Chapter 7 — Commander?

A man answered, and for a moment neither of us said anything at all.

Then, quietly, almost disbelieving, he spoke.

“Commander?”

“Major Vance,” I said.

Julian Vance let out a long, slow breath across the line.

Julian had been my second, all those years ago — the steadiest mind I ever served with, the man who had gone on, after our life ended, to build an entirely legitimate one, which was why I was calling him first.

“I never thought this number would ring again,” he said.