Page 196 of Broken Oath

He also saw the fear that came with it.

“Is there anything more recent?” she asked.

“Not in these records.”

The hope in her eyes flickered.

Not gone.

Wounded.

Rook stepped closer.

“We know he survived.”

“Five years ago.”

“Yes.”

“He could have died after the transfer.”

“Yes.”

Everyone looked toward Rook.

Sarah did too.

He wouldn’t lie to her.

He wouldn’t promise something the evidence couldn’t support.

She had been fed enough comforting lies.

“But someone went to extraordinary lengths to erase the fact that he survived,” Rook continued. “That means his survival threatened them.”

“Or what he knew threatened them,” Sniper said.

Fathom enlarged the transfer language.

“Look at the wording. It doesn’t say medical evacuation or prisoner recovery. It says survivor transfer.”

“That isn’t standard military language,” Rook said.

“No.”

“Then who wrote it?”

“Someone operating outside the normal system.”

Sarah stared at the report.

“What if he was transferred into a classified program?”

“Possible,” Fathom said.

“What if they held him?”

“Also possible.”