Chapter 5 - THE SAFE HOUSE
Twenty minutes later, the Ford F-150 pulled up to a secluded ranch house nestled near the pine forests of Montana.
A tall, heavily bearded veteran in a flannel shirt stepped onto the porch holding a tactical shotgun.
"Ethan? Is that really you, brother?" Marcus called out, lowering his weapon in complete disbelief.
"I need a warm blanket and hot soup, Marcus... now," Ethan said, carrying the sleeping girl up the porch steps.
Marcus opened the door wide, letting the freezing veteran and his traumatized child inside the warm timber cabin.
Within minutes, Marcus’s wife, Sarah, wrapped Lily in a thick wool blanket and began cleaning the dirt from her face.
"She has mild hypothermia, Ethan... her core temperature is dangerously low," Sarah reported with a mother's concern.
Ethan sat at the wooden kitchen table, drinking a cup of black coffee while Marcus checked the perimeter windows.
"The whole town thinks you were killed in an ambush six months ago, Ethan," Marcus revealed softly.
"I was captured, held in an underground cell, and officially erased from the Pentagon database," Ethan explained.
"When I finally escaped and made it back to Fort Bragg, my official record was classified top secret," he added.
Marcus leaned against the counter, his eyes narrowing as he processed his squadmate's words.
"Who issued the death certificate, Ethan?" Marcus asked, his voice laced with suspicion.
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"That's what I'm going to find out tomorrow morning," Ethan replied, his knuckles turning white around his coffee mug.
***
