Page 382 of Broken Oath

“Name.”

“Commander Jerry Rhodes.”

Dad frowned.

“When?”

“Three years ago.”

“How did he die?”

Madow gave a humorless laugh.

“The same way everyone dies when they become inconvenient. His aircraft went down over the Atlantic.”

A staged death.

Another lie.

Perhaps Rhodes was dead.

Perhaps he was hiding behind another name, as Reeves had.

We couldn’t trust anything yet.

Wade stared toward the darkness.

“Where are the others?”

Madow answered.

“The same place powerful men always go.”

Rook’s eyes hardened.

“Where they think no one can reach them.”

“Exactly.”

I looked at my brother.

Five years had been stolen from him.

Five men emerged from that mountain when the world had been told none survived.

Madow believed the destruction of Black Site Theta had protected the others.

He was wrong.

The names were out.

The witnesses were alive.

And my family finally possessed the truth.

The first battle had ended.

The hunt had just begun.