“So the CEO of StrideCore was recruited from a defense biometrics company?”

“And the device he sold us contains a hidden modem pinging their servers.”

We sat in silence for a moment.

“Lauren, this isn’t a defective product anymore.”

“No. It’s industrial espionage. Or worse.”

—

We didn’t get a chance to knock on Halcyon’s door.

A black SUV pulled out of the building’s underground garage and stopped directly in front of our car.

The window rolled down.

Victor Lang looked at us from the back seat. He didn’t smile.

“Admiral Brooks. Ms. Hayes. I thought you might come.”

“You put a spy device in my son’s legs,” Nathan said.

“I put a safety monitor in the device. The same technology Halcyon uses for soldiers on active duty. It was intended to detect abnormal biomechanical stress and alert medical staff.”

“Without telling the parent? Without telling the patient?”

Victor’s jaw tightened. “The contract you signed, Admiral, included a broad data-sharing clause. Under the terms, StrideCore and its authorized partners are permitted to collect anonymized performance data.”

“Anonymized?” I held up my phone, showing Dana’s report. “This modem transmits precise GPS coordinates, heart rate variability, and sleep patterns. That’s not data. That’s surveillance.”

Victor paused. “We need to talk in private.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“There is.” He glanced at Nathan. “You want to know why she’s really here?”

I tensed.

“Nathan,” Victor said, “ask her about her work in Afghanistan. Ask her why she left the military. Ask her why she has a prosthetic leg and enough combat trauma training to build a field hospital.”

Nathan turned to look at me.

My heart hammered.

“Whatever she did before,” Nathan said quietly, “she saved my son’s life more than once. That’s all I need to know.”

“It’s not all you need to know.” Victor’s eyes were flat. “Ms. Hayes was under investigation when she left the service.”

My stomach dropped.

“That’s not true,” I said.

“Lieutenant Lauren Hayes, Navy Nurse Corps. Ten years ago, you were alleged to have removed medical equipment from a field hospital without authorization. The equipment was never recovered.”

“It was authorized by my commanding officer.”

“Your commanding officer is retired now. He wrote you a glowing reference. But the equipment is still missing.”

Victor’s mouth formed a thin smile. “Interesting, isn’t it? I ran a background check on you the first day we met. You have secrets, Ms. Hayes. I have records. Let’s not throw stones.”

Nathan was silent.

I looked at him, desperate. “Nathan—”

“He’s trying to distract us.”

“I’m giving you a warning,” Victor said. “Walk away from this investigation. Return the device, and I’ll make sure the matter is resolved quietly.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then the allegations against you become public. Along with everything we’ve captured through that device’s sensors.”

Owen’s data. His gait pattern. His physical therapy history.

His mother’s death was documented in medical records. Victor could twist it into evidence that Owen’s injuries were worse than reported, that Nathan was negligent.

I wanted to scream.

Instead, I opened the car door.

“Get out,” I said to Victor.

“Excuse me?”

“Get out of the car. Walk away. Because what you just told me—it doesn’t scare me. It makes me angry. And when I’m angry, I dig deeper.”

Victor’s smile vanished.

“Come see me when you change your mind.”

The SUV drove off.

I leaned against the hood of Nathan’s car and breathed.

“Are you okay?” Nathan asked.

“No.”

“Lauren, about what he said—”

“He wasn’t lying. But he was telling half a story.”

I pulled up my pant leg. Carbon fiber gleamed in the morning light.

“I was on a convoy in Wardak. We got hit by an IED. I lost part of my leg and three friends. The survivors were loaded into a medevac helicopter. I was classified as critical, but I refused evacuation until every other soldier was boarded.”

Nathan’s face changed.

“You were the last one out.”

“Almost. I walked—crawled, really—because my leg was gone and the helicopter was overloaded. I had a field kit. I had moved supplies from the crash site to the chopper. My commanding officer authorized it.”

“And the missing equipment?”

“I don’t know what Victor’s talking about. I’ve never taken anything.”

I stood up straight.

“But I’ll tell you this, Nathan. I’ve been through worse than a corporate bully with a lawyer. And I’m not letting that man anywhere near Owen again.”

Nathan looked at me for a long moment.

Then he nodded.

“Good,” he said. “Because I have a plan.”

—

We regrouped at Dana’s lab.

She had been working on the modem since dawn.

“I traced the encryption key,” she said. “It’s not military. It’s commercial—from a chipset manufacturer in Taiwan. The same one used in Halcyon’s wearable flight gloves.”