Chapter Six
Kael’s coffee had gonecold.
Six hours had crawled by since Drew walked out of the warehouse and the silence that followed had been unbearable.Kael had run through every possible scenario—Drew running, Drew fighting, Drew vanishing again—but the worst one, the one that wouldn’t let him breathe, was Drew lying broken somewhere because Kael had let him go.
When the secure comm pinged, Kael snatched it up before the second tone.Dev Roberts’ face appeared first, his usual smirk replaced by something sharper.Bateman joined a beat later, seated beside him in the Ridge’s command center.The faint hum of background tech and Marsh’s low voice came through before the video stabilized.
“Kael,” Dev said, lifting a mug.“You look like shit.”
“Good morning to you too, Roberts,” Kael muttered.“You find anything?”
Bateman leaned forward, arms folded.“We brought Marsh in to dig.He’s been at it since your call.”
The camera shifted and Marsh appeared behind them—calm, analytical, eyes bright from too much screen time.“We went deep,” he said.“But what we found...isn’t much.Or maybe that’s the problem.”
Kael frowned.“Explain.”
“Drew Hawkins.Orphan.State care until he aged out.No family, no close ties.Military file lists him KIA on the op you were part of six years ago.”
Kael’s throat tightened.“That’s the one.”
Marsh nodded.“After that, nothing.It’s clean.Too clean.Like someone scrubbed him from every registry after his death notice went through.”
Dev whistled low.“Ghosted for real.What about Wraith?”
“That’s where it gets interesting.”Marsh tapped a key, and a holographic feed came to life behind him—a web of names, dates, red lines, and overlapping contracts.“About eighteen months after Hawkins was listed KIA, Wraith shows up on the radar.Starts small—taking down a corrupt customs chief in Peru.Then escalates.”
“Escalates how?”Kael asked.
“Government corruption.Drug and arms trafficking networks.Child exploitation rings.Cyber-terrorists.Even stopped two assassination attempts on world leaders.He’s a one-man surgical strike team.No traceable employer, no known allies.Every job ends in bodies and buried secrets.”
Kael’s jaw flexed.“Sounds like a man on a crusade.”
Marsh gave a tight nod.“Yeah.But here’s the catch.Between his ‘death’ and Wraith’s first confirmed op—there’s an eighteen-month void.No activity.No trace.”
Dev leaned back.“Eighteen months is a long time to vanish.A lot can be done to a man in that window.”
Bateman’s eyes narrowed.“Or to make one.”
Kael felt that like a punch to the chest.“That’s the turning point,” he said quietly.“That’s the why of it all.”
Marsh looked at him.“You think something happened to him then?”
“I know it,” Kael said.“He wasn’t this man before.He was sharp, but idealistic.He wanted to fix things, not burn them down.”He paused, the memory of Drew’s laugh cutting through the ache.“Whatever they did to him in those eighteen months, it changed him.”
