Chapter 8 - THE COMMAND IN THE DUST
Sergeant Tyler Briggs took a cautious, trembling step backward, his face flushed with intense shame and sudden fear.
"I... I didn't know, Corporal—I mean, Private..." Briggs stammered, his cocky persona completely disintegrated. "We thought... we thought you were just..."
"A clerk," Claire finished his sentence quietly, her voice calm and without bitterness. "That's what I am, Sergeant. And that's what I intend to stay."
She turned toward Colonel Caldwell, snapping to a clean, flawless position of attention.
"Request permission to clear the line and return to the supply depot, Colonel," Claire said, her eyes fixed straight ahead. "I have forty-two duffel bags that need to be audited before sixteen-hundred hours."
Caldwell stood frozen for a long moment. The senior officer, who had spent his morning belittling a subordinate in front of his men, now felt utterly diminished in her presence. He recognized that the woman standing before him possessed skills that made his ribbons and combat patches look like plastic toys.
"Private Morgan..." Caldwell began, his voice raspy. "That drone... who sent it? Who's monitoring this range?"
Claire’s eyes flicked sideways toward the dusty mountain ridge, where a thin, barely visible spiral of grey smoke was drifting up from the shattered wreckage of the surveillance device.
"A group that has been hunting me for sixteen months, sir," Claire answered softly. "And now that they know where I am... this facility is no longer secure."
Monroe immediately reached for her radio headset, her operational instincts kicking into overdrive. "I'll call base security. We'll lock down the perimeter and bring in an EOD team to recover the debris—"
"No," Claire interrupted firmly, her voice carrying an absolute, unquestionable authority that made Monroe pause with her hand on her radio. "If you lock down the base, their secondary team will initiate a remote wipe protocol on the regional server grid. They think I'm an isolated asset. Let them keep thinking that."
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She looked directly into Caldwell's terrified eyes.
"Give me two hours, Colonel," Claire said softly. "I'll handle the secondary team myself. All I need is a standard supply truck, two extra magazines, and permission to leave base without an escort."
