Chapter 9 - The Ghost from the Past
My encrypted satellite phone buzzed on the metal desk.
I looked down at the screen. The caller ID displayed a restricted, high-level routing code—a frequency that hadn't flashed on my device since my final classified counter-intelligence operation in Eastern Europe five years ago.
I pressed accept and put it on speaker so Marcus and Maya could listen.
“Colonel Moretti,” a cold, synthesized voice spoke through the encrypted line.
“Identify yourself,” I commanded, my voice dropping into a lethal register.
“You’re making a tremendous mistake keeping the boy, Gabriel,” the voice continued smoothly, ignoring my demand. “His mother carried secrets she shouldn't have taken to the grave. And your son... well, his biology holds the key to a project the Department buried a decade ago.”
My entire world stopped.
Sofia. My wife. She hadn't just died from a tragic hemorrhage during childbirth. The people I worked for—the shadow architects of black-ops biotechnology—had targeted her.
“If you ever touch my son again,” I whispered, every word freezing the air in the room, “I won't just dismantle your operation. I will hunt down every single person who signed that order.”
“You can try, Colonel,” the voice replied coolly. “But your little janitor friend at the hospital? The men you left behind? They’re already exposed. You can’t protect everyone.”
May you like
The line went dead with a sharp click.
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