We restored communications using a short-range backup system.
It wasn’t perfect.
It didn’t need to be.
I reached Jade first.
“Raven Two to Monroe.”
Static.
Then her voice.
“Go.”
“Soren contacted me.”
Silence.
I hated what I had to say.
“He says one Talon operator survived.”
Jade didn’t answer.
“Monroe?”
“I heard you.”
“Could be bait.”
“I know.”
“Martinez needs you focused.”
“I am focused.”
Her voice sounded controlled.
Too controlled.
Then another channel opened.
Martinez.
“Contact east.”
The operation changed instantly.
Movement appeared around the industrial buildings.
Soren’s people had anticipated our approach.
But they were anticipating Jade’s old approach.
Not the plan she had rewritten.
Martinez’s team shifted south.
Reed covered the crossing.
Collins moved through a drainage corridor.
Jade relocated exactly as planned.
Soren’s observers searched the northern ridge.
She wasn’t there anymore.
Within minutes, our team reached the building where the hostages were believed to be held.
Empty.
A chair.
Two restraints.
A warm cup of coffee.
They had been moved minutes earlier.
Martinez swore.
Jade’s voice came over comms.
“Don’t chase.”
“Why?”
“He wants pursuit.”
“So we let them leave?”
“No.”
A pause.
“We let Soren think we lost.”
She directed us toward an old rail tunnel.
We moved.
I didn’t understand why until Collins asked.
“How do you know?”
Jade answered.
“Because this is where he took us nine years ago.”
Nobody spoke after that.
The tunnel smelled of oil, rust, and rainwater.
Jade joined us near the entrance.
For the first time during the operation, I saw tension in her hands.
Martinez noticed too.
“You good?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t look good.”
“Then stop looking at me.”
Collins nearly laughed.
Martinez didn’t.
“Jade.”
She met his eyes.
“I’m good.”
He nodded.
That was trust.
Not blind trust.
The kind that asks the question and accepts the answer.
We entered.
Two hundred yards in, lights switched on.
Old industrial lamps flickered overhead.
A speaker crackled.
Then Viktor Soren’s voice filled the tunnel.
“Welcome home, Jade.”
She stopped.
Collins looked toward her.
Jade’s face became unreadable.
Soren continued.
“Nine years. I wondered whether General Gerald had hidden you forever.”
Jade raised her rifle.
“Keep moving.”
We did.
“You still give orders beautifully,” Soren said.
Jade ignored him.
“Do you still blame yourself?”
Nothing.
“I hope so.”
Collins looked furious.
Jade motioned for silence.
The tunnel split.
She pointed left.
Martinez shook his head.
“Map says right.”
“Map is wrong.”
“How do you know?”
“Because we built this place into Talon training simulations.”
We went left.
Thirty seconds later, we found the first hostage.
Alive.
Dr. Emily Carson.
Intelligence analyst.
Terrified.
Her hands were bound.
Martinez freed her.
“Where’s Agent Wells?”
“They took him deeper.”
“With who?”
She looked toward Jade.
“With an American officer.”
Harris.
Martinez’s expression hardened.
“He’s here.”
Carson nodded.
“And another man.”
“What man?”
“I don’t know. Older. He had scars on his face.”
Jade froze.
“What did he call him?”
Carson thought.
“Ethan.”
Jade’s rifle lowered by an inch.
Gerald had told us only one Talon operator walked out.
Jade.
But I remembered his exact wording.
Only two had come home from the final mission.
He never said the second was dead.
Jade moved toward Carson.
“Last name?”
“I didn’t hear one.”
Jade closed her eyes.
“Ethan Vale.”
Her voice cracked on the name.
Just slightly.
Martinez looked at her.
“Your teammate?”
“My second.”
Soren’s voice returned.
“There she is.”
Jade looked upward.
“The woman beneath the armor.”
She raised her weapon again.
“Soren.”
He laughed softly.
“Still angry?”
“No.”
“That disappoints me.”
