“Dutch Henderson,” he said. “Permanent nerve damage in his left shoulder and arm. His days of running mountain trails and tracking game are over. Doctor says he’ll regain about sixty percent function with physical therapy, but he’ll never have full use of that arm again.”
I remembered Dutch in that cabin, blood soaking through his flannel shirt, still barking orders at us to get the civilians to safety. Still putting himself between the threat and the innocent, even as the light faded from his eyes.
“Sheriff Wade Parker,” Ethan continued, “took his own life in federal custody three days ago. Left a note saying he couldn’t live with what he’d done under mind control, couldn’t face the families of people he’d hurt.”
The room went quiet. Parker had been a good man, caught in forces beyond his control. The kind of small-town sheriff who knew every kid’s name, who organized the summer baseball league, who helped old ladies change flat tires on county roads. The kind who couldn’t reconcile his actions under Innovixus’ influence with the man he believed himself to be.
“Beth Morris remains at St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital,” Ethan said. “Her memories of the conditioning are fractured and incomplete. Doctors report that while she’s physically recovering, the woman she was before Garnett is essentially gone.”
I thought of the elementary school teacher who’d welcomed Sophia on her first day, bright sweaters and mismatched earrings, a smile that made scared kids feel safe. Now she couldn’t be in rooms with more than two people without having panic attacks.
Evelyn’s hand found mine and squeezed. When I glanced at her, I saw a sheen of tears in her eyes.
Ethan closed the report with finality, signaling we were done for the day. “We won the battle,” he said, echoing my earlier thought. “But the war is far from over.”
I found Evelyn an hour later,still working in the intelligence suite, sorting reports and facility schematics. Her eyes were red-rimmed from staring at screens too long, her shoulders tight with the tension she carried constantly now.
“Hey,” I said quietly. “It’s past eight. Sophia’s probably wondering where we are.”
Evelyn looked up, blinking as if coming back from somewhere far away. “Is it that late already?”
“Come home,” I said. The domestic normalcy of that statement—Come home, our daughter is waiting—still caught me off guard sometimes.
I had a home now.
A family.
Something worth protecting beyond the mission parameters.
She nodded but didn’t move from her seat. “Are we making a difference? Innovixus is so big. We shut down one facility, but sixteen more are still operational.”
I heard the exhaustion and doubt in her voice, recognized it because I’d felt it myself after every mission that cost more thanit saved. “We saved one hundred eighty people,” I reminded her gently. “We got Sophia back. We stopped Langston from ever hurting anyone again.”
“It feels like trying to fight an ocean tide with a bucket.”
“Then we get more buckets.” I lifted her from the seat. “And we keep fighting, because what else is there? We can’t save everyone, but we can save someone. And sometimes that has to be enough.”
She looked up at me, her eyes searching mine for something. Certainty, maybe. Or hope. “You really believe that?”
“I have to,” I said. “Otherwise, what’s the point of any of it?”
Evelyn nodded slowly, her hand finding mine as we resumed walking to the car. I didn’t have all the answers. Didn’t know if what we were doing would ever be enough to stop Innovixus for good. But I knew we’d keep trying. Keep fighting. For the people we’d already saved, and for the ones we still could.
For Sophia, waiting at home for us to return.
For the family we were building in the aftermath of so much destruction.
For the chance to make something good from something broken.
And for tonight, that would have to be enough.
CHAPTER 30
GAGE
The lab resultslay flat on the tray table over my hospital bed, each number and chart line telling the same story. Four to six weeks. Eight if I was lucky, which I hadn’t been so far. I could read the prognosis in Alistair’s face before he even spoke.
“You want me to break it down?”
