Chapter 1 - This Aircraft Is Evidence
Two combat medics pulled Major Rachel Mercer from the open cockpit of the damaged A-10.
Her torn flight suit was dark with soot. Blood streaked one side of her face, and her left boot dragged uselessly across the rough desert ground.
Behind them, fire climbed from the shattered wing.
Black smoke rolled into the bright New Mexico sky.
Rachel’s head dropped forward.
One medic supported her shoulders while the other checked her breathing and pressed gauze against her thigh.
A radio inside the cockpit crackled.
Lieutenant General Grant Kessler’s voice cut through the static.
“Major Mercer, destroy the aircraft and walk away.”
Rachel forced her eyes open.
Her fingers closed around the medic’s sleeve.
“No. The proof is still inside.”
The medics exchanged a glance.
A rescue technician climbed into the cockpit and removed a sealed flight-data module from beneath the damaged console.
Kessler’s voice returned.
“That is a direct order.”
Rachel turned toward Colonel Daniel Shaw, who was running through the smoke toward the wreckage.
“Then record my refusal.”
Shaw saw the module in the technician’s hand.
Then he looked at the burning aircraft.
Understanding hardened his face.
He took the radio.
“General Kessler, this aircraft is evidence now.”
The channel fell silent.
Rachel allowed the medics to lower her onto the stretcher.
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She had saved nine trapped SEALs.
Now she had to survive long enough to explain why a three-star general wanted the plane that saved them destroyed.
