Chapter 3 - Locker 214

Mara left Rourke's office with the unsigned form folded in her pocket. At the end of the hall, Ortega pretended to fill a water bottle.

“Sir?” he asked under his breath.

“Don't call me sir. And don't be seen talking to me.”

“The visiting instructor's car never left. Two security guys took him through the loading entrance.”

“Did you see where?”

“Old equipment wing.”

Mara's stomach dropped. That wing had been closed for renovation for years. Daniel used to joke that the Army hid everything it couldn't explain behind a broken door.

The brass key fit a locker in the former swimming facility, a long walk from the training hall. The corridor smelled of chlorine and old concrete. On the way, Mara passed a fresh boot print in the dust. Someone else had been there recently.

Inside locker 214 lay a cheap prepaid phone, a flash drive sealed in a plastic bag, and a photograph. Daniel stood beside Liang in civilian clothing, both alive and smiling, in front of a warehouse marked MERIDIAN LOGISTICS.

The photograph was dated six weeks after Daniel's official death.

She touched his face. The room tilted, but she forced her breathing to slow. The phone turned on when she pressed the side button. It held one saved message.

Daniel's voice filled the abandoned hallway.

“Mara. If you hear this, I couldn't get out. They used our clearance to move something that was never supposed to cross the border. Ask about Project Lantern. Whatever happens, do not give the drive to military police.”

A door slammed at the far end of the pool building.

“Mara Bennett!” a voice shouted. “Come out with your hands visible!”

She killed the phone, tucked everything into her waistband, and climbed into the empty pool through a maintenance hatch. From above, a flashlight swept the tile.

One of the searchers spoke into his radio. “We know she's got it.”

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The second answered, “Then we make sure she doesn't leave the building.”

Mara looked down. Water had been drained, but a dark tunnel waited beneath the deep end. As the locks above clicked shut, smoke began slipping under the door