Voss laughed, a dry, echoing sound in the concrete corridor. “I love the military. So much blind loyalty. It makes you all so wonderfully predictable.” Voss adjusted his grip on Lucas. “Senior Chief Mercer has a vested interest in my continued survival, Captain. Don’t you, Jonah?”
Mercer swallowed hard. I could hear the dry click of his throat. “They have my daughter, Emily. Maya. They took her from her dorm room last night.”
The air left the corridor. Maya. She was seventeen. I had bought her a graduation gift three weeks ago.
“They sent me a live feed of her,” Mercer choked out, the barrel of his gun pressing harder into my skin. “She’s locked in a shipping container. If Voss doesn’t check in every ten minutes, the ventilation shuts off.”
I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second. This was Halcyon. They didn’t just fight you; they dismantled your soul by weaponizing the people you loved.
