When they finally left the meeting room, the SUV was gone.
Rebecca checked her phone.
No new messages.
Tyler walked beside her toward the parking lot.
“Becca?”
She stopped.
He had not called her that in years.
“What?”
He looked embarrassed.
“I'm sorry about the jokes.”
She studied him.
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
She waited.
He swallowed.
“I thought you were hiding behind vague job descriptions because your work wasn't important.”
Rebecca's expression changed.
“Tyler, I wasn't hiding because I was embarrassed.”
“I know that now.”
“No,” she said softly. “I don't think you do.”
He looked at her.
She continued.
“Some things happened during that deployment that I still don't fully understand. People were hurt. Records disappeared. Someone I trusted never came home.”
Tyler's face softened.
“Daniel Mercer?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Who was he?”
“A pilot. A friend.”
“What happened to him?”
She looked toward the road.
“The official report said his aircraft crashed.”
“And you don't believe it?”
“I believe the report left out important facts.”
Tyler stepped closer.
“Then why didn't you fight it?”
Rebecca stared at him.
“I did.”
The simplicity of her answer made him uncomfortable.
She continued.
“For years.”
He lowered his eyes.
“I'm sorry.”
Rebecca took a breath.
“I know.”
Her phone rang.
An unknown number.
She hesitated before answering.
“Hello?”
A woman's voice whispered:
“Rebecca, don't go back to your hotel.”
Rebecca's body stiffened.
“Who is this?”
“You don't remember me?”
A pause.
Then the woman said:
“Laura Voss.”
Rebecca gripped the phone.
Laura had vanished from her life shortly after Daniel's disappearance.
“Laura?”
“Listen carefully. The people who altered the casualty report know you're asking questions again.”
Rebecca glanced toward Tyler.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere safe for the moment.”
“What do you want?”
Laura's breathing sounded uneven.
“To tell you what really happened to Daniel.”
Rebecca stopped moving.
Then Laura whispered:
“He survived the flight.”
The line went dead.
Rebecca did not remember driving away from the lounge.
Later, she would recall fragments.
Tyler fastening his seat belt.
The sound of the navigation system.
The traffic moving through Oceanside.
The pressure of her fingers against the steering wheel.
But most of her attention remained trapped inside the final sentence Laura Voss had spoken.
He survived the flight.
For eleven years, Rebecca had lived with Daniel Mercer's death.
She had attended the memorial.
Written a letter to his wife.
Watched his daughter place a small American flag beside a framed photograph.
She had accepted that Daniel was gone because every official record said so.
But she had never accepted the explanation.
The aircraft's reported route did not match its last known communications.
The maintenance documents had been revised after the incident.
A crew manifest had disappeared.
And the officer who ordered the Valley Echo extraction delayed had refused to answer questions about the flight.
Now Laura was claiming Daniel had survived.
Rebecca wanted to believe her.
That frightened her more than anything.
“Becca?”
Tyler's voice brought her back.
They were stopped at a traffic light.
“What?”
“You've barely said a word.”
She looked ahead.
“I'm thinking.”
“About the phone call?”
“Yes.”
“Who was Laura?”
Rebecca took a breath.
“Captain Laura Voss. She worked in intelligence coordination during the deployment.”
“Was she involved in Valley Echo?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
“She resigned.”
“Why?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Officially, personal reasons.”
“And unofficially?”
“I don't know.”
Tyler watched her.
“You think she's telling the truth?”
Rebecca gripped the steering wheel.
“I think she knows something.”
The light turned green.
She continued driving.
They stopped at a quiet hotel several miles from the one Rebecca had originally booked.
She contacted Colonel James Everett, a military legal adviser she had known for years, and explained the unexpected calls and messages.
Everett listened carefully.
Then asked whether she had preserved the messages.
“Yes.”
“Good. Don't delete anything.”
“I haven't.”
“Have you contacted military investigators?”
“Not yet.”
“Then that's the next step.”
Rebecca sat on the edge of the bed.
“James, Laura says Daniel survived.”
A long silence followed.
Everett knew the history.
He had reviewed some of Rebecca's earlier concerns, although he had not been assigned to the original investigation.
“Rebecca,” he said carefully, “that would be an extraordinary development.”
“I know.”
“Do you have independent evidence?”
“Not yet.”
“Then we need to establish what Laura actually knows.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“I'm afraid she'll disappear again.”
Everett's voice softened.
“Then let the proper authorities handle contact with her. Don't put yourself in danger trying to solve this alone.”
Rebecca looked toward Tyler, who stood near the window.
“I understand.”
After ending the call, she opened her laptop.
She had retained copies of her own authorized correspondence about the historical review, including the questions she submitted after Daniel's reported death.
Most of the original operational records remained restricted.
But she had never forgotten the inconsistencies.