His entire unit was killed in a drone strike. The official record says he ordered it — while he was buried under three of their bodies.
Marcus Cole was twelve years Special Forces, last four with a classified CIA-adjacent unit called Iron Division. On a black-site extraction in Moldova, his entire team was killed by a friendly-fire drone strike. Cole survived beneath three bodies. The Agency's official record labels him a rogue operator who authorized an unauthorized mission — the same mission that burned his identity, erased his service record, and put a manhunt on his name. He has one objective left: find who in the command structure authorized the strike, document it, and make them answer for it. Not revenge — accountability. The distinction matters to him, even if it matters to no one else. Working with a burned former FSB analyst and a former unit contact with one window of exposure before going dark, Cole traces the thread upward. The man at the top is Deputy Director Marcus Hale — competent, patriotic by his own measure, and absolutely certain he made the right call. The CIA officer assigned to close the Cole problem is starting to find gaps in the official story. The gaps don't close. She keeps looking anyway.
22 chapters available