For a moment, the room was silent except for the hum of refrigeration and Raine’s ragged breathing behind me.
This wasn’t a clinic. It was a breadcrumb.
And it led into a cover-up so massive it made the firefight on the ridge look like child’s play.
67
Adam
The clinic was too quiet. Even with the hum of refrigeration, the place felt hollow—like the walls themselves were holding their breath.
I kept the Glock steady on the trembling techs, my finger brushing the trigger, when Blade’s voice crackled low through comms.
“Stoker. You need to see this.”
The tone froze my blood. Blade didn’tneedanything. If he was calling me in, it was bad.
I jerked my chin at Hawk. “Cover them.”
He moved in, rifle leveled, expression hard. Russ was already scribbling notes, his eyes burning with that quiet fury of his. Raine’s hand brushed mine as I turned to go, and for one heartbeat, I almost told her to stay. But she was already stepping with me, her jaw set.
Blade waited at the far end of the hallway, near an unmarked door. His knife was tucked away, his gun drawn instead. His eyes—cold and unreadable—met mine.
“No locks,” he said quietly. “The door swung open too easily.”
I pushed past him, easing the door open.
The room beyond was small. Sterile. And empty—except for the camera.
A black dome was mounted in the corner, the red light blinking steady.
My gut twisted. Surveillance.
I followed the wires down to a rack of equipment humming in the corner. Live feed transmitters. Not local. This setup wasn’t recording to a hard drive—it was streaming out.
“They knew we’d come,” Blade murmured. His voice was flat, but I caught the edge beneath it. “We’ve been on someone’s radar since the ridge.”
Raine’s breath caught behind me. “You mean… they’ve been watching us?”
I didn’t answer. The truth was worse than that.
They weren’t just watching. They werebaiting.
My stomach turned to stone. The clean site. The minimal resistance. The trail leading us here like breadcrumbs.
We hadn’t uncovered a secret.
We’d beenledto it.
I keyed comms, my voice sharp. “Hawk, Russ—extract now. Clinic’s blown. We’ve been burned.”
Static.
Then Russ’s voice, tense.“Copy. Moving.”
I glanced at Blade, who was still staring at the blinking red light. “Cut it.”
He raised his pistol and put a round straight through the lens. The glass shattered, sparks spitting. The room went dark except for the hum of refrigeration.
