Chapter One — The Order
The command came across the locker room without warning.
Lena Brooks had just finished changing after training. Her damp hair was pulled back, and an old metal identification tag hung beneath her shirt.
Staff Sergeant Daniel Carter noticed it.
“Take it off.”
The room went quiet.
Lena looked at him but said nothing.
Carter pointed toward the chain. He was known for strict discipline, and the younger soldiers had learned not to question him.
“You have not earned the right to wear that name,” he said.
Lena slowly reached for the chain. She could have argued. Instead, she unclasped the tag and placed it in his hand.
Carter expected submission.
What he received was a challenge.
“Read it.”
He looked down.
The tag was old and scratched, its corner marked by a tiny crescent-shaped notch.
The name belonged to a soldier who had been dead for twenty years.
Michael David Brooks.
Lena watched Carter recognize him.
Then she said the words she had carried for years.
“He was my father.”
Chapter Two — The Name
The atmosphere changed instantly.