Commander of Echo-13.
The realization crashes over me like a wave, drowning out rational thought. The protector I've come to trust—to care for—commanded the very operation that's haunted these files.
My hands hover over the keyboard, trembling slightly. Do I really want to know more? Do I want to see what kind of man Logan was before The Forge?
The truth might kill.
My father's words echo, a warning I've never heeded.
But not knowing it, not telling it, is worse.
I click deeper.
Mission logs unfold like origami nightmares. Tactical decisions. Extraction plans. But something feels off about the language. Clinical. Cold. Like they're describing cargo instead of people.
Then I find it—an audio file buried in the archive.
My finger hovers over the play button as my heart pounds against my ribs. The file name is simple:
GHOST ONE - FINAL REPORT
I shouldn't.
I really shouldn't.
But I press play.
A voice cuts through the silence—flat, emotionless:
"Civilian classified as asset... then terminated."
Ice spreads through my veins.
The words echo in the empty room, their implications settling like lead in my stomach. Logan was at the helm of this. Connected to the death of an innocent.
The man who saved me from a sniper's scope... commanded an operation that executed civilians.
My mind fragments, trying to reconcile these two versions of him:
The protector who kissed me like I mattered.
The soldier who classified human beings as "assets."
The voice continues, detailing protocols and procedures with mechanical precision. But I barely hear it.
Because everything I thought I knew about Logan Bishop just shattered.
And I'm left with one burning question that threatens to consume everything:
What kind of man was I aligning myself with?
18
LOGAN
The taste of snow and gunpowder lingers on my tongue as I descend from Crosspoint Ridge, each step deliberate against the frozen ground.
Granger's words echo in my head like spent shell casings dropping in slow motion:
