Chapter 2 - The Red Seal Annex
The sanctuary doors closed behind us as Ethan’s mother ushered the guests into the reception hall, leaving only Vance, Ethan, and me standing in the quiet vestry.
I stared down at page four of the classified annex. The words blurred, then sharpened into terrifying clarity.
Operation Silent Sky: Secondary Asset Verification.
"This is a ghost protocol," I looked up, my breath hitching. "Why is my name attached to an active intelligence directive? I resigned my commission effective midnight last night."
"Resignations don't clear until the commanding officer signs off on the final clearance audit, Captain," Vance said, crossing his arms. "And I didn't sign."
Ethan stepped closer, wrapping a strong, grounding hand around my shoulder. His eyes burned with protective anger as he looked at the senior officer. "Colonel, she gave the Air Force ten years of her life. She was forced out of her family home two nights ago by people who tried to break her spirit, and now you're dropping a classified bomb on her wedding day? What is this really about?"
"It's about survival, son," Vance replied bluntly, turning his gaze to Ethan. "Two days ago, a secure logistics server at our Ramstein base was breached. The encryption key used to access it belonged to Claire’s military ID—an ID that was supposed to have been wiped from the database."
My blood ran cold. "That's impossible. My clearance card has been locked in my wall safe at my apartment since I moved out of my parents' house."
"Your apartment," Vance said slowly, "which shares a maintenance circuit with your father's electronic workshop. The same workshop where your brother Tyler tinkers with high-end surveillance tech."
The pieces slammed together with the force of an ejection seat. Tyler.
For years, my brother had used my old military credentials, left over from a shared administrative server back when we were both cadets, to pirate secure defense databases for local tech contracts. I had thought it was just petty sibling rivalry. But this wasn't petty. This was federal treason.
"Tyler," I whispered, the rage inside me igniting with a heat that eclipsed my wedding day nerves. "He used my credentials to cover his tracks."
"Precisely," Vance nodded. "And right now, the Department of Defense thinks you sold the access key. They have a tactical team five minutes away to take you into custody."
Ethan stepped in front of me, squaring his jaw. "Then we run. We get to the airstrip—"
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"You don't run from the DOD, son," Vance interrupted, pulling a set of keys from his pocket and tossing them onto the wooden table. "Unless you want a fighter jet tracking your tail lights across state lines. But... there is a tactical workaround."
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