Chapter 59 - Sacrificial Ground
I grabbed Sterling by the throat and hauled him to his feet, slamming him against the edge of the dead console.
"What do you mean phase three?!" I growled into his face.
"Do you really think... the data was stored only here?" he wheezed, his breath smelling of copper. "This wasn't the main node, Maya. This was just the relay."
My grip tightened on his windpipe.
"Where is the master node?!"
"Look at the board," he choked out, his eyes bulging. "Look at the terminal behind you."
I turned my head.
On the far wall, a small, independent analog monitor—one that hadn't been connected to the digital network—suddenly flickered to life.
It was receiving an automated signal from a closed-circuit microwave transmitter.
On the screen was an aerial satellite feed of the Potomac River.
A massive, unmarked commercial freighter was moving slowly past the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, heading south toward the open waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
"The *Caspian Dawn*," Sterling whispered, blood trickling from his nostrils. "That’s where the physical archives are. That’s where the mobile bioweapon manufacturing facility is located."
"Arthur," I breathed.
"Your husband wasn't running the domestic corporations," Sterling grinned through the blood. "Arthur was the captain of the transport."
"Arthur is dead," I spat. "I watched him get arrested by federal marshals in Baltimore!"
"You saw an operative with Arthur’s identification," Sterling whispered. "Arthur left the country three hours ago. He has forty tons of biological precursor in the cargo hold, and enough classified leverage to purchase immunity from any government in the hemisphere."
The radio in my ear crackled violently.
*"Colonel Cross!"* a new voice shouted over the frequency—it was Andrews, the helicopter pilot. *"We have a situation at Raven Rock!"*
My entire body went rigid.
"Andrews, report!" I yelled into the mic. "What happened to Clara?!"
*"A black-ops strike team... they breached the southern security perimeter!"* Andrews shouted over the sound of intense automatic gunfire. *"They’re using heavy ordnance! They bypassed the biometric gates with an override key! They’re after Clara, Colonel!"*
"Who authorized the key?!" I screamed, sprinting toward the exit of the bunker, leaving Sterling bleeding on the floor.
*"The signature on the override..."* Andrews’s voice hitched in terror. *"It came from the Secretary of Defense’s terminal!"*
The conspiracy didn't end with Eleanor.
It didn't end with Sterling.
The entire civilian leadership of the Department of Defense was compromised.
"Andrews, listen to me!" I barked as I broke into a dead run down the darkened tunnel toward the surface. "Get Clara into the underground bunker tram! Lock the blast doors from the inside! Do not trust anyone wearing a federal uniform!"
*"We can't hold them, Maya!"* Andrews cried out. *"There are too many of them! They have armored vehicles inside the perimeter!"*
A loud explosion rocked the comm line, followed by a shower of static.
Then, Clara’s terrified scream pierced through the earpiece.
*"MOMMY!"*
"CLARA!" I roared.
The line went completely, horrifyingly dead.
I burst out of the tunnel maintenance hatch into the freezing rain outside Union Station.
The storm was howling now, tearing through the leafless trees around the plaza.
Sirens were wailing across the entire city, but they weren't coming to help.
The streets were filled with armored federal tactical vehicles moving in deliberate formation, cordoning off the National Mall and cutting off all civilian transit.
A military coup was taking place in broad daylight, masked as an emergency counter-terrorism operation.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Miller’s personal encrypted satellite frequency.
It rang once.
"Miller! Are you alive?!"
*"Maya..."* Miller’s voice was faint, choked with pain. *"They... they took her."*
My vision blurred with blinding, crimson fury.
"Where are they taking her, Miller?!"
*"To the river..."* he wheezed. *"They’re heading for the docks at Alexandria. They’re putting her on the ship... with Arthur."*
"Hold on, Miller. I’m coming."
*"Don't worry about me,"* he coughed. *"Kill them, Maya. Kill every single one of them."*
I lowered the phone.
I stood in the pouring rain, alone on the steps of the grand station, my hands bleeding, my body battered, surrounded by an army of traitors.
I looked down at my uniform.
The eagle insignia of an Army Colonel was still pinned to my collar, soaked in mud and blood.
I had spent my entire adult life serving the constitution, obeying the chain of command, believing in the sanctity of the oath I took.
The oath was dead.
The chain was broken.
There was only a mother, and the men who had dared to touch her child.
May you like
I racked the slide of my weapon, checked the spare magazine in my vest, and walked down into the street toward the nearest idling military command vehicle.
***
