Chapter 10 - THE FINAL SALUTEThree days later, the suburban house was completely quiet.
The moving truck was gone. The locks had been changed. The security system had been completely re-coded with high-level military encryption that required both a biometric retina scan and my personal cryptographic keycard to disarm.
I stood in the master bedroom, looking out the large bay window toward the street below.
The morning fog was slowly burning off, revealing the clean, empty pavement.
On the nightstand beside the bed sat a small, polished wooden box. Inside it rested a single lock of dark hair—the only piece of my old self that Linda’s clippers had managed to claim before I took the razor and finished the job myself.
My phone buzzed against the wooden surface.
It was a notification from the federal marshal’s office:
Ryan Vance and Linda Vance have been formally indicted on ten counts of federal wire fraud, conspiracy, identity theft, and transmitting classified national security data to a foreign agent. Bail denied. Trial scheduled for next month.
I locked the screen, slid the phone into my pocket, and turned away from the window.
A federal black SUV was idling at the curb, its headlights blinking twice to signal my transport to the Pentagon for my first official operational briefing as head of the Strategic Intelligence Command.
I picked up my leather briefcase, walked out the front door, and locked it securely behind me.
As I stepped down the front steps, Agent Vance—who had been assigned as my permanent personal security detail—was holding the rear door of the SUV open for me. He looked at my completely bald, gleaming head, then down at the silver Colonel insignia on my collar.
"Ready for deployment, Colonel?" he asked, a faint, respectful smirk on his lips.
May you like
I settled into the leather seat, closed the heavy door with a satisfying, airtight thud, and looked out the tinted window as the vehicle smoothly pulled away from the curb.
"Always," I said softly. "The mission has just begun."
