Chapter 4: The List
No one spoke.
The words on the screen seemed impossible to process.
NEXT PRIMARY TARGET
Underneath Sarah's photograph was a timestamp.
Operation Window: 72 Hours
Special Agent Harris's face hardened.
"When was this file created?"
The analyst's fingers flew across the keyboard.
"Thirty-six hours ago."
"So the countdown has already started."
Sarah folded her arms, forcing herself to stay calm.
"They knew I was getting close."
Harris nodded.
"They didn't just know."
"They prepared for it."
The room became a blur of activity.
Phones rang.
Agents hurried between offices.
Large digital maps lit up on the walls.
A nationwide alert was issued within minutes.
Every field office connected to Project Echo received Sarah's photograph.
Protective surveillance teams were reassigned.
Safe houses were activated.
Roadblocks were quietly prepared.
Yet none of it eased the feeling growing inside me.
If Mark had been arrested...
Who was supposed to carry out the operation?
Harris looked through the recovered files one by one.
Each folder contained surveillance reports.
Victims.
Schedules.
Habits.
Weaknesses.
Every detail of their lives.
One folder stopped him cold.
He opened it.
My photograph appeared beside Sarah's.
A recent one.
Taken only four days earlier.
I was standing outside my favorite bookstore with a cup of coffee.
I had never noticed anyone watching.
Underneath the picture were handwritten notes.
Subject emotionally attached to Target Alpha.
Possible leverage.
Terminate if extraction compromised.
My knees nearly gave out.
"They were still planning to kill me..."
Sarah caught my arm before I collapsed.
Inside the interrogation room...
Agent Harris placed the printed document in front of Mark.
He didn't react.
"Your mission failed."
Silence.
"Your network is collapsing."
Still nothing.
Harris leaned closer.
"Tell me who replaces you."
Mark slowly raised his eyes.
"No one."
"I don't believe that."
"You don't understand how this works."
His voice remained eerily calm.
"You think you've arrested the problem."
"You only arrested one piece."
The analyst interrupted through the speaker.
"Sir..."
"We've found encrypted outgoing messages."
"When?"
"They were automatically transmitted during the raid."
Harris frowned.
"What kind of messages?"
The analyst projected them onto the wall.
Three short phrases.
House burned.
Package exposed.
Activate Sparrow.
Every experienced agent in the room exchanged worried looks.
Harris's expression darkened.
"Who's Sparrow?"
Mark smiled.
"You'll find out."
Sarah immediately recognized the danger.
"He triggered a contingency."
Harris nodded.
"Find every reference to Sparrow."
Analysts attacked the data.
Hard drives.
Flash drives.
Cloud backups.
Deleted partitions.
Anything.
Minutes later...
One search result appeared.
Only a single file.
No photograph.
No fingerprints.
No legal name.
Just one sentence.
Embedded for six years.
The silence in the room became suffocating.
"Six years?" one analyst whispered.
"So Sparrow is already inside the country."
Another shook his head.
"Not just inside."
"Embedded."
"Living as someone else."
Exactly the way Mark had.
I looked through the observation glass at the man I had married.
He met my eyes.
For the first time since his arrest...
I saw something unexpected.
Not arrogance.
Not hatred.
Regret.
Only for a second.
Then it disappeared.
Harris entered the room again.
"Mark."
"If that's even your name."
"You still have one chance."
Mark remained silent.
"People are going to die."
Nothing.
"You cared about Maya."
A flicker crossed his face.
"So help us stop this."
Mark stared at the steel tabletop for a long time.
Finally...
He spoke.
Quietly.
"You think this organization recruits monsters."
"No."
"They recruit children."
The room froze.
"They take them young."
"Teach them languages."
"Erase their identities."
"Replace them with new ones."
He looked up.
"They don't give you a childhood."
"They manufacture you."
Even Harris seemed caught off guard.
"Were you taken?"
Mark looked away.
"I don't remember my real name."
The confession hung in the air.
"I don't remember my parents."
"My birthday."
"My country."
"I only remember training."
For the first time...
He sounded human.
Broken.
Not innocent.
But broken.
I stepped into the interrogation room before anyone could stop me.
Sarah reached for my arm.
"Maya—"
"I need to ask him."
Harris nodded reluctantly.
The agents moved aside.
I stood across the table from the man I had once loved.
For several seconds...
Neither of us spoke.
Finally I asked the only question that mattered.
"When we got married..."
"Were you pretending?"
Mark closed his eyes.
His voice was almost too quiet to hear.
"At first..."
"Yes."
I felt my heart crack.
Then he continued.
"But somewhere along the way..."
"I stopped following orders."
Tears filled my eyes.
"I loved you."
The words should have comforted me.
Instead...
They hurt even more.
"Then why?"
I whispered.
"Why didn't you leave?"
A single tear rolled down his own face.
"Because people like me..."
"...don't get to leave."
Before anyone could speak again...
Every monitor inside the operations center suddenly flashed red.
An emergency alarm echoed through headquarters.
The analyst shouted from across the room.
"We've got a breach!"
"What happened?"
"Our witness protection database..."
"It's being accessed remotely."
Harris's face turned white.
"By who?"
The analyst stared at the screen in disbelief.
"They're using..."
"...Mark's highest-level security credentials."
Everyone slowly turned toward Mark.
But he was sitting handcuffed in front of them.
Which meant only one thing.
Someone else...
Already had access.
The analyst swallowed hard before saying the words no one wanted to hear.
"We've just confirmed it."
"Sparrow..."
May you like
"...is already inside the FBI."
To Be Continued...
