“Stratix Defense Systems officially transferred full rights to the Orion platform tonight at 2:14 a.m.”
The icy wind still swept through the driveway. But suddenly, no one seemed to feel the cold anymore. Because that is what money sometimes does to cruel people. It exposes how conditional their respect always was.
My mother slowly stepped down from the porch. “Eight… hundred… fifty… million?”
Her voice shook. Not with emotion. With calculation. Always calculation.
I looked at the contract again. Then at the signatures. Then at Daniel’s name. Project ORION — Carter Initiative. My stomach tightened painfully. Because he should have been there.
Daniel would have loved to witness that morning. He should have been standing beside me in that frozen driveway, wearing the tired smile he always had after long missions, watching his work finally save lives instead of being buried with him inside some classified military report.