“I’m tired.”
“Of me?”
“Of giving you importance.”
For the first time, Soren went silent.
Jade continued.
“You betrayed six people because you thought fear made you powerful.”
Her voice remained quiet.
“It made you predictable.”
The speakers cut out.
Martinez smiled faintly.
“I think you irritated him.”
“That was the idea.”
We continued.
Then Collins found the Black Talon.
It lay deliberately in the middle of the tunnel.
No case.
No guard.
Jade stared.
“Don’t touch it.”
Collins stopped.
“Trap?”
“Yes.”
I examined the signal spectrum.
A small transmitter was embedded beneath the stock.
Tracking device.
Jade had expected it.
Soren wanted her to take the rifle.
Wanted to control where she moved.
She crouched beside it.
For one moment, her fingers hovered over the stock.
Then she stood.
“Leave it.”
Collins looked surprised.
“That thing was yours.”
“Not anymore.”
That mattered.
I could see it in her face.
Nine years earlier, the Black Talon had represented everything she lost.
Now she walked past it.
We found Ethan Vale twenty minutes later.
He was alive.
Barely.
He sat against a support pillar, wrists bound, gray in his beard, scar cutting across the right side of his face.
Jade stopped ten feet away.
Ethan lifted his head.
His eyes found hers.
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Ethan smiled.
“About time.”
Jade crossed the distance.
She dropped to her knees and cut his restraints.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you.”
“I saw the building collapse.”
“I noticed.”
She laughed.
Then unexpectedly pressed her forehead against his.
For perhaps two seconds, Jade Monroe allowed herself to be the person she had hidden from everyone.
Then she pulled away.
“Can you walk?”
“With complaints.”
“Good.”
Ethan grabbed her wrist.
“Jade.”
She looked at him.
“He knows about Gerald.”
“What?”
“Soren didn’t betray Talon alone.”
The tunnel seemed colder.
Ethan struggled upright.
“He had help from command.”
Jade stared.
“Who?”
Before Ethan could answer, gunfire sounded farther down the tunnel.
Martinez moved.
“Contact!”
Everything became motion.
We took cover.
Soren’s remaining security force blocked the exit.
No cinematic heroics.
No impossible charges.
Just disciplined movement.
Communication.
Cover.
Patience.
Jade directed Ethan and Carson behind a concrete divider.
Collins covered Martinez.
Reed moved toward the flank.
I maintained communications.
Then Harris appeared at the far end.
He wasn’t carrying the hostages.
He wasn’t running.
He stood beside Soren.
Martinez saw him.
“Harris!”
Harris looked across the distance.
No shame.
Soren smiled beside him.
“Captain Martinez.”
Martinez’s jaw tightened.
“You sold us out.”
Harris shook his head.
“I chose the future.”
“You kidnapped your own people.”
“They were leverage.”
Collins muttered, “I really hate that guy.”
Jade looked toward Harris.
“You helped Soren nine years ago?”
Harris laughed.
“No.”
Soren answered.
“He was too junior.”
Jade’s eyes narrowed.
“Then who?”
Soren smiled.
“Ask Gerald.”
The words struck harder than a bullet.
Jade stared.
“Liar.”
Soren shrugged.
“Did you never wonder why your general kept that rifle locked away?”
Jade said nothing.
“Why he knew your scar?”
“Because he commanded the program.”
“Yes.”
Soren stepped backward.
“But did he tell you who ordered Talon into that valley?”
Jade’s face changed.
Soren smiled.
“He did.”
Then the lights died.
Darkness swallowed the tunnel.
By the time our emergency optics came online, Soren and Harris were gone.
Agent Wells remained behind, alive.
The hostages were safe.
Mission objective achieved.
We should have felt victorious.
Instead, Jade stood in the darkness staring at the empty place where Soren had been.
Because we were returning home with three rescued people.
And one terrible question.
Had General Gerald sent Jade’s team into a trap nine years ago knowing exactly what waited for them?
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