Chapter 6 - The Cadet's Secret
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't blow your head off right now," Olivia whispered fiercely.
Hale kept his hands perfectly still, looking directly into the barrel of the gun.
"Because the signature is a forgery," Hale replied evenly.
"Look at the date on the document, Mitchell."
Olivia glanced at the glowing screen for a fraction of a second.
"The date is October fourteenth," Hale pointed out.
"I was in a medically induced coma in a military hospital in Germany from October tenth to the thirtieth."
"I took a sniper bullet to the chest in Afghanistan."
Elias rapidly cross-referenced military medical records on a secondary screen and nodded.
"He is telling the truth, kid," Elias confirmed.
"Someone used his stolen credentials to authorize the strike on Grey Lantern."
Olivia slowly lowered the weapon, her hands shaking with pent-up adrenaline.
"They needed a scapegoat," Hale muttered, rubbing his jaw.
"And they needed someone who would never question the official story."
Suddenly, a loud, piercing alarm blared from the computer console.
"Perimeter breach!" Elias shouted, grabbing a heavy shotgun from under his desk.
"We have thermal signatures converging on the mill from all sides."
Hale drew his sidearm and moved swiftly to the reinforced window.
He peered out into the darkness and saw dozens of red laser sights cutting through the heavy rain.
"It is an Apex kill squad," Hale announced.
Before anyone could react, the front door of the office was completely blown off its hinges.
A flashbang grenade bounced into the center of the room and detonated with blinding force.
Hale fired blindly into the doorway as heavily armored mercenaries poured into the room.
Elias managed to take down two of them before a barrage of bullets tore through his chest, killing him instantly.
Olivia lunged forward, grabbed a dropped rifle, and laid down suppressing fire to cover Hale.
In the chaos, a massive figure tackled Olivia to the ground, knocking the wind out of her.
The attacker pinned her down and ripped his tactical mask off, revealing a familiar, arrogant face.
It was Cadet Vance from the training yard.
"Did you really think I was just a bully?" Vance laughed maliciously, pinning her arms down.
"I was planted at the academy specifically to monitor you until your blood was ready."
Vance pulled a heavy metallic syringe from his vest and prepared to plunge it into her neck.
Before he could strike, Hale tackled Vance off her, sending them both crashing through a glass partition.
Vance rolled over, completely unfazed, and smiled a blood-chilling smile.
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"You are too late, Colonel," Vance spat, biting down hard on something hidden inside his mouth.
Hale barely had time to realize what was happening as a hidden explosive tooth detonated inside Vance's jaw.
