Chapter 4: The Last Operation
Chapter 4: The Last Operation
Jake couldn't breathe.
His mother stood only twenty feet away.
Alive.
For three years he had visited a cemetery with her name carved into cold granite. Every birthday, every holiday, every Christmas, he had spoken to a headstone.
Now she was standing in front of him.
Thin.
Exhausted.
But alive.
"Mom..."
His voice cracked.
She tried to smile through tears.
"I'm so sorry, Jake."
The words barely left her lips before one of Victor's men shoved her forward.
"Enough."
Victor folded his hands behind his back.
"I've reunited your family."
Arthur's eyes burned with quiet fury.
"You murdered innocent people."
Victor shrugged.
"I gave them new lives."
"You stole them."
"I protected them."
Arthur shook his head.
"No."
"You imprisoned them."
Silence settled over the bunker.
Jake looked between the two old men.
He no longer knew which memories belonged to the truth and which had been carefully manufactured over decades.
His mother spoke first.
"Jake..."
He rushed toward her.
Two rifles instantly swung in his direction.
Arthur raised one hand.
"Nobody fires."
For a long moment, no one moved.
Then Victor nodded.
"Let him."
Jake ignored everything else.
He reached his mother and wrapped his arms around her.
She held him tightly, trembling as though afraid he would disappear again.
"I thought I'd lost you."
"I thought the same."
Tears streamed down both their faces.
Arthur quietly looked away.
Even Collins removed his glasses.
Some reunions were too personal to witness.
When Jake finally stepped back, he noticed bruises around his mother's wrists.
His expression hardened.
"They hurt you."
She hesitated.
"They wanted information."
"What information?"
She looked at Arthur.
"The registry."
Jake frowned.
"What registry?"
Arthur answered.
"The complete list of every surviving Ghost operative."
His mother nodded.
"Your father hid it before he died."
Jake looked confused.
"But Victor said Dad discovered it."
Arthur's face darkened.
"He did."
"And then he trusted only one person."
Jake slowly turned toward his mother.
"You."
She closed her eyes.
"He knew someone inside our own unit had betrayed us."
"So he split the evidence."
Arthur nodded.
"The registry was divided into three parts."
Collins added quietly,
"One part with Arthur."
"One with Daniel."
"One with Sarah."
Jake stared at his mother.
"You've had it all these years?"
She looked down.
"I've protected it."
Victor smiled.
"Which is why I kept you alive."
Jake stepped in front of her.
"You're not touching her again."
Victor chuckled.
"You sound exactly like your father."
Arthur's voice turned cold.
"Don't compare yourself to Daniel."
Victor sighed.
"You still worship him."
Arthur took one slow step forward.
"I honor him."
"He believed in justice."
Victor laughed.
"And justice buried him."
Arthur answered without raising his voice.
"No."
"Your betrayal did."
The room fell silent.
Victor's smile disappeared.
For the first time, anger replaced amusement.
"You still think I pulled the trigger."
"You did."
"I gave the order."
Arthur's jaw tightened.
Victor looked directly at Jake.
"Would you like to know what really happened to your father?"
Jake hesitated.
Arthur spoke immediately.
"No."
Victor smiled.
"Interesting."
"He doesn't want you hearing the truth."
Arthur's voice rose.
"I won't let you poison his memory."
Victor slowly removed a small digital recorder from his coat.
"I don't have to."
He pressed PLAY.
Static crackled.
Then a familiar voice filled the bunker.
Daniel.
Jake had never heard his father's voice before.
Every person in the room stood frozen.
"My name is Lieutenant Daniel Hayes."
"If anyone hears this..."
"...it means I failed."
Jake's eyes filled with tears.
Arthur closed his own.
Daniel continued.
"Arthur, if you're alive..."
"...don't blame yourself."
Arthur whispered,
"I never stopped."
The recording continued.
"I know who betrayed us."
Victor remained perfectly still.
Jake stared at him.
Daniel's voice grew weaker.
"It wasn't the man we suspected."
Arthur's eyes opened.
"What?"
Collins looked equally shocked.
Victor said nothing.
The recording crackled again.
"If you're hearing this..."
"...the real traitor is..."
The audio suddenly stopped.
Victor smiled.
"The rest is encrypted."
Jake looked at Arthur.
"You've never heard the ending?"
Arthur slowly shook his head.
"The tape was damaged when I recovered it."
Victor held up a small encrypted drive.
"I have the final sixty seconds."
Jake's mother whispered,
"No..."
Victor looked almost pleased.
"Daniel wanted the truth to survive."
Arthur's expression hardened.
"Give it to me."
Victor laughed.
"You've chased answers for forty years."
"You'll wait a little longer."
Suddenly, a low rumble echoed through the bunker.
The lights flickered.
Collins pressed a hand to his earpiece.
"Director."
Arthur turned.
"What is it?"
"Our backup has arrived."
A distant explosion shook the tunnel.
Then another.
Victor frowned.
"What have you done?"
Arthur smiled for the first time in decades.
"I remembered something you forgot."
Victor narrowed his eyes.
"What?"
Arthur looked around the bunker.
"This wasn't built to keep people out."
"It was built to keep traitors in."
Collins reached beneath a nearby control panel and turned a heavy steel key.
Warning sirens blared.
Massive blast doors began sliding shut throughout the underground complex.
Victor shouted,
"Stop them!"
His men rushed toward the exits.
Too late.
One by one, the reinforced doors slammed closed.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The bunker had become a fortress.
Or a prison.
Arthur looked at Jake.
"Your father designed this system."
Jake stared in disbelief.
"He did?"
Arthur nodded.
"He always planned for one final mission."
Victor's confidence began to fade.
"You'll die in here too."
Arthur answered calmly.
"Maybe."
"But not before the truth finally comes out."
Jake looked at the encrypted drive still in Victor's hand.
Somewhere inside those final sixty seconds...
...was the answer that had shaped four decades of lies.
Outside the sealed chamber, heavy footsteps echoed through the tunnels.
Not Victor's soldiers.
Not Arthur's agents.
Someone else had entered the underground complex.
Collins checked his monitor and smiled.
"They're here."
Jake frowned.
"Who?"
Arthur looked toward the dark hallway.
"The last Silver Hawks."
May you like
A group everyone believed had died forty years ago.
Until now.
