and informed the unit that extraction remained authorized.”
Ward looked at Dr.
Cho.
“Play the command-channel archive.”
The next recording began with a flight controller.
“Northstar Actual, Talon flight is fueled and available.
Estimated time to Raven Six: thirty-two minutes.”
Rourke answered.
“Negative.
Stand Talon down.”
The controller hesitated.
“Sir, Raven Six is reporting casualties.”
“I heard them.”
“Then why are we canceling?”
Rourke’s answer came after a pause.
“They’re sitting on a compromised intelligence package.
If capture occurs during an extraction attempt, Lantern becomes attributable.
Hold all aircraft.”
“Sir, they’re our people.”
“Then they understood the risk when they volunteered.”
Mara stared at the table.
Beside her, the prosecutor stopped writing.
The recording continued.
Another officer asked Rourke whether headquarters should be notified that Raven Six had requested emergency extraction.
“Tell them communications were unreadable,” Rourke said.
“They weren’t unreadable.”
“I didn’t ask for an assessment.”
Then came the order Mara had spent three years claiming existed.
“Purge the tactical channel after midnight.
The official report will show Raven Six moved outside its assigned boundary before communications failed.”
The courtroom remained silent after the audio stopped.
Rourke stood.
“That file has been altered.”
Dr.
Cho turned toward him.
“We restored it from the original hardware using redundant checksum fragments from two command relays.
Alteration would require simultaneous fabrication across systems maintained in separate facilities.”
Rourke looked at Judge Holt.
“I was protecting a larger operation.”
Mara finally spoke.
“You were protecting yourself.”
He turned toward her.
“You don’t understand the strategic picture.”
“I understood it while Lennox bled beside me for four hours.”
Rourke’s voice rose.
“That mission prevented weapons from reaching three provinces.”
“And you could have sent the aircraft.”
“They might have been shot down.”
“You told us they were coming.”
Rourke said nothing.
Mara’s voice became quieter.
“That’s what you never understood.
We knew missions could fail.
We knew extraction wasn’t guaranteed.
We knew people could die.
But you lied to keep us in position because you needed us to continue transmitting observations.”
Rourke’s attorney touched his sleeve.
“Commander, don’t answer.”
Mara stared at him.
“You didn’t abandon us because rescue was impossible.
You abandoned us because five more minutes of our surveillance mattered more to you than six lives.”
Rourke looked away.
It should have been enough.
It wasn’t.
During the afternoon recess, investigators delivered another restored audio fragment.
Dr.
Cho listened through headphones twice before asking to speak privately with Admiral Ward.
Mara watched their faces.
Something was wrong.
When court resumed, the prosecutor requested permission to introduce the newly recovered segment.
Shaw objected.
Judge Holt permitted authentication testimony first.
Dr.
Cho explained that the file came from an earlier portion of the command archive, recorded six hours before Raven Six entered the valley.
Mara felt cold.
Six hours before.
Until then, she had believed the betrayal began after the ambush.
The audio began.
Rourke’s voice filled the courtroom.
“Confirm the local source received the route.”
A second man answered.
“Confirmed.”
“And Raven Six?”
“They haven’t been told the source may be compromised.”
“Keep it that way.”
Mara’s breathing stopped.
The second man sounded uneasy.
“If the source passed the route to the insurgent network, Ellison’s team could walk into a prepared position.”
Rourke replied, “Which gives us confirmation the network is real.”
The
