Chapter 4 - The General Steps Into The Light
The operatives fanned out, clearing the corners of the dining room in seconds without uttering a single word.
Then, walking through the settling smoke, an older man stepped into the warm amber light of the dining room.
He stood over six feet tall, with cropped silver hair, steel-blue eyes, and a rugged, weathered face marked by decades of covert command.
He wore a dark charcoal overcoat over an unbuttoned dress shirt, an unlit cigar held loosely between his scarred fingers.
This was General Arthur Sterling—a man officially listed as deceased in Pentagon records following a classified operation in 2014.
Arthur looked at Mark for less than a second before his eyes shifted toward Sarah, zeroing in on the bloody cut above her eyebrow.
His jaw clenched with a violent tension that made the air in the room suddenly feel suffocating.
“Sarah,” Arthur spoke, his voice carrying the deep, gravelly authority of a battlefield commander. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“Just my forehead, Dad,” Sarah said softly, the first sign of vulnerability showing in her glassy eyes as she looked at her father.
Arthur stepped closer, reaching out with a calloused hand to gently inspect the wound, his thumb brushing away a stray tear.
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“Ten years in deep cover to keep you safe from the cartel syndicates,” Arthur murmured, his tone dripping with quiet fury.
“And I come home to find a spineless Wall Street fraud putting hands on my only daughter.”
