Chapter 114 - The Corridor of Whispers
The interior corridors of the *USS Titan* were bathed in eerie red emergency lighting.
Claire walked with measured, silent footsteps down the narrow steel passage, flanked by six armed guards.
Sailors and young technicians pressed themselves flat against the bulkheads as she passed by.
Word had already spread through the lower decks like wildfire.
"Is that her?" a young radar technician whispered in the shadows. "The One-Eighty-Seven?"
"She walked out of the Hindu Kush alone," another voice replied in hushed awe. "She's a living ghost."
Claire kept her eyes fixed straight ahead, ignoring the staring eyes and the tension vibrating through the hull.
Every bulkhead brought back memories of Liam’s letters from eight years ago, describing life aboard this very ship.
He had promised to come home before her promotion ceremony.
Instead, they had sent her an empty mahogany box draped in a ceremonial flag.
They reached the heavy blast doors marked *RESTRICTED PERSONNEL — LEVEL THREE SURGICAL*.
Douglas stepped up to the optical scanner, pressing his palm against the glass panel.
The hydraulic locks hissed open with a deafening release of pressurized nitrogen gas.
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A freezing cloud rolled out of the doorway, smelling of antiseptic chemicals and surgical steel.
Claire walked into the chamber, her heart slamming violently against her ribs.
