Chapter 8 - The Ghost from the Past
The screen of my phone glowed in the dark cabin of the sedan, the photograph burning into my retinas.
It wasn't just my father looking panicked in the living room. Standing right beside him, holding a glass of scotch and looking directly into the camera with a mocking, predatory smirk, was a man I had spent the last five years trying to erase from my memory.
Colonel David Vance.
My former commanding officer from my first overseas deployment—the man whose career I had nearly derailed when I filed an official internal report regarding falsified casualty logs and diverted medical supplies in a combat zone. Vance had quietly retired under a cloud of administrative suspicion, swearing revenge before disappearing into the civilian defense contractor underworld.
And now, he was sitting in my parents’ living room, collaborating with my father and Lucas.
“What is it?” Alexander asked instantly, noticing the sudden loss of color in my face as he slid into the passenger seat beside me.
Without a word, I handed him the phone.
Alexander’s eyes swept over the image. The temperature inside the vehicle seemed to drop twenty degrees. The quiet, controlled fury that radiated from him was almost palpable.
“Vance,” Alexander murmured, the name tasting like poison on his tongue. “I thought the board had stripped his clearance and pushed him out to pasture in the private sector.”
“He didn't disappear,” I said, my voice shaking slightly as the pieces of a much darker, more insidious puzzle violently clicked into place. “Lucas didn't break into your car on a whim tonight. He wasn't just acting out of family pride or panic over my uniform. Vance has been in contact with them. He’s been using my family to get back at me—and through me, to get to your command.”
Alexander turned his head sharply toward me, his jaw tight. “Explain.”
“Think about it,” I said, the adrenaline clearing my head with terrifying clarity. “Why did Mom destroy my uniform today? Why did she make such a theatrical scene of humiliation right before the wedding? It wasn't just because she hates my career. It was a calculated provocation designed to make me call you, to bring your staff car to their house, and to create an exact window for Vance’s operatives to plant a data-siphon or steal your logistics files.”
Alexander’s silence was confirmation enough. He pulled out his own secure terminal, tapping rapidly across the screen. “If Vance is back in play, this goes far beyond a local family dispute. He’s working with a private defense syndicate that’s been under federal investigation for months for leaking classified supply chains.”
“And my family handed them the keys,” I whispered, looking out the tinted window toward the dark silhouette of the base gates. “Lucas didn't just commit a felony tonight. He played right into Vance’s hands, thinking he was protecting his precious wedding.”
“We’re going back,” Alexander said decisively, looking up from his terminal.
“Back to the house?” I asked, startled.
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“Not just back to the house,” Alexander replied, his eyes gleaming with cold, tactical brilliance. “We’re going to dismantle their little conspiracy before the sun comes up. Call your father. Tell him Lucas has been detained by military intelligence.”
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