Part 1: The Sanctuary and the Sentinel The Calm Before the Crisis The sun sliced through the front windows of Miller’s Ice Cream,…
The world, for Harold Brener, had mostly shrunk to the size of quiet routines. At sixty-eight, he moved through it like a man…
Part 1: The Invisible Man The thing about being invisible is that you hear everything. You see the things people hide when…
Chapter 1: The Ghost Inspection The California sun was just starting to burn off the marine layer when I rolled up to…
Part 1: The Day the World Broke The Gray Hand of Grief The day Michael was buried began with a sky the color…
PART 1 The first rule of survival is that you never truly stop running; you just change the pace. My hands moved over…
The man stood alone by the gleaming motorcycles, a ghost haunting the edges of a world too loud and too new to notice…
Part 1: The Forge of Resolve The Princess and the Generals At Westridge High, I was known as the ‘Princess’—a reserved, slightly built…
PART 1: THE PAPER SHIELD Heat in Al Qadir Province doesn’t just rise; it presses down. It sits on your chest like…
CHAPTER 1: The Sound of Failure The heat shimmered above the firing line at Camp Pendleton like liquid glass, distorting the air…