Chapter 10 - The Tribunal Trap
The rain beat down in heavy, relentless sheets as General Marcus Thorne lowered his tablet, his eyes fixed on me with a mixture of professional respect and grim inevitability. Behind him, the military police kept their weapons raised, though their safeties were switched off on Thorne's silent command.
"General Thorne," I said, keeping my weapon pointed safely toward the ground while maintaining my stance. "If you're here to execute the kill-order, you're a few minutes late. David Vance is pinned inside that burning mill."
Thorne didn't flinch at the name. Instead, he stepped closer, gesturing to the tactical van behind him. "David Vance is a symptom of a much larger infection, Daniel. The moment you blew that case, you triggered an automated audit protocol across every intelligence server in the Department of Defense. We know about Project Janus. We know about Director Sterling."
"Then why are your men pointing their rifles at us?" Thomas demanded, his voice tight with suspicion as he kept his carbine raised. "If Sterling is compromised, and the network is clean, let us walk."
"Because Project Janus wasn't just a rogue black-ops initiative run by a few corrupt officials," Thorne said heavily, his expression darkening. "It was an authorized continuity-of-government directive signed off by the executive branch three years ago—and the people who funded it are sitting on the Senate Intelligence Committee."
The words hit harder than any bullet. The corruption wasn't an anomaly; it was an institutional cancer rooted at the absolute highest levels of American governance.
Thorne stepped closer, lowering his voice to a whisper that barely carried over the roar of the rain. "If you walk out of here, Daniel, you'll be hunted by every intelligence agency on the planet—not just as a rogue soldier, but as a direct threat to national stability. But if you get into that van right now, I can give you a clean slate... under one condition."
I looked at Thorne, narrowing my eyes. "What condition?"
"You hand over Clara's ledger, and you sign a non-disclosure agreement permanently burying Project Janus," Thorne said, his gaze unwavering. "In exchange, your service record is restored, your name is cleared, and you retire quietly with full honors."
Silence hung heavily between us, broken only by the rhythmic drumming of the storm. Thomas shook his head slowly, whispering, "Don't do it, Daniel. It's a whitewash."
I looked down at the encrypted laptop in my hand, feeling the weight of twenty years of loyalty, betrayal, and bloodshed. I slowly raised my eyes to meet Thorne's gaze, a cold smile forming on my lips.
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"General," I said softly, cocking my head toward the burning mill behind us where David Vance was likely clawing his way out from under the wreckage. "You picked the wrong SEAL to try and silence."
Before Thorne could react, a deafening explosion ripped through the upper floors of the textile mill, blowing out the remaining glass windows in a spectacular cascade of fire and smoke. Through the billowing flames, a heavy-duty armored transport truck burst backward through the second-story brick wall, plunging down into the alleyway with a catastrophic crash, its sirens blaring an ear-splitting war cry as it locked its bumpers directly onto our position.
