He started toward the common area.
Cannon cut him off. “War room. Now.”
Archer changed direction with the others but an ache settled behind his ribs. Jolie was here, safe, waiting for their return. And she’d made food.
Inside the war room, the team spread out around the table. Cannon stopped in the doorway. “Don’t move.” He pulled the door shut behind him and the room throbbed with loaded silence.
Then Rome inhaled deeply and groaned. “Whatever she made, I’m in love with it.”
Townie glanced at the door. “Could be spaghetti.”
“Or lasagna,” Rome threw out.
Younger tapped a finger on the table. “We don’t have lasagna noodles.” He would know since he handled all the supplies for the base.
“Could be stew,” Rivers said.
“Could be heaven,” Rome finished.
The door flew open hard enough to rattle the hinges, cutting off conversation.
Cannon strode back in, his expression carved from stone. He didn’t bother sitting. He came straight to the table and lifted the ammo between two fingers.
He held up the bullet. “This came from old stores.”
He set it down in front of O. “I want the lot number tracked. Every piece of the chain of custody history you can find.”
O straightened. “On it.”
Cannon planted both hands on the table and looked at each of them in turn. “There’s something the government never told anyone.”
The room went dead quiet.
Cannon didn’t look away. “After Echo team went down in that chopper crash…their base was turned into an ICE facility.” He paused. “Then someone bombed it.”
No one spoke. They all knew that part.
“I led the team sent in to clear what was left,” Cannon went on. “But when we opened the armory…” He dragged a hand over his mouth. “It was empty. Not damaged. Not looted in a rush. Emptied. Every weapon. Every round.”
The tumblers in Archer’s head locked into place, slow and mechanical.
Rome leaned forward. “How? That facility had cameras. Somebody had eyes on it.”
Cannon’s jaw tightened. “We thought so too.”
He let that sit for half a beat, then continued, “The firefight on the ridge. We pulled a casing out of one of their snowmobiles. And the round that hit Rome—Blackout pulled that from his vest.”
Every head in the room turned.
“You never said you took one to the chest,” Archer said to Rome.
He shrugged. “No blood, it didn’t happen.”
No one laughed.
Cannon’s voice dropped a notch. “Ballistics ran a prelim.”
Archer didn’t like the look on his face. “And?”
