Chapter 18 - The Sovereign Protocol
I stepped back into the tactical command trailer, where Captain Miller had plugged the encrypted drive into a disconnected air-gapped terminal.
"Colonel," Miller said, his face drained of color as he analyzed the decrypted partitions. "This drive... it’s not just the flight-control algorithms."
I leaned over his shoulder, my knuckles resting on the metal desk. "What else is on there?"
"The transaction history. Sterling wasn't the head of this syndicate. He was just the enforcer in uniform. The funds were originating from a private defense conglomerate right here on American soil—Aegis Global Logistics."
Aegis Global. The multi-billion-dollar contractor that handled ninety percent of supply-chain transport for the United States Navy and Air Force. Their CEO, Victor Vance—no relation to me, but an influential titan who dined with senators and foreign ambassadors weekly—was a man who walked the halls of the Capitol as if he owned them.
"Victor Vance," I murmured, putting the puzzle pieces together. "He didn't just want to sell the prototype. He wanted to manufacture the replacement components through his own commercial factories. A self-created monopoly financed by treason."
"Ma'am, there's more," Miller pointed at a glowing red prompt on the screen. "A dead-man protocol was triggered thirty minutes ago when the *Caspian Sovereign* failed its hourly check-in. It’s called 'The Sovereign Protocol'."
"Explain."
"Victor Vance knows the network is compromised. He’s activating sleeper assets embedded within the D.C. Metropolitan area to execute a coordinated purge of every witness, prosecutor, and intelligence officer tied to this investigation."
"Including my family," I stated flatly.
"They already tried Charlie-4 and failed," Miller replied. "The next target won't be a safehouse in the woods. Look at the dispatch ping."
A map of Washington D.C. materialized on the monitor. A red blinking beacon pulsed dead center over the federal district.
"Walter Reed National Military Medical Center," Miller gasped. "Your mother was just transferred there by medical helicopter twenty minutes ago for emergency cardiac monitoring!"
My heart plunged into a bottomless abyss.
"They knew Fort Meade was fortified," I snarled, slamming my fist into the steel bulkhead. "They forced our hand to move her to a civilian-accessible medical wing!"
"Colonel, what are your orders?"
I grabbed my tactical vest, snapping the ceramic plates securely over my chest, and loaded three fresh magazines into my tactical belt.
May you like
"Alert the Presidential Protection Detail and D.C. Guard," I barked, heading for the door. "We are going to Walter Reed. And God help Victor Vance if a single shadow falls across my mother's bed."
***
