Page 40 of Scarred Sunrise

“Because you deserve to know the truth.”

“Why now?”

“There may not be another chance.”

“I should kill you.”

He felt his finger on the trigger tighten as his body almost shook with the need to kill his father, but then it hit him—his father. Some mystery figure who’d made him. A man he’d built up in his mind as a small child, believing he’d save him and make his life better. But he wasn’t a hero; he was a cold, calculating spy who’d used him.

“You could, but I’m your best chance of ending this.”

“How?”

“Those files have the answers. But you’ve been looking at this all wrong. Rhea has more soldiers than we ever thought possible.”

“How?”

He could hear the click of the comms that alerted him his team were coming back.

“The mind control drug she used initially has evolved. She put it into an implant that every man and woman serving in the UK military now has.”

“What? How?”

“An initiative set up to make sure all personnel were safe from standard viruses like the flu.”

“Yes, I heard about that but how did she get her drug inside it?”

“She didn’t. A biotech company makes the implant, and she had people inside the lab. The information is on the flash drives.”

“Jesus Christ, she’d be unstoppable with those kinds of resources.”

“Yes, but she won’t deploy them until the other drug is in place.”

“How do we stop her?” He couldn’t believe he was asking this man for advice, but he seemed to have all the answers they were missing.

“You don’t, not alone. I started this, and I must finish it. You just make sure that drug doesn’t get into that oil pipeline.”

John cocked his head as he listened, and Smithy knew he had a decision to make—either let him go and hope he did as he asked or take him in and risk losing this war.

“Time to decide, Smithy.”

“Go.” Smithy dropped his weapon as did John.

“For the record, I’m sorry, and I do regret the choice I made, but that’s for me to live with.”

Then he was gone, and Smithy was left with more questions than he ever thought possible.