Carter stared at the tag as though it had transported him to another time.
Lena had known his name long before she met him.
Her father, Staff Sergeant Michael Brooks, had died during a military recovery operation when Lena was a child. The official investigation blamed him for violating a withdrawal order and returning to a dangerous area.
Her mother never accepted that explanation.
After Michael's death, an anonymous letter arrived. It claimed that Michael had not caused the disaster. He had returned because another soldier was trapped.
There was no signature.
Lena spent years wondering who had written it.
Eventually she found the old personnel records. Only a few members of the original team had survived. One name appeared again and again.
Daniel Carter.
That was why she had requested her current assignment.
She told herself she wanted answers.
Perhaps she wanted justice.
Deep down, she wanted to know whether Carter had been the man who knew the truth and stayed silent.
Now, with her father's tag in his hand, she finally had the chance to ask.
Chapter Three — Twenty Years Earlier
Carter sat down.
For the first time Lena had ever seen him, he looked less like an intimidating senior soldier and more like an exhausted man.
He admitted that Michael Brooks had been his team leader when Carter was twenty-two.
Michael had been demanding, but he had never humiliated people for entertainment. Carter knew that difference because he had spent years crossing it himself.
Then he explained what had really happened.
The vehicle involved in the accident had developed a steering problem before the operation. Maintenance personnel had flagged the problem more than once. But the unit's readiness numbers were already poor, and leadership wanted the equipment counted as operational.
The maintenance status was changed.