CHAPTER 4: PROJECT NIGHTFALL
The name Project Nightfall changed the room more than my scars had.
Scars could be explained away by cruel people.
A forged will could be called a family dispute.
But Project Nightfall sounded like something no courtroom was supposed to hear.
General Carney’s face tightened.
Judge Halpern looked at the sealed file, then at the Pentagon attorney.
“Is this connected to the estate case?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” the attorney said. “And to Titan Tactical Systems.”
For the first time, the company was no longer just property.
It was evidence.
The judge cleared the front rows of press and prohibited recording. The jury remained. So did the official court reporter. Every phone in the gallery was collected by marshals.
Curtis whispered, “This is insane.”
Elaine did not speak.
She was staring at the file like a woman watching a grave open.
Carney took the stand again.
“Project Nightfall was a classified extraction operation involving stolen weapons guidance data moving through private defense vendors. Titan Tactical Systems supplied legitimate equipment to our unit. But an internal procurement channel had been compromised.”
I closed my eyes for one second.
Kandar returned in flashes.
The smell of hot metal.
The torn sound of rotor blades.
Someone yelling my call sign.
My hands slipping in another soldier’s blood.
Carney continued.
“The ambush that injured Captain Wright and killed multiple allied personnel was not random. It was enabled by leaked convoy routing data.”
A juror whispered, “Oh my God.”
Dana opened the black folder again.
“Our audit shows three shell vendors received payments from Titan’s subcontracting division during the six months leading up to the attack.”
She placed the names on the screen.
Two belonged to Curtis.
One belonged to Elaine.
My mother finally spoke.
“No one was supposed to get hurt.”
It was quiet.
Almost involuntary.
But everyone heard it.
Carney turned to her.
“Thirty-one people nearly burned alive because someone sold access.”
Curtis stood.
“I didn’t know what they would do with it!”
His attorney grabbed his sleeve.
Too late.
The admission sat in the air.
Not full guilt.
Worse.
Partial truth.
The kind guilty people give when trying to sound less guilty.
I looked at Curtis.
“You knew enough.”
He pointed at me.
“You were supposed to stay quiet. You promised Dad.”
That hit harder than I expected.
Because it was true.
Before cancer stole his voice, Dad made me promise I would protect Titan without exposing the mission attached to my survival. He suspected Elaine and Curtis were moving money. He did not know how deep it went.
I kept the promise.
They built a cage from it.
Dana placed another document on the monitor.
It was a Titan vendor authorization bearing my signature.
Except I had never signed it.
Curtis’s face drained.
Elaine shut her eyes.
Dana said, “This forged authorization connected Captain Wright’s name to one of the illegal vendors.”
The prosecutor looked physically ill.
He had been used too.
Then Carney took out a small drive.
“There is one surviving piece of field footage from the Nightfall ambush.”
My body went cold.
He looked at me first.
Asking without words.
I nodded once.
May you like
The courtroom screen went black.
Then the desert appeared.
