Page 251 of Rangers Last Promise

“At the Vance property?”

“Yes.”

“How long ago?”

Kane’s eyes close.

Doc grips his shoulder.

“Stay with me.”

“Twenty minutes. Maybe thirty.”

“Did Vance follow you?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he thinks I’m dead.”

“That makes two of us.”

Kane’s mouth twitches.

Then he winces.

I press fresh gauze against his side.

“You said Vance was digging for twenty-three graves.”

Kane looks at me.

“Not here.”

Relief moves through me, but it doesn’t last.

“Where?”

“Afghanistan.”

Doc’s hands stop for half a second.

“Site Seventeen.”

“Yes.”

“What graves?”

“The twenty-three men the Colonel erased.”

The room goes still around us.

Grant’s letter lies open on the conference table.

Twenty-three men were moved through Site Seventeen.

Some were recruited. Some were threatened. Some disappeared.