Chapter 10 - THE UNEXPECTED ENDINGSIX MONTHS LATER
The sunlight streamed through the tall stained-glass windows of the Pentagon Auditorium.
Hundreds of officers from the Air Force, Navy, and Marines sat in full dress uniforms. At the front row sat Senior Chief Matthew Hale, standing proud without his cane, flanked by Commander Ethan Hale.
Beside them sat Madison.
She wore a simple dark suit, her hair pulled back neatly. Over the last six months, Madison had cooperated fully with federal authorities, testifying against Gordon’s offshore syndicate. Her legal name had been cleared of criminal intent, though Gordon Bennett was sentenced to life without parole at ADX Florence for treason, defense procurement fraud, and voluntary manslaughter in connection with my mother's death.
Madison looked up at me as I stood on the stage in my crisp Air Force Service Dress uniform, four rows of ribbons pinned to my chest.
The Secretary of the Air Force stepped up to the podium.
"For extraordinary heroism, unyielding tactical precision, and selfless devotion to duty," the Secretary announced, his voice reverberating through the hall. "Major Avery Bennett is hereby awarded the Air Force Cross and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal."
The crowd rose to their feet in a thunderous standing ovation.
I stepped forward as the Secretary pinned the shining silver cross onto my lapel. My eyes drifted to the front row, where Senior Chief Matthew Hale saluted me with tears in his eyes.
After the ceremony, Ethan and Madison walked up to me on the sunlit courtyard overlooking the Potomac River.
Madison looked at me, her eyes shining. She reached into her handbag and pulled out Mom's pearl earrings—the ones Gordon had forced her to wear at the engagement party.
"These belong to you, Avery," Madison said, placing them gently into my palm. "Mom always wanted you to have them. I was just too blind to see it."
"We can share them, Maddy," I said softly, closing her hand over mine.
Ethan stepped forward, offering a warm smile. "Major Bennett... or should I say, Major Vance?"
"Major Bennett is fine," I smiled, looking down at the pale, thick scar on my forearm that I used to cover up. "This scar used to remind me of my father's failure. Now, it reminds me of who I really am."
Just then, Agent Vance walked up to our group, holding a secure encrypted tablet.
"Sorry to interrupt the celebration, Major," Vance said, his face dead serious. "But we just cracked the final vault in Gordon Bennett's offshore network in Zurich."
"Did you find more stolen money?" Madison asked.
"No," Agent Vance said, turning the tablet screen toward me. "We found an encrypted military distress log transmitted forty-eight hours ago from a deep-sea research station in the South Pacific."
I looked at the file. The signature line at the bottom of the classified transmission read:
SENDER: COLONEL ARTHUR VANCE (ACTIVE RECOVERY STATUS: ALIVE).
My breath hitched in my throat.
My real father... the legendary rescue pioneer who was supposed to have died forty years ago... was still alive, calling for the only officer in the United States military capable of pulling him out of the deep.
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I looked at Ethan, then back at the horizon.
"Ethan," I said, my voice hardening into tactical command. "Get your flight gear. We have a rescue mission to run."
