They laughed when an elite soldier shoved her across the training mat, right up until her counter-punch dropped him like a stone.

The storm that had been brewing over eastern North Carolina broke at midnight.

Heavy rain lashed against the high glass windows of the Garrison Headquarters building at Fort Bragg, blurring the yellow floodlights illuminating the empty parade grounds outside. Inside the third-floor administrative corridor, the long carpeted hallway was dark, illuminated only by the faint green exit signs mounted above the emergency doors.

A single set of footsteps echoed softly down the hall.

Colonel Thomas Blake walked with a slight limp, his right hand resting inside the pocket of his dark blue officer's trench coat. He was fifty-six, his hair cropped tight and peppered with gray, his chest decorated with three rows of combat ribbons and special operations badges earned during three decades of service in the Middle East and Central America.

He reached the door of Office 314—the administrative suite reserved for Special Operations Procurement.

Blake pulled a silver keycard from his pocket, swiped it through the electronic lock, and stepped inside.

The office was quiet, smelling of leather furniture, floor wax, and expensive cigar smoke. High-backed leather chairs sat before a massive mahogany desk, behind which stood a bank of locked steel filing cabinets and a triple-monitored secure terminal.

Blake didn't turn on the overhead lights. He walked straight to his desk, sat down in the leather armchair, and tapped the terminal spacebar to wake the screen.

A single red prompt flashed in the center of his monitor: UPLINK INTERRUPTED AT 91%. LOCAL CONNECTION SEVERED AT RELAY 104.

Blake’s brow furrowed into deep, angry lines. He reached for his desk phone, dialing an internal seven-digit extension with rapid, forceful taps of his finger.

"This is Blake," he said into the receiver, his voice tight with controlled fury. "Team Bravo failed at the relay. Execute protocol zero on Building 104 immediately. Burn everything."

A voice didn't answer over the phone line.