Chapter 5
The entire hall went still.
Ruth Vance covered her mouth.
General Hollis slowly turned toward Hale, his face filled with horror.
The video continued.
Hale stood beside two foreign contacts near the ambush site.
One of his men handed over a black drive.
Another voice said, “What about the soldiers?”
Hale answered, “Heroes die every day. This one just needs to look guilty.”
A sound moved through the hall.
Not a gasp.
Not a scream.
Something deeper.
A room full of soldiers realizing that seven of their own had been sold.
Caleb stood between the MPs, his face pale but steady.
He did not look victorious.
He looked like a man hearing his friends die all over again.
Colonel Shaw faced the crowd.
“Marcus Hale and his associates sold classified mission details, altered the after-action report, and attempted to frame Staff Sergeant Vance for their crimes.”
Hale lunged for the aisle.
He did not get far.
Investigators slammed him to the floor before he reached the doors.
The two men with him tried to run in opposite directions.
Both were taken down in front of the cameras.
For the first time that day, the cameras captured the right men in handcuffs.
Hale shouted as they dragged him up.
“You think he’s innocent? Ask him why he lived!”
Caleb flinched.
The words hit the one wound no medal could cover.
Why did you live?
He had asked himself that every night.
In the hospital.
In the interrogation room.
At the funerals.
May you like
Beside Mason Reed’s empty chair.
Read Part 6 to hear Caleb’s answer when the traitor tried to use his survival against him.
