But standing there, alone in that hallway with armed guards appearing at every exit, I realized the truth: I wasn’t the one exposing them. I was the bait.

The corridor around me pulses with red light as if the base itself is breathing. The guards—two on each end—don’t move, but I feel their eyes tracking me like lasers. I square my shoulders and take one slow breath, then another. I’m still standing. That’s more than I can say for Hastings.

Phase two.

That voice on the radio wasn’t someone I’d ever heard before, but the authority in it didn’t need a name. Whoever they are, they outrank everyone I’ve dealt with so far. That should terrify me. Instead, it steadies something inside me. Because if there’s a phase two, it means this rabbit hole goes deeper—and I’ve already made the first cut.

I turn left at the end of the hall, and the guards part like a sensor knows I’m coming. No one stops me. No one speaks. I pass the operations room—dark. The comms center—locked. The infirmary—quiet. It’s like the base has exhaled all its personnel into the void, leaving only a skeleton crew and silence in its wake.

Then, as I reach the old archive wing, my radio buzzes again.

“Room 7B. You have five minutes.”

I’ve never even been in the archive wing. It’s where paper files go to die. No computers. No digital anything. Just stacks of forgotten records behind reinforced doors and yellowing bulbs that hum with age. I find the door to 7B and push it open.

It creaks like something out of a war movie.

Inside, the air smells of dust, metal, and something else—ozone, maybe. There’s a single fluorescent strip light overhead, flickering slightly. A table in the center. Two chairs. And sitting in one of them: the woman in the dark suit. The same one from the briefing room.

“Close the door,” she says without looking up from the file she’s reading.

I do.

She gestures to the empty chair. “Sit, Captain.”

I sit, spine straight, hands on my thighs. Her fingers are delicate, but they turn the pages with surgical precision. Finally, she closes the file and meets my eyes.

“You did well.”

It’s not praise. It’s evaluation. Like she’s ticking a box.

I wait.

She places a black badge on the table. It bears no insignia. No name. Just a silver outline of a bird mid-dive.

“You’ve been vetted for over a year,” she says. “You didn’t know it, but every decision you made led here. The slap was your final test.”

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“We needed to know if you’d prioritize justice over fear. Protocol over pride. Exposure over retaliation.”

I swallow. “You used me.”

She doesn’t deny it. “We used your position. Your record. Your instincts. Not you.”

My jaw tightens. “What the hell is phase two?”

She leans forward, folding her hands on the table. “Ravenrock was the first domino. Operation Clearwater has branches in seven bases. Hastings was mid-level. The men above him—real power—they’ve covered their tracks for over a decade. We needed a fracture point. You created it.”

I shake my head slowly. “You want me to go undercover.”

“No,” she says, and her smile is almost sad. “You already are.”

A cold weight settles in my stomach. “What do you mean?”

She stands, smooths her blazer, and circles the table. “Phase two isn’t an investigation, Captain. It’s an extraction.”

“Of who?”

“You.”

My breath catches. “I’m not leaving. You said yourself—I cracked it open.”

She stops behind me. “And now that it’s open, it will crush you if you stay. Every leak, every shadow file, every shred of testimony you’ve uncovered has your name on it. If we pull you now, we can keep the story alive. If we wait, you disappear in a ‘training accident.’”

I push up from the chair. “No. I’m not running.”

She walks to the door and opens it. “Then you’re not hearing me.”

The light shifts.

Outside, two more people are waiting. Men in civilian clothing, but I clock the posture—former special forces. They’re not here to hurt me. They’re here to move me.

I take one last look at the room, then at the woman. “If I go, this dies. You know that.”

She reaches into her pocket and hands me a keycard. “That’s your contingency. Storage locker 112-B in D.C. If anything happens to you, its contents are automatically transmitted to three major news outlets. We don’t leave our people in the cold, Mitchell.”

That name again—Mitchell. I’m not sure if it even fits anymore.

But I pocket the card.

The woman nods once. “You’ll be briefed en route. We leave in two.”

And just like that, I’m walking through the base like a ghost. No one looks at me. No one salutes. The lockdown lifts without ceremony, and we’re out in the open air, climbing into a nondescript black SUV that hums like a predator.

The ride is silent until we pass the perimeter gates.

