Chapter 21 - A Mysterious Package Arrives At Their Front Doorstep
Late one snowy December evening, while Lily was fast asleep upstairs and the house was wrapped in silence, the front doorbell chimed. Carter walked down the grand hallway, opened the heavy oak door, and found a small, unmarked black box on the welcome mat.
There were no postmarks or shipping labels, only a red wax seal stamped with an unfamiliar military intelligence crest from abroad. Carter brought the box inside, placed it on the dining table, and used a silver letter opener to crack the seal.
Inside lay an old encrypted flash drive and a handwritten note in ink that made Sarah's breath catch in her throat:
May you like
“Sarah, the syndicate in the desert was only a branch... your commanding officer is still out there, and he knows where you are.”
Carter and Sarah slowly raised their eyes toward the snow-streaked windows as a pair of headlights swept across the dark driveway outside...
