Page 74 of Rangers Last Promise

Doc shakes his head.

“I don't know.”

I look at the final line.

Twenty-three never existed.

“What about twenty-three?”

Something changes in Doc's face.

Wolf sees it too.

“What?”

Doc looks at him.

“Mission Twenty-Three.”

Trigger lowers the ice pack.

“There was no Mission Twenty-Three.”

“Exactly.”

I look between them. “What are you talking about?”

Doc hands the photograph back to Sheriff Tate.

“Our missions were numbered. The operation that sent us into the valley was listed in the official report as Mission Twenty-Four.”

“And?”

“There should have been a Twenty-Three before it.”

Wolf understands first.

“There wasn't.”

Trigger's expression hardens.

“No briefing. No deployment. No mission.”

A chill moves down my spine.

“Twenty-three never existed.”

Doc looks at the message again.

“Not officially.”

Sheriff Tate folds his arms. “Which means?”

“Someone may have created a false operation in the records before ours.”

“To do what?”

Doc looks at Captain Miller’s missing face.