The files weren’t just data.
They were memories.
I sat in the dimly lit safe house, staring at the stolen tablet on the table. My fingers trembled as I swiped through the decrypted documents. This wasn’t just a kill list. This was a blueprint for destruction.
And at the center of it—Zero.
Or rather, Ethan Calloway.
My stomach twisted. Seeing it in black and white made it real.
Ethan had been one of us. More than that. He had been my brother-in-arms.
A grainy surveillance image flickered on the screen—two figures ducking behind a ruined vehicle, fire raining down. One was me. The other… him.
The memory hit like a bullet.
---
We had fought together. Bled together.
Ethan saved my life that night. Tackled me out of the way just as a drone strike obliterated half our squad. We hit th
