Chapter 6 - The Ghost from the Sand
I instantly recognized the rough and gravelly voice whispering in my ear.
It belonged to Marcus Vance.
He was my former military sniper overwatch and the man who taught me how to survive in the worst conditions.
Marcus removed his hand from my mouth and lowered his combat knife.
He had completely vanished off the grid three years ago after a botched mission in Syria.
I turned around and stared at his camouflage-painted face in pure shock.
I asked him what the hell he was doing in these woods.
Marcus smirked and said he had been watching my cabin ever since the precinct put a bounty on my head.
He motioned for us to follow him deeper into the dense pine forest.
We moved silently for three miles until we reached a camouflaged bunker built into the side of a hill.
Marcus pushed aside a heavy fake rock door and ushered us inside the warm and dimly lit space.
Brutus immediately collapsed onto a dirty rug and began licking his wounded shoulder.
Marcus handed me a bottle of water and a fresh magazine for my rifle.
He explained that he had been tracking a rogue faction within the Department of Defense for months.
He said the biological weapon project I stumbled upon was called Operation Chimera.
The little girl was not kidnapped from the park by random criminals.
She was a living incubator carrying a highly contagious synthetic virus in her blood.
The mother was an infected scientist who realized the government planned to auction the virus to international terrorists.
I pulled the micro-SD card from my boot and handed it to Marcus.
I told him about the video showing Captain Miller overseeing the experiments.
Marcus plugged the drive into his heavily encrypted field laptop.
He typed furiously on the keyboard attempting to break the secondary encryption walls.
Lines of green code scrolled endlessly across the dark monitor.
Finally a map popped up on the screen showing a massive shipping yard near the coast.
Marcus pointed at a specific warehouse highlighted in flashing red pixels.
He said this was the designated extraction point where the terrorists were arriving to purchase the girl.
I looked at my watch and realized we only had four hours before the sun came up.
If they completed the transaction the child would disappear into the black market forever.
I looked down at Brutus who was watching me intently despite his painful injuries.
I told Marcus that I was not leaving that little girl in the hands of monsters.
Marcus loaded a heavy sniper rifle and smiled a grim and terrifying smile.
He said he was hoping I would say that.
But as Marcus turned away the computer screen suddenly flashed a brilliant warning red.
The final decrypted file opened on the screen and displayed a list of the project's lead directors.
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Right at the top of the list was a photograph of the mastermind behind the entire operation.
It was a clear picture of my wife who had supposedly died in a car crash two years ago.
