Page 423 of Broken Oath

Fathom returned to his computer.

Cobra looked around the cargo bay.

Wade slept between Sarah and Jack Parker.

Grant Barrett had finally stopped watching the doors.

Luke Dawson remained beside Hale’s stretcher.

Jackson Cole guarded the remaining bacon as if it contained nuclear launch codes.

The rescued men looked different when they slept.

Younger.

Less haunted.

Still too thin.

Still marked by everything that had happened.

But safe.

Cobra’s humor faded.

He had seen prisoners of war before.

Men rescued after weeks.

Sometimes months.

Never five years.

He couldn’t imagine waking under the same fluorescent lights every day, knowing the world thought he was dead.

He couldn’t imagine surviving it.

Fathom stopped typing.

“You’re quiet.”

“I’m thinking.”

“That worries me more than the explosives.”

Cobra ignored him.

“What happens to them now?”

“The survivors?”

“Yeah.”

“Medical treatment. Debriefing. Reconnecting with families. Learning how to live outside the prison.”

“Sounds hard.”

“It will be.”