Chapter 8 - The Thirty-Second Countdown
The robotic voice echoed off the kitchen walls, sounding chillingly unnatural in the quiet farmhouse. The blue light from the satellite phone’s screen cast a cold, eerie glow across Jax’s face.
“Twenty-nine seconds... twenty-eight seconds...”
"Dad, what is that machine doing? Turn it off!" Lily cried out, pressing her back against the kitchen doorframe, her fingers clutching the edge of her wool blanket so hard her knuckles turned white.
"I can't turn it off, Lily. Cover your ears. Get out to the truck right now!" Jax ordered, his voice cracking with sudden panic as he lunged forward to grab the modified satellite phone.
"No! I'm not leaving you!" Lily yelled back, tears welling in her eyes as she refused to move an inch. "Every time you tell me to wait or leave, you disappear! I'm staying right here!"
“Fifteen seconds... fourteen seconds...”
Jax cursed under his breath. He didn't know the access code. The military hadn't issued this equipment to him during his deployment; it had been planted here, beneath his own kitchen floor, by someone who wanted him to find it—or someone who wanted him to be caught with it.
He stared at the blinking prompt on the screen: ENTER AUTHENTICATION CODE.
“Ten seconds... nine seconds...”
Thinking frantically, Jax discarded his own military serial number. He tried his wedding anniversary—rejected. He tried his mother's birth year—rejected.
“Five seconds... four seconds...”
In a desperate stroke of intuition, Jax punched in the numerical sequence stamped onto the dog tag hanging around Lily’s neck—Captain Thomas Vance’s military ID number.
“Three... two... one...”
The screen flashed from blinding blue to a steady, glowing amber. The countdown stopped with a soft, electronic chime.
A file appeared on the screen, accompanied by a single text document and a recorded voice message. Jax tapped the screen with a trembling finger and pressed play.
The audio filled the kitchen, quiet at first, then resolving into a clear conversation recorded in a high-level government office.
“If Miller survives the firebase destruction, the fallout will point directly to the defense appropriations committee,” a crisp, polished voice said—a voice Jax recognized instantly from televised Senate budget hearings. It was Senator Richard Vance. “We ensure he gets home, but we keep his family under constant surveillance. If he opens the case, the media gets the files. If he stays silent, he keeps his daughter.”
Jax stood frozen, the phone trembling in his hand. The threat wasn't just against him; it was a cage built around Lily to ensure his absolute, lifelong silence.
May you like
Before he could react, the front window of the farmhouse shattered with an explosive crash as a tear-gas canister sailed directly into the living room.
---
