Chapter 1: The Ghost in the Garage
“This is Eagle One. Code Red. Send the extraction team. And bring the military police—I have a prisoner.”
The words tasted like ash and iron, a flavor I hadn’t sampled in twenty years. But before the cavalry arrived, before the rotors chopped the suburban silence into pieces, I had to survive the birthday party.
The garage smelled of gasoline, sawdust, and the stale heat of a Texas afternoon. I sat on a blue plastic cooler, my knees aching in the damp air. The concrete floor was stained with oil, a map of neglect that mirrored my own existence in this house.
Inside, the bass from the party speakers vibrated the tools hanging on the pegboard. Thump. Thump. Thump. It was Mark’s 40th birthday. My son-in-law. The man who had inherited my daughter’s life insurance and her father along with it.
The door from the kitchen swung open, letting out a blast of conditioned air and the shrill laughter of people who equate volume with happiness. Mark stood there, holding a half-empty can of cheap beer. He was wearing a polo shirt that was too tight across his gut and a gold watch that looked heavy on his wrist.
