Chapter 5 - The Inside Man
The blinding flash of white light erupted violently across the roof of the silo.
The deafening shockwave completely overloaded my senses for a crucial fraction of a second.
I dropped to one knee, instinctively shielding my eyes and ears from the devastating blast.
When my vision finally cleared a few moments later, the roof was completely empty.
Dominic and Clyde were gone, having quickly escaped down a secondary maintenance ladder on the far side.
I rushed to the edge of the roof, staring down into the dark, abandoned rail yard below.
A black tactical SUV was tearing away from the silo, speeding onto the desolate county highway.
Clyde was not a helpless hostage.
Clyde was part of the smuggling syndicate.
The old veteran from the diner had played his role perfectly, luring me away from my home to buy them time.
I pulled my burner phone from my pocket and dialed the encrypted JAG number again.
The secure line connected immediately.
"Logan, you need to get completely off the grid right now," my JAG contact warned frantically.
"The naval armory in Seattle was just breached an hour ago."
"Someone bypassed the biometric scanners using your exact security clearance and fingerprints."
The pieces of the puzzle aggressively snapped into place in my racing mind.
Amelia had stolen my classified folder, but she needed my live fingerprints to complete the perfect forgery.
The cold strawberry milkshake at the Rusty Spoon diner.
Dominic had deliberately handed me an empty glass wrapped in a napkin, and I had grabbed it.
They had staged the entire public humiliation just to lift a perfect set of my fingerprints from the glass.
"What did they steal from the armory?" I asked, my grip tightening on the small phone.
"They did not take conventional weapons," the JAG officer replied, his voice trembling with genuine fear.
"They took four experimental, weaponized drone payloads."
"If those payloads cross the border, we are looking at a catastrophic international terror incident."
"Logan, the FBI just issued a federal warrant for your arrest."
"You are officially the primary suspect for high treason against the United States."
I ended the call and crushed the burner phone into pieces beneath my heavy boot.
I was a hunted ghost with no allies, no weapons, and an entire country violently turned against me.
But I knew exactly where to get my tactical gear.
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I looked toward the distant tree line bordering my secluded property.
I saw a massive column of black smoke violently rising from the exact location of my house.
