The silence of the room was heavy.

I did not sleep well.

Every sound outside the window made my shoulders tense.

I kept thinking about Daniel’s face when the phone rang.

He knew something.

At 0600, the morning bugle sounded across the post.

I stood up, my muscles stiff from the thin mattress.

I washed my face in the small bathroom sink.

The cold water helped clear my mind.

I dressed in my clean ACUs, pinning my captain’s bars to my chest.

I fed Emma some formula from the emergency supplies I had packed.

She smiled at me, unaware of the storm around us.

I needed to get to my office at the brigade headquarters.

I needed to access my secure terminal to pull up my medical files.

If I could get the original hospital records from Emma’s birth, I could prove the DNA test was a lie.

I left Emma with the trusted childcare provider at the base family center.

The walk to the headquarters building was cold.

The autumn wind bit at my face.

I walked up the concrete steps of the brigade headquarters.