The team leader moved forward.
TEAM LEADER: "Step away from the control panel."
Vance looked toward the wall.
A small red indicator began flashing.
COLONEL VANCE: "If you take another step, the archive will be destroyed."
The technician immediately examined the control panel.
TECHNICIAN: "Sir, he is connected to the archive's emergency purge system."
MICHAEL HARRIS: "Can you stop it?"
TECHNICIAN: "Not without reaching the central console."
Vance smiled faintly.
COLONEL VANCE: "You see? This is why the operation was kept classified. The information inside that archive is not something the public can understand."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "You left forty people inside that facility."
COLONEL VANCE: "I prevented a much larger disaster."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "You canceled the extraction."
COLONEL VANCE: "I gave the order."
The admission silenced the corridor.
Emily stared at him.
EMILY HARRINGTON: "You knew we were still inside."
COLONEL VANCE: "Yes."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "You knew there were wounded soldiers."
COLONEL VANCE: "Yes."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "You knew there were civilians."
COLONEL VANCE: "I knew what was inside that building."
Emily took a step forward.
EMILY HARRINGTON: "Then why?"
Vance looked toward the security camera.
COLONEL VANCE: "Because the facility was never supposed to be discovered."
MICHAEL HARRIS: "What was being hidden here?"
Vance did not answer.
Instead, he looked at the glove in Emily's hand.
COLONEL VANCE: "That should have been destroyed."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "You tried to make sure it was."
COLONEL VANCE: "You have no idea what you are holding."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "I know it is the reason you are standing here."
Vance's expression hardened.
COLONEL VANCE: "You think this is about a few missing soldiers? This operation involved intelligence assets, restricted facilities, and personnel whose identities were never supposed to be revealed."
MICHAEL HARRIS: "You used military authority to conceal illegal detention operations."
COLONEL VANCE: "I maintained operational security."
MICHAEL HARRIS: "You falsified records and abandoned military personnel."
COLONEL VANCE: "I followed orders."
Emily looked at him.
EMILY HARRINGTON: "Whose orders?"
For the first time, Vance did not answer immediately.
His eyes shifted toward a security panel.
Emily followed his gaze.
A second door was opening behind him.
A figure emerged.
It was Sergeant Daniel Foster.
He looked exhausted, but he was standing.
Emily stepped forward instinctively.
EMILY HARRINGTON: "Foster!"
Foster looked at her.
For a moment, his expression softened.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "Captain."
Emily moved toward him, but the team leader held out an arm.
TEAM LEADER: "Wait."
Foster raised one hand.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "It's all right. I'm not here to hurt anyone."
Emily looked at his injuries.
EMILY HARRINGTON: "What happened to you?"
SERGEANT FOSTER: "I survived the collapse. They found me before I could reach the extraction point."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "Why didn't you contact us?"
SERGEANT FOSTER: "I tried. Every transmission was intercepted."
MICHAEL HARRIS: "Where is Noah Reeves?"
Foster looked toward the lower corridor.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "He's in the archive room."
The Secretary stepped forward.
MICHAEL HARRIS: "Is he alive?"
SERGEANT FOSTER: "Yes."
Emily closed her eyes briefly.
She had spent days believing that every name on the missing list might already be lost.
Now two of them were standing in front of her.
Foster continued.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "But we have to move quickly. Vance has been waiting for the archive to be opened."
COLONEL VANCE: "Daniel, you should not be here."
SERGEANT FOSTER: "I should have been here two years ago."
Vance turned toward him.
COLONEL VANCE: "You were given an opportunity to walk away."
SERGEANT FOSTER: "You gave me an opportunity to disappear."
COLONEL VANCE: "You should have accepted it."
Foster stepped closer to Emily.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "The second archive contains the full record. Every order, every transfer, every name. It also contains the original command authorization."
MICHAEL HARRIS: "Who issued it?"
Foster looked toward Vance.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "He did not have the authority to issue the final order alone."
Harris understood.
MICHAEL HARRIS: "There was someone above him."
Foster nodded.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "Someone who still has access to the command network."
The Secretary turned toward Vance.
MICHAEL HARRIS: "Who?"
Vance said nothing.
The alarm became louder.
The technician looked at the control panel.
TECHNICIAN: "Sir, the archive purge sequence has started."
MICHAEL HARRIS: "Stop it."
TECHNICIAN: "I need access to the central console."
Foster pointed toward the lower corridor.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "Through that door."
The team leader moved immediately.
Two soldiers advanced toward the door, while the others secured Vance.
But before they could reach the central console, the lights went out.
A loud metallic sound echoed through the facility.
Emergency lights activated, bathing the corridor in red.
A voice came through the speakers.
UNKNOWN COMMAND VOICE: "All personnel are ordered to evacuate the facility."
The team stopped.
Then the voice continued.
UNKNOWN COMMAND VOICE: "The archive will be destroyed in sixty seconds."
Michael Harris looked toward the ceiling speakers.
MICHAEL HARRIS: "Identify yourself."
There was no response.
Foster looked at Emily.
SERGEANT FOSTER: "That is the voice."
EMILY HARRINGTON: "Whose?"
Foster swallowed.