Page 31 of Broken Oath

Heavy.

Waiting.

Then the memories came.

Not complete memories.

Fragments.

Red emergency lights.

Hammer laughing.

Tex holding a photograph.

Fathom staring at a tablet.

Dark mountains.

A red laser.

Gunfire.

Ghost disappearing inside an explosion.

Bishop behind his machine gun.

Tex bleeding beneath Rook’s hands.

Ridge running toward the storage building.

Viking smiling through the smoke.

Go.

Rook bolted upright.

Pain tore through his body.

The room exploded with alarms.

Machines shrieked as his vision darkened around the edges.

He didn’t care.

“Viking.”

The name scraped from his throat.

Raw.

Broken.

No answer.

Only machines.

Only sunlight.