Chapter 79 - Brother Against Shadow
"Shut up and put your hand on the pad," I growled, slamming his uninjured left palm onto the pulsing glass scanner on the left console.
The terminal chimed: **SECONDARY LINEAGE RECOGNIZED: VANCE, JULIAN. OVERRIDE ACCESS: DENIED. PRIMARY COMMAND KEY REQUIRED.**
**00:25... 00:24... 00:23...**
I raised my right hand, covered in sea salt, gun grease, and my own blood from the shoulder wound. I slammed my palm down onto the primary scanner.
The console hummed, a deep resonant tone that vibrated through the floorboards.
**SCANNING... BIOMETRIC DATA MATCH: VANCE, DAVID. SYSTEM OVERRIDE INITIATED... CONFLICT DETECTED.**
The screen turned amber.
**NOTE: VANCE, DAVID LISTED AS STRIPPED OF COMMISSION AND DISHONORABLY SEPARATED BY ORDER OF DEPT. OF DEFENSE SUB-DIRECTORATE 4.**
Eleanor’s handiwork. Even while I was fighting in the sands of the Middle East, she had filed fraudulent dishonorable paperwork through her corrupt contacts in the Pentagon to ensure I could never access our father's legacy networks.
"It's rejecting you!" Vance laughed hysterically through his tears. "She locked you out of the family, David! She locked you out of everything! You have no standing! You have no rank!"
**00:12... 00:11... 00:10...**
The missile's launch clamps began to decouple with explosive percussive bangs that echoed through the shaft like thunderclaps. Steam surged around the base of the vehicle as the hypergolic fuel began mixing in the pre-burn manifolds.
I reached inside my tactical vest. My fingers closed around the tarnished, heavy piece of metal pinned above my left pocket—the Silver Star awarded to me by the Commanding General himself in that sealed folder, signed not by a corrupt sub-directorate, but by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs under presidential authority.
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Embedded in the back of that medal was the tiny, gold-plated cryptographic micro-chip the General had pressed into my hand when he whispered: *"Your father wanted you to have the real one."*
I ripped the Silver Star from my chest and jammed its heavy steel pin directly into the manual maintenance interface slot below the scanner screen.
