CHAPTER 3 — THE COMMANDER'S SHOCKING CHOICE
The first explosion shook the hangar hard enough to send tools crashing from the walls.
Mechanics dove for cover.
Soldiers rushed toward defensive positions.
Colonel Cross drew his sidearm.
Evelyn did not.
She simply listened.
Three seconds.
Four.
Five.
"They're using synchronized entry teams," she said calmly.
"They'll hit communications first... then command... then aviation."
Cross stared at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because..."
"...I wrote the assault manual they're using."
The room fell silent.
Before anyone could react—
The steel doors burst inward.
Five soldiers stormed inside wearing U.S. uniforms.
Perfect formation.
Perfect discipline.
Yet something was wrong.
Their faces showed no emotion.
No hesitation.
No fear.
Each carried the same black triangle tattoo behind the left ear.
Cross immediately realized the horrifying truth.
"They're Vultures..."
Evelyn shook her head.
"Worse."
"They're the second generation."
The attackers opened fire.
Bullets tore across the hangar.
Evelyn grabbed Brennan by the collar and slammed him behind an engine block a split second before a burst of gunfire shredded the spot where he had been standing.
The young corporal looked up in disbelief.
"You... saved me?"
She never answered.
Instead, she disarmed one attacker with terrifying speed.
No wasted movement.
No anger.
Just precision.
Within seconds, the assault team lay unconscious.
Not dead.
Disabled with surgical efficiency.
Cross watched in stunned silence.
Now he understood why Project Vulture had terrified even generals.
These weren't elite soldiers.
They were living weapons.
Suddenly, one wounded attacker laughed.
"You think this changes anything?"
He pressed a hidden transmitter.
Across the entire base, every computer screen flickered to life.
A single classified file appeared.
PROJECT VULTURE — STATUS REPORT.
Beneath it was a line that froze everyone:
Original Assets: 12
Recovered Bodies: 11
Missing Asset: 1
Below that...
A DNA profile slowly appeared.
Cross looked at it once...
Then dropped to one knee.
His voice cracked.
"No..."
"It can't be."
Brennan leaned closer to the screen.
The DNA comparison read:
MATCH CONFIRMED
SUBJECT V-3147
BIOLOGICAL DAUGHTER OF COLONEL NATHAN CROSS
The hangar went completely silent.
Cross's hands trembled uncontrollably.
Twenty-six years earlier, he had believed his infant daughter had died in a classified evacuation accident.
He had buried an empty coffin.
He had mourned a child who was never dead.
The government had taken her.
Raised her.
Turned her into Project Vulture's deadliest operative.
Evelyn looked at him with tears she had hidden for decades.
"I remembered your face..."
"...before I remembered my own name."
Before either of them could speak again, every monitor flashed black.
A final message appeared:
PHASE TWO HAS BEGUN.
THE HUNT IS NOW AUTHORIZED.
Somewhere beyond the base, helicopters rose into the night.
This time...
May you like
They weren't coming to rescue anyone.
They were coming to erase the last surviving truth.
