Sirens wailed somewhere far away.
Daniel approached me carefully.
“You hit?”
“Shoulder.”
He nodded.
Then his expression shifted.
“Harper…”
He handed me the recovered burner phone.
A new message had arrived during the attack.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: You were never the target. Athena is. See you soon, General.
Beneath the message sat a photograph.
My blood turned to ice.
Because the photo showed a woman sitting inside a dim concrete room. Bruised. Restrained. Alive.
Colonel Evelyn Shaw.
The founder of Athena.
Officially dead for three years.
Daniel stared at the image.
“That’s impossible.”
I whispered the words before I could stop myself.
“No,” I said slowly. “It’s worse than impossible.”
Because Evelyn Shaw had once been my commanding officer.
