Page 299 of Scars of Fate

GENEVA OR THE HOSPITAL.

CHOOSE ONE.

General Kane believed he had given us an impossible decision.

He had forgotten who we were.

Adam stared at the photograph.

Janice stood beside Samir’s hospital bed.

A man in medical scrubs stood behind her.

The pistol pressed against her back was hidden from everyone except the camera.

Beyond them, nurses moved through the ward.

Families sat beside the wounded.

Children slept beneath white blankets.

All alive because the Brave had reached that warehouse.

All in danger if Kane decided they had become inconvenient.

“When was the photograph taken?” Adam asked.

Hawk moved to the terminal.

“Checking.”

Wynn enlarged the image.

“There’s a clock on the wall.”

The display showed 06:17.

I looked toward the control-tower clock.

06:24.

“Seven minutes ago.”

“Maybe,” Hawk said.

He opened the photograph’s metadata.

“File was created nine minutes ago.”

“Location?”

“Embedded coordinates were removed.”

Wynn studied the room.

“That isn’t a hospital.”

Every man looked at her.