Greer closed his eyes.
“I was in the office. Colonel Reynolds came home on emergency leave. The general had the documents on his desk. They argued.”
Daniel suddenly stood on his video feed and walked out of frame.
No one stopped the recording.
Greer’s voice trembled now.
“I heard Colonel Reynolds say, ‘Four?’ And the general said, ‘Four complications you cannot afford.’”
My lungs forgot how to work.
Eight years.
Eight years of Daniel saying he did not know.
Eight years of me believing the deepest sin was refusal to check.
But this?
This was knowledge.
Not at the beginning.
Not through all of it.
But enough.
Enough to turn abandonment into something colder.
Captain Hale asked the question carefully.
“What happened to the documents?”
“General Reynolds burned the originals. I was told to mark copies as received in closed family files. Colonel Reynolds left that night.”
“Did he protest?”
