He hadn’t moved much in the last hour. Same chair. Same screen glow reflected off his mask. Same stillness that wasn’t calm so much as controlled. His fingers kept flying, clicking between feeds and maps and spreadsheets like he was building a coffin one line at a time.
Brutus sat on the edge of the table beside him, cleaning a knife with a rag that was already stained dark. Ranger leaned against the wall with Smoke at his feet, one hand resting on the dog’s head like they were both listening for the same invisible sound.
Cap was there too. Standing behind Ghost with his arms crossed, eyes narrowed, patience held tight.
I didn’t sit.
My body wouldn’t let me.
Not after church. Not after training. Not after hearing Scout’s voice describing cages like he was talking about the weather. Not after watching Amanda stand up in front of the table and say the truth out loud, without shaking.
She’d been asleep when I left our room, curled on her side with her hand tucked under her cheek like she’d finally let her body rest. I’d watched her breathe for a minute before I walked away, like I was making sure she was still real.
I should have stayed with her.
I didn’t.
Because the ring was still out there.
Ghost clicked his tongue softly, then leaned in closer to the screen.
“That’s not a clean chain,” he muttered.
Cap’s voice stayed level. “Tell me what you have.”
Ghost didn’t answer right away. He never did when he was in this mode. He built the whole picture in his head first. Then he handed it to you like a weapon.
Brutus glanced at me. “He’s been like this since dawn.”
“I noticed,” I said.
Ghost tapped a key and the screen changed to a satellite view. A string of points highlighted in red. Warehouse locations. Storage units. Transfer yards. Lots of places that looked empty until you knew what to look for.
“We hit their rural holding point,” Ghost said. “The warehouse was a pass-through. Scout confirmed it.”
Scout was down the hall with Doc. Being checked again. Being fed. Being watched like we still didn’t trust reality not to take him back.
Cap nodded once. “We already knew it wasn’t their headquarters.”
Ghost’s hands moved again. “It wasn’t random either. It was close enough to test our response time. Close enough to get in and out fast. Close enough to send a message.”
Ranger’s jaw tightened. “And they did.”
I saw the moment my mind tried to replay the photo of the elevator button with the red hair tied around it. I shoved the thought down hard.
“Keep going,” Cap said.
Ghost opened a folder on the screen. Names. Addresses. Corporate filings. The kind of boring information that killed people quietly.
“This is what I built off the phones,” Ghost said. “Scout’s burner. The broken burner we found in the warehouse. The number that texted Amanda.”
My pulse quickened at her name.
Ghost continued. “The texting number was a burner, but the pattern of use wasn’t random. It pinged off the same towers as Scout’s device. Same windows. Same dead zones. Whoever handled those phones was moving along a corridor.”
Brutus frowned. “Traffic route.”
“Logistics route,” Ghost corrected.
