Chapter 9 - Cross
Commander Ethan Cross chose an abandoned maintenance depot outside the base perimeter.
Sarah arrived inside Rachel’s legal transport vehicle, with Vale following separately.
Cross appeared from behind a rusted storage container.
He looked exhausted.
But alive.
Sarah stepped out.
“You’re difficult to find.”
Cross gave a tired smile.
“So are you when your colonel keeps locking you up.”
Vale approached.
Cross immediately raised a stolen pistol.
“Stop.”
Vale stopped.
Sarah moved between them.
“Cross.”
“He held me.”
Vale said, “Rourke’s contractors held you.”
“They arrived in your convoy.”
“My transport detail was compromised.”
Cross laughed.
“Convenient.”
Sarah lifted a hand.
“This is exactly what Rourke wants.”
Both men looked at her.
“He wants everyone suspicious of everyone else.”
Cross lowered the weapon slightly.
Sarah continued.
“You have something from Darak Nar.”
Cross studied her.
“Who told you?”
“Everyone.”
That almost made him smile.
He reached into his jacket.
“Not here.”
“Where?”
“I hid it before extraction.”
Vale stepped forward.
Cross raised the pistol again.
“I said stop.”
Vale obeyed.
Cross looked at Sarah.
“The archive wasn’t just shipping records.”
“What else?”
“Video.”
Sarah felt a chill.
“Of what?”
“Meetings.”
“With Rourke?”
“I only opened one before the attack.”
“Who was in it?”
Cross looked at Vale.
“Colonel Richard Vale.”
Rachel inhaled.
Sarah turned.
Vale’s expression barely changed.
“What year?” he asked.
Cross frowned.
“What?”
“The recording. What year?”
“I don’t know.”
“Describe the room.”
Cross did.
Vale closed his eyes.
“2018.”
Sarah watched him.
“You remember?”
“Yes.”
“What meeting?”
“The one where Rourke tried to recruit me.”
Cross stared.
“You met him secretly.”
“I met him as part of the investigation.”
“Was my father there?” Sarah asked.
Vale looked at her.
“No.”
“Daniel?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“Rourke offered me money. I refused.”
“Did you record it?”
“Yes.”
“Then why would Raven keep a copy?”
Vale’s face tightened.
“Because they recorded me too.”
Rachel nodded slowly.
“Mutual insurance.”
Cross lowered the pistol.
“Exactly.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Where’s the drive?”
Cross glanced around.
“Back in the valley.”
Everyone stared.
“You left it there?” Rachel asked.
“I had no choice. We were being searched during extraction. Whoever compromised the mission knew what we found.”
“Where?”
Cross looked at Sarah.
“In the one place the ambush avoided.”
Vale understood first.
“The white-cloth position.”
Cross nodded.
“The man who signaled you buried it.”
“Daniel.”
“He didn’t give me his name.”
Sarah felt a strange ache.
Her brother had been only a few hundred feet below her.
After eight years.
She had not even seen his face.
Cross continued.
“He told me if we survived, someone would come back for the archive.”
Vale said, “Rourke will already be searching.”
“He won’t find it.”
“Why?”
Cross smiled.
“Because Daniel didn’t bury it in the ground.”
He looked at Sarah.
“He put it inside the wreck of an old Soviet armored vehicle wedged halfway up the western ridge.”
Vale shook his head.
“That area is controlled by local militia now.”
“Rourke’s militia,” Cross said.
Sarah knew what came next.
“We have to retrieve it.”
Rachel immediately said, “No.”
Sarah looked at her.
Rachel continued.
“You are a suspended pilot under investigation. Cross is technically absent from military custody. Vale is running an unofficial counterintelligence operation. None of you can simply fly into Afghanistan and recover evidence.”
Cross raised an eyebrow.
“We’re already in Afghanistan.”
Rachel paused.
“Fair point.”
Sarah almost laughed.
Vale did not.
“We cannot use official assets.”
“Because Rourke monitors them.”
“Yes.”
Cross looked toward the mountains.
“I know someone with a helicopter.”
Rachel stared at him.
“Of course you do.”
Cross explained that a partner unit maintained two old utility helicopters for local advisory work.
“Can you trust them?” Sarah asked.
“One pilot.”
“Name?”
“Chief Warrant Officer Luis Ortega.”
Vale shook his head.
“This is not a rescue mission. You’re talking about entering contested terrain to recover evidence without authorization.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Interesting hearing that from you.”
Vale almost objected.
Then stopped.
“You’re right.”
Sarah studied him.
“What?”
“You were right in the valley.”
That was not what she expected.
Vale continued.
“I spent eight years trying to beat Rourke through controlled investigations. Every time we got close, evidence vanished. People transferred. Witnesses recanted.”
“So?”
“So maybe procedure has limits.”
Rachel folded her arms.
“I cannot believe the colonel is the one suggesting this.”
Vale looked at her.
“I didn’t suggest anything.”
Cross smiled.
“Very lawyerly.”
Sarah’s phone rang.
Helen.
She answered immediately.
“Mom?”
No response.
Then Daniel came on.
“Sarah, don’t go back to Darak Nar.”
Sarah looked at Cross.
“How do you know?”
“I know Cross escaped.”
“Everyone knows everything except me.”
Daniel ignored the comment.
“The archive is bait.”
Cross moved closer, listening.
Sarah said, “You hid it.”
“Yes.”
“Then why is it bait?”
“Because I discovered something after you left.”
“What?”
Daniel’s voice changed.
“Rourke wanted Cross to find that archive.”
Sarah felt cold.
“Why?”
“Because the records inside identify the wrong people.”
Vale stepped closer.
“A false ledger.”
Daniel heard him.
“Richard.”
Vale stared at the phone.
“Daniel.”
Eight years existed between the two names.
Sarah said, “If the archive is fake, why protect it?”
“Because ninety percent is real.”
Cross frowned.
“And the other ten?”
Daniel answered.
“Designed to destroy everyone who could expose Rourke.”
Sarah thought of the accounts in Daniel’s name.
“Like you.”
“Yes.”
“And Vale.”
“Yes.”
Rachel asked, “Who else?”
Daniel was silent.
Then he said:
“Sarah.”
Her heart stopped.
“What?”
“There’s a file in that archive with your name on it.”
“I wasn’t involved eight years ago.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What does it say?”
Daniel took a breath.
“That you authorized the coordinates that sent those 381 men into Darak Nar.”
Sarah stared at the others.
The room seemed to tilt.
Rourke had not only planned to kill the witnesses.
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He had prepared someone to blame.
Her.
