Page 141 of Silent Target

“This isn’t corruption.”

Caleb stands behind me.

His presence is warm against my back.

“No.”

I turn another page.

“They owned the people making the decisions.”

“And removed the ones they couldn’t own.”

My father’s face enters my mind.

Daniel Hart.

Honorable.

Predictable.

The Chairman’s words.

I search the spines until I find a ledger marked DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE—1980–1999.

My fingers tremble as I pull it free.

Caleb covers my hand with his.

“You don’t have to look now.”

“Yes, I do.”

I open the book.

The pages smell like dust and old ink.

I find my father’s name three-quarters of the way through.

DANIEL HART.

CIA OVERSIGHT INVESTIGATOR.

RECRUITMENT DECLINED.

Beneath it is a surveillance photograph of my father leaving our house.

I’m beside him.

Seventeen years old.

Smiling at something he said.

A second photograph shows him entering Langley.

The final page contains a single typed directive.

CONTAINMENT AUTHORIZED.