Morning in Quantico.
Hawk slid thirty dollars across the counter.
"One more night."
The clerk scribbled, swapped his key, and didn't ask questions. Motels around bases saw stranger business all the time.
Hawk pocketed the key and left, jogging along the mountain road that skirted the perimeter of the Marine compound. He blended into the crowd—locals in tracksuits, retirees walking briskly, young wives in sneakers. No one noticed him.
At a bend, when the path ahead and behind was clear, Hawk vanished into the trees.
By the time he reappeared, hours had passed. His memory was sharp, his senses sharper. He had mapped the entire compound in a single morning:
Barracks.
Hangars.
Command offices.
Airfield.
And finally—his target.
The ruined laboratory.
By afternoon, back in his motel room, he sketched the layout on a sheet of paper with symbols only he understood. Three exit routes traced through the forest. He studied them once, then shredded the page into dust.
When evening fell, he checked out. No point leaving a trace. Dinner was a greasy slice at a pizza joint—fuel for what came next.
By nightfall, the hood of a black sweatshirt shadowed his face. A cast-off he'd pulled from the stolen cab's trunk. With his speed, he crossed the forest in silence, trees blurring past until the electrified fence loomed ahead.
Searchlights swept the perimeter. He pressed against a trunk, heart steady.
The beam passed. Hawk bent his knees, and with a sharp exhale launched skyward. His body cleared the fence in a single bound, landing cat-silent inside the compound.
The plan was simple: reach the ruins, dig up the Gamma Stone, get out.
He hugged the shadows along the outer buildings, sprinting faster than any guard's eyes could track.
Minutes later, corrugated steel walls and a fenced checkpoint came into view. Floodlights. Two guards.
Hawk crouched behind a stack of containers, watching.
"Time to move."
He surged forward. The air cracked with a sonic boom, grass erupting beneath his heels.
The two guards didn't even scream. A flash, a fist, and they collapsed unconscious.
He ducked inside—
"Shit!"
Two more soldiers inside the yard, rifles raised. Hawk froze a heartbeat, annoyed. He hadn't seen them from outside.
The men shouted, "Intruder! Sound the alarm!"
Sirens wailed. The base erupted with blaring klaxons.
But Hawk was already gone.
In an eye-blink, he stood before them, face hidden by mask and hood.
The two soldiers' eyes widened in terror.
Unlike the ones outside, these had pulled the trigger.
Hawk's hand curled into a fist.
He struck.
…
(End of Chapter)
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