Page 144 of Broken Oath

The mountain still lived here.

Not only in the photographs or the challenge coins.

It lived in the empty spaces.

The conversations that ended too soon.

The jokes nobody would ever hear again.

The six men who should have been sitting around the table.

Rook stood before the operations wall.

Seven photographs stared back at him.

Rear Admiral Thomas Grayson.

Director Alan Madow.

Senator Richard Vance.

General Robert Sheffield.

Deputy Intelligence Director Walter Graves.

Commander Jerry Rhodes.

Mac Stenson.

Seven people with access to the complete mission package.

Seven possible traitors.

Seven individuals who should have been answering questions.

Instead, they remained protected by wealth, rank, and power.

Shark sat nearby with his injured arm secured inside a sling.

“You really think one of them will slip?”

Rook studied Madow’s photograph.

Then Vance.

Then Graves.

Men who had spent their lives believing consequences only happened to other people.

“Yes.”

The room looked toward him.

Rook pointed at the photographs.

“They’ve controlled the investigation since the mountain. They controlled the reports, the witnesses, and the evidence.”

A faint grin touched Sniper’s mouth.