Chapter 154
The corridor was eerily silent as Winter, Bale, and Harlowe walked away from the interrogation room. Their footsteps echoed, but none of them spoke. It wasn’t safe.
Winter’s pulse was still thrumming from the encounter. He could feel the weight of unseen eyes watching them, the pressure of the officials’ threat hanging in the air like a storm waiting to break. He didn’t need to check his six to know they were still being monitored.
Harlowe, uncharacteristically silent, walked just a step behind Bale. His usual easy grin was gone, replaced by a sharp, calculating expression Winter rarely saw on him.
They passed two security officers, their black uniforms crisp, their gazes unreadable as they stood by the doors leading out. The moment Winter stepped through the threshold and into the cool night air, tension uncoiled slightly in his shoulders.
But they weren’t safe yet.
The three of them made it through the secured halls and into the armored transport waiting just outside. A sleek, black transport with tinted windows—standard military issue. Bale climbed into the driver’s seat, while Winter and Harlowe slid into the back. Only when the heavy doors shut behind them did the tension ease, if only slightly.
Bale pulled the vehicle onto the main road leading back to the barracks, his hands firm on the wheel. Still, none of them spoke. Not here.
Winter gazed out the window at the dimly lit streets of Sector 2, his mind still circling around the blurred image in that file. The thing they weren’t supposed to have seen. The thing someone had gone to great lengths to erase. And yet, the officials had it. How?
It wasn’t until they were well past the perimeter that Bale finally exhaled and spoke.
"Your teams have been dismissed for the day," he said, keeping his eyes on the road. "You’ll be going back to check the main base ruins another time."
Winter and Harlowe exchanged a glance before nodding. They both knew what that meant. The brass wanted them quiet. Dispersed. Watched.