hands.
Her arms trembled.
Her eyes did not.
“How many exits?” Evelyn asked.
“Three,” Daniel replied. “Two are already compromised.”
“The third?”
“A maintenance tunnel beneath the dry dock.”
Mercer’s voice crackled over the radio.
“I’m moving your parents toward it now.”
Evelyn grabbed the device.
“Do not leave without us.”
“You are the mission.”
“My family is the mission.”
There was a brief silence.
“Understood, Admiral.”
The outer door buckled.
Nathan checked his ammunition.
Daniel watched him.
“You still haven’t answered the question.”
Nathan did not look up.
“Which one?”
“Whether you would kill her if ordered.”
Caroline’s breathing stopped.
Nathan slowly raised his eyes.
“I have obeyed orders that cost lives.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No,” Nathan said. “It is the reason I no longer obey blindly.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You expect us to trust that?”
Nathan turned toward Evelyn.
“On my promotion review, Admiral Hart asked why I disobeyed a mission commander in Yemen.”
Evelyn remembered.
Nathan had redirected his team to rescue trapped civilians after being ordered to withdraw.
“You said the mission had become morally invalid,” she said.
“Yes.”
“You risked court-martial.”
“Yes.”
Daniel narrowed his eyes.
Nathan continued.
“You promoted me because I knew the difference between duty and obedience.”
A gunshot tore through the door.
Nathan fired back through the opening.
A cry sounded from the corridor.
Then smoke began pouring beneath the frame.
“Gas,” Evelyn said.
Daniel pointed toward floor masks stored in the cabinet.
They pulled them on.
Caroline struggled with hers. Nathan secured it over her face, his movements gentle despite the chaos.
For one brief second, their eyes met.
Whatever had fractured between them remained alive.
Daniel opened a hatch in the floor.
“Go!”
They descended one by one into a narrow passage filled with pipes and rusted ladders.
The tunnel shook as Vale’s men breached the room above.
Mercer waited below with Evelyn’s parents.
Mother rushed toward Daniel and held his face between her hands.
“My baby.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
Dad stood several feet away.
He stared at his son but did not move.
Daniel faced him.
“Dad.”
The older man’s mouth tightened.
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
“And you chose not to come home.”
“I chose to keep you alive.”
“You don’t know what your mother became after you disappeared.”
Daniel flinched.
“I watched.”
The words silenced everyone.
Mercer urged them forward.
“There will be time later.”
Dad’s face twisted with grief.
“There was supposed to be time before.”
They moved through the tunnel.
Behind them, metal clanged.
Vale’s team had found the hatch.
Nathan took the rear position.
The tunnel opened into an underground dry dock where an old patrol craft waited in black water.
Mercer guided Evelyn’s parents aboard.
Daniel turned toward a control panel.
“The launch doors are locked remotely.”
“I can override them,” Evelyn said.
“You’ll need your biometric signature.”
“That reveals our location.”
“They already know our location.”
Evelyn pressed her palm against the scanner.
Nothing happened.
Daniel looked at the display.
“It requires full authorization.”
A second scanner extended from the wall at chest height.
Evelyn understood.
The lattice beneath her sternum.
She stepped toward it.
Nathan caught her arm.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“If Nightglass recognizes you, it may activate something else.”
“We don’t have another option.”
“We always have another option.”
Gunfire echoed in the tunnel.
Daniel fired toward the entrance.
“Not this time!”
Evelyn pressed her chest against the scanner.
A pulse of blue light moved through her body.
Every screen in the facility turned white.
A mechanical voice announced:
PRIMARY ASSET CONFIRMED. COMMAND SUCCESSION INITIATED.
The dry-dock doors began opening.
So did every secured door behind them.
Vale’s men poured into the chamber.
Nathan fired.
Daniel joined him.
Mercer started the patrol craft.
Caroline pulled her parents behind cover.
Evelyn fired twice, striking one attacker in the shoulder and another in the leg.
“Move!” she shouted.
They boarded as the craft surged forward.
Bullets struck the hull.
Nathan jumped last, barely catching the rail.
Caroline grabbed his hand and helped pull him aboard.
The patrol craft raced through the opening into a moonlit harbor.
For several minutes, they escaped beneath the shadow of abandoned cranes.
Then every electronic display aboard the vessel activated at once.
Admirals, commanders, and intelligence directors appeared on secure channels.
A computerized voice repeated:
COMMAND SUCCESSION COMPLETE. REAR ADMIRAL EVELYN HART DESIGNATED ACTING CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
“That can’t be legal.”
Daniel looked sick.
“It isn’t meant to be legal.”
A list appeared beneath her name.
Seven senior naval leaders were marked deceased.
Four were marked detained.
Three were marked compromised.
Nathan read the final line aloud.
“Emergency authority transfers to the primary asset.”
Dad stared at Evelyn.
“You’re in charge of the Navy?”
“No,” she said. “Someone wants the Navy to believe I am.”
A new message flashed across the screen.
It contained a single operational order:
AUTHORIZE STRIKE PACKAGE OR FAMILY PROTECTION STATUS WILL BE REVOKED.
Coordinates appeared.
Nathan leaned closer.
“That target is inside Virginia.”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
“It’s a domestic command bunker.”
Evelyn read the authorization requirement.
Her biometric confirmation.
Her voiceprint.
Her decision.
“They want me to order an attack on our own leadership.”
“And if you refuse?” Caroline asked.
The screen changed.
A live feed appeared.
Their home was surrounded by armed men.
Then another image appeared.
A hospital room.
Inside lay a young girl connected to machines.
Nathan stumbled backward.
Caroline looked at him.
“Who is she?”
May you like
His voice broke.
“My daughter.”
