Chapter 2
The room changed.
It was subtle at first.
A breath caught.
A shoulder tightened.
A laugh died halfway in someone’s throat.
General Matthews stopped smiling.
For the first time, anger was not the only thing in his face.
There was fear.
Small.
Fast.
But Luna saw it.
So did the older warrant officer standing near the weapons cage.
Matthews leaned over the table.
“You don’t give orders in my armory.”
Luna looked up.
“No, sir,” she said. “I give evidence.”
His jaw clenched.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know what happened on Ridge Nine.”
The name hit the room like a live grenade.
Several soldiers looked at each other.
Ridge Nine was whispered about, never discussed.
A classified extraction.
Seven years old.
A mission report that said one thing in public and another thing behind sealed doors.
A mission where General Matthews had been praised for leadership.
And where Luna Hayes had disappeared from every visible record.
Matthews’s voice dropped.
“You will stop talking.”
Luna’s eyes stayed cold.
“You told them I abandoned position.”
The general’s face hardened.
“You did.”
“You told them I froze.”
“You did.”
“You told them Captain Reed died because I missed the shot.”
Matthews slammed his hand onto the table.
The rifle pieces rattled.
“I said remove the badge.”
Luna finally moved.
Not toward the badge.
Toward one of the old photos in the folder.
She turned it so the room could see.
It showed a mountain ridge through a scope lens.
A burning convoy.
Smoke.
A faint red circle drawn around a communications tower half hidden in rock.
Most people would have seen nothing.
A sniper saw the whole truth.
Luna tapped the photo once.
“This was taken from my position.”
Matthews stared at the photo.
His nostrils flared.
“That file is sealed.”
May you like
“It was sealed to protect the mission,” Luna said. “Not to protect you.”
Read Part 3 to find out who walked into the armory with the sealed file Matthews never wanted opened.