Then the man in the passenger seat glances back. “Do you know what the next target is?”

I shake my head.

“Ever heard of Fort Langdon?”

“Yeah. Missile command. Remote systems. Top security.”

He nods. “That’s what the world thinks. But for the last five years, Langdon has been a testbed for AI-integrated logistics. Entire battalions supplied, deployed, and maintained without human oversight.”

I blink. “How does that relate to Clearwater?”

“Because Langdon’s been using phantom manifests. Supplying troops that don’t exist. Units that draw real fuel, real rations, real munitions—on paper.”

“And where do they go?”

The man gives a humorless smile. “That’s what you’re going to find out.”

I lean back in my seat, mind racing. Hastings was just a gatekeeper. Langdon is the fortress. And if they’re feeding ghost units, someone’s planning something much bigger than embezzlement.

Much darker.

Hours later, I’m at a safehouse just outside D.C.—a converted farmhouse with encrypted lines and armed guards posing as ranch hands. I barely sleep. I write. I record everything. My notes. My memories. My suspicions. I encrypt it and send it in bursts to three different off-grid locations. If I vanish, someone will know.

But I won’t vanish.

Because the next morning, I board a military courier jet with new orders, a new name, and a new cover: civilian contractor with DoD systems oversight. My badge says Lauren Mitchell now, not Laura. A meaningless change, but enough to keep the wolves guessing.

At Fort Langdon, everything feels too polished. Too smooth. Like someone’s already expecting me.

I meet with the base commander, a Brigadier General named Collins. He smiles too much. Never lets go of my hand.

“We’re honored to have you here, Miss Mitchell. I hear you made quite the impression at Ravenrock.”

“Just here to streamline logistics,” I say with a smile of my own. “Nothing exciting.”

He chuckles. “You’ll find we run a tight ship here. No irregularities.”

Of course you don’t, I think. Because the files are already buried.

But I play my part. I inspect data trails. I poke around the manifest generators. I pretend to question fuel ratios and equipment cycle rates. All the while, I’m digging. Quietly. Carefully.

And then I find it.

A manifest routed to Unit 78-X. Classified. No attached location. No personnel logs. No exit data. Just a signature from someone six layers above Collins.

The same signature I saw on one of Hastings’ hidden reports.

The shipment includes experimental targeting modules. Not defensive. Not for training. Live combat-grade.

And it’s leaving tomorrow.

I download the files. Encrypt them. Send them to the same caches.

Then I pull the emergency line.

The woman in the dark suit answers after two rings. “Report.”

“They’re arming something that doesn’t exist,” I say. “Unit 78-X isn’t real. But the gear is.”

She’s silent for a moment. Then: “Get out. Now.”

“I can’t. If I run, they’ll vanish again.”

“No,” she says. “If you stay, they’ll kill you.”

I lower my voice. “Then make it worth it.”

An hour later, the power flickers.

Every camera on base goes dark.

And I move.

I’m in the back records room when the first explosion hits. Controlled. Small. Just enough to panic. Enough to draw everyone out.

While they’re chasing shadows, I slip into the logistics wing and plant a tracker on the outbound crate for Unit 78-X.

The crate already sits on a flatbed truck.

As I step away, a voice behind me says, “You should’ve run.”

Collins.

Gun drawn.

I raise my hands slowly. “Don’t do this.”

He doesn’t answer.

But then his radio crackles.

“All stations, stand down. We have control.”

His eyes widen. “What—?”

The next second, he’s tackled from the side by a black-clad operator. A dozen more flood the room.

CID. Real this time.

The crate is secured. Collins is cuffed.

And I’m standing in the middle of a storm I helped build.

Hours later, back at the safehouse, the woman in the suit meets me again.

“We’ve traced the phantom units to a shell company in Ankara,” she says. “They’ve been testing the idea of deniable armies. Disposable battalions. Automated war.”

“And Hastings?” I ask.

“Dead,” she says. “Slipped in the shower. That’s what they’re calling it.”

I nod. I don’t feel satisfaction. Just purpose.

“What happens now?”

She hesitates, then hands me a file. It’s blank on the outside.

Inside, one sentence:

“Phase three begins at dawn.”

And underneath it, my name.

The real one.

Captain Laura Mitchell.

I close the folder.

This time, I’m not the bait.

I’m the blade.