Page 233 of Silent Target

Caleb’s hand presses more firmly against my back.

“What else did your father investigate?” he asks me.

The question takes me by surprise.

I search my memories.

Late nights.

Closed files.

The phone calls he ended when I entered the room.

One summer trip to South Carolina he claimed was a conference.

“My father went to Charleston six months before he died.”

Every face turns toward me.

“He told us it was agency training.”

“It wasn’t,” Caleb says.

“No.”

I open the journal again.

A folded page near the map contains a list of initials.

D.H. appears beside Archive Seven.

Daniel Hart.

My father found it.

Whitmore killed him before he could expose it.

Grief rises through me so quickly that the room tilts.

Caleb catches me.

His arm wraps around my waist.

I hold the edge of the table until the dizziness passes.

Rook’s voice becomes quiet.

“Secure everything. No one moves on Charleston until we clear our names and know who we can trust.”

The countdown continues.

Seventy hours.

Fifty-nine minutes.

Black Banner is still alive.

But now we know where it will surface.