Page 396 of Broken Oath

Dawn touched the horizon.

The first sunlight he had seen in five years spilled across his face.

Wade closed his eyes.

A tear slipped down his cheek.

Dad placed one hand on his shoulder.

I held tighter.

No one spoke.

No words could hold what that moment meant.

My brother was free.

His men were coming home.

And somewhere behind us, seven powerful people were discovering that the ghosts they buried had survived.

They had tried to erase every witness.

Instead, they had created an army.

47

WADE

The cargo aircraft climbed into the dawn.

Wade sat strapped into a web seat with his back against the fuselage and Sarah pressed against his side.

His father occupied the seat directly across from him.

Jack hadn’t looked away in almost ten minutes.

Wade finally raised an eyebrow.

“You planning to stare at me all the way to Alaska?”

His father’s mouth tightened.

“I might.”

“That could get uncomfortable.”

“I spent five years staring at a photograph. You’ll survive.”

The words struck deeper than Wade expected.

Five years.

The number still didn’t feel real.

Inside Black Site Theta, time had been measured in scratches on a wall.

Days survived.