Chapter 2
A few officers looked away.
Willis leaned closer.
His voice dropped, but the cruelty sharpened.
“That’s emotion talking.”
The room changed.
Some faces went blank.
Some looked down.
Some looked at Cross like maybe Willis was right.
Like she was too tired.
Too close.
Too desperate.
Like the female captain in the front of the room had finally cracked under pressure.
Cross felt the humiliation burn in her chest.
But she did not raise her voice.
She did not defend her pride.
She did not even look at Willis.
She looked down at the map.
Her finger moved from the main road to a smaller path behind the compound.
A goat trail.
Barely visible.
Barely marked.
“They didn’t take him through the front gate,” she said.
Willis scoffed.
“You don’t know that.”
Cross pointed at the drone screen.
A thermal dot was being dragged across the courtyard by two larger heat signatures.
“They moved him into the western building at 3:44.”
The drone operator zoomed in.
The image sharpened.
One bright human shape on the ground.
Two standing figures pulling it by the arms.
Then the heat signature disappeared under a roof.
Cross spoke again.
“No. That’s not emotion.”
She turned toward Willis.
“That’s his last known heat signature.”
The room went still.
This time, no one looked away.
Before Willis could answer, the command center door flew open.
Colonel Grant Maddox stepped in with a tablet in his hand.
His face was tight.
His voice was colder than the room.
May you like
“Captain Cross is right.”
Read Part 3 to see what the tablet revealed about Hale’s final forty-seven minutes.
