My father was in federal custody. He had surrendered himself to Commander Hayes the moment the base was secured. He would likely spend the rest of his life in a federal penitentiary for treason, conspiracy, and espionage. The architect of his own destruction, and ours.
The television in the corner of the waiting room was muted, but the chyron scrolling across the bottom of the news networks told the story.
MASSIVE PENTAGON BREACH. DOZENS OF DEFENSE CONTRACTORS ARRESTED. ‘GHOST NETWORK’ HALCYON EXPOSED.
It was a bloodbath. Senators, generals, CEOs—the names leaking from the corrupted servers were tearing the country’s power structures apart. Voss was in a black site. The sniper had been killed by the QRF.
And Mercer… Mercer had survived. Barely. Two bullets to the chest, but he was in the ICU. His daughter, Maya, had been rescued by a SWAT team in Long Beach exactly five minutes after the Halcyon network collapsed, before the kill order could be sent.
