Richard turned to the small wooden cabinet beside the back pantry door.

He pulled open the top drawer, the old wooden cabinet drawer where for years he’d kept his spare keys, his old service medals, and his hand tools.

He reached into the dark back corner and brought out the heavy green military satellite phone.

For eight long years that cold rubberized shell had sat waiting in the darkness of his cabinet, a ghost from an earlier life he’d thought he would never need again.

He laid the heavy radio unit flat on the kitchen counter next to Michael’s open case.