“I don’t know his name.”
The radio crackled again.
Ethan’s voice.
“Do not confront him.”
Maya grabbed the microphone.
“If this is really Ethan Cole, tell me something only he would know.”
Silence.
Reeves watched her.
Then the answer came.
“Aviano. October seventeenth. You broke formation because you saw lightning over the Adriatic and said it looked like a city upside down.”
Maya’s throat tightened.
Nobody else knew that.
Not the Air Force.
Not her former commanders.
Not even Lucas.
Ethan had laughed at her for months afterward.
“That doesn’t prove you’re alive,” she said.
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But I am.”
Maya closed her eyes for half a second.
Eight years of grief pressed against a single word.
Alive.
Impossible.
Cruel.
Wonderful.
Terrifying.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough to help. Not close enough to explain.”
“Then explain faster.”
A burst of static swallowed the next few words.
