PART 1 The rain outside the emergency room wasn’t just rain. It was a deluge, hammering against the asphalt like a million angry…
PART 1 CHAPTER 1: The Coffee Girl The sound of the coffee cup shattering against the concrete floor wasn’t just a noise; it…
The air over Naval Base Coronado was a scent only a life in service could parse as home. It was a complex and…
ow breath, tasting the salt breeze. It carried the scent of jet fuel—a smell that used to trigger a rush of adrenaline in…
The sound that broke the stillness of that late autumn afternoon wasn’t thunder, not yet. It was the dry, papery rustle of a…
The rain came down in a whisper, not a roar. It was that kind of fine, persistent drizzle that seeps into your bones,…
Chapter 1: The Forbidden Laptop I was twenty years old, dumb as a box of rocks, and completely addicted to the dopamine hit…
PART 1 The mess hall conversation died instantly. It wasn’t a gradual fade; it was a sudden, suffocating silence that hits a room…
CHAPTER 1: THE SILENT ESTATE The year was 1864, and the American South was burning. General Sherman was carving a path of destruction…
PART 1: THE SANCTUARY IS TESTED Chapter 1: The Stillness Before the Thunder The Rusty Spoke sat just off the old stretch of…