No further explanation was needed.
Part 2: The Gathering Shadow
Thirty-six hours after my call, four men from a life I had left behind arrived in Livingston County.
They came separately, avoided attracting attention, and met me at an old storage warehouse outside town that I had quietly purchased years earlier.
They looked nothing like soldiers anymore. Faded jeans, canvas jackets, work boots, and baseball caps made them resemble truckers or laborers, but I knew exactly what each of them was capable of.
Jackson had once specialized in intelligence and surveillance.
Miller was the man we trusted when an operation became physically dangerous.
James had saved more than one life in the field.
And Scythe had spent years watching targets from distances most people could barely imagine.
Jackson studied my gray hair and janitor’s clothes before speaking.
“You really buried it, didn’t you?”
