Chapter 56 Picture and emblem
Richard and Edward pushed through the soldiers with sharp, unhesitating steps, the crowd parting around them like the sea around two storms.
Harsh lights from the trucks and choppers slashed across the trees, illuminating the ballistic officers crouched around a patch of disturbed soil.
One officer, gloved and focused, lifted the casing delicately using forceps.
He raised it toward a magnifying glass, angling it under a portable floodlamp.
Richard stood rigid, jaw tight enough to crack.
His eyes were locked on the casing as if he could burn answers out of it through sheer fury.
Even the soldiers behind them quieted, their collective breath sucked into the waiting silence.
Finally, the examiner spoke.
“This casing… is that of a 5.6mm bullet.”
Richard’s voice cut the air.
“So what next?”
The second officer quickly powered on an iPad, opening a military-grade ballistic tracking app.
He typed the serial number engraved faintly on the casing, a string of digits that suddenly felt heavier than the bullet itself.
The moment stretched.
Richard felt like he was standing at the edge of a cliff with a bomb ticking under his feet.
The examiner frowned and typed the number again. Another officer leaned in, brows knitting tightly.
Edward straightened.
“What is it?”
Their breath hitched before they shared a glance.
“General…” the examiner cleared his throat.
“The rifle isn’t registered under anyone’s name. The system shows it has not been assigned yet.”
Richard’s expression snapped.
“What do you mean?” His voice vibrated with barely restrained violence, confusion flickering under the fury.
The officer swallowed.
“It means this rifle should still be in the armory. All rifles signed out are assigned to a specific soldier and logged. But this one… has no record of ever leaving.”
Edward’s face darkened.
“So you’re saying it was stolen from the armory?”
They went silent before admitting to it.
“Yes, sir.”
The examiner held the iPad with both hands like it was radioactive.
“This rifle was part of the batch reported missing during the ammunition theft case…”
Richard’s entire body stilled.
The officer continued, voice low, almost fearful:
“The same case that happened before Captain Boyle died. And the same case Captain Maverick was investigating.”
It dropped like a bomb.
Private John’s mouth hung open, eyes wide behind his glasses.
Terror, shock, and disbelief rippled through the soldiers.
Richard’s vision blurred at the edges.
They killed Boyle.
Now they tried killing Maverick.
He hissed through his teeth.
This was a dead end, they had hit a wall with no space to pass through. The rifle had no owner. Tracing the casing was useless. The shooter still remained a ghost.
General Richard stood with his hands on his waist, breathing hard, fighting the urge to tear the entire forest apart with his bare hands.
The truth was inches away but he couldn’t figure it out yet.
Just then, Private John stepped forward frail, nervous, his boots sinking slightly in the soft mud.
“Sir… I…I have something to say…”
Richard turned his head slowly.
The glare almost made the young man shrink where he stood.
“Speak.”
John swallowed hard. “Two days ago… I picked a paper out of Captain Maverick’s waste bin. It had numbers, codes… military sequences. But at the bottom…there was a message.”
He paused, fear flickering in his eyes.
“What message?” Richard’s voice was ice and steel.
John exhaled shakily.
“It said: KEEP CHASING AND YOU WILL END UP LIKE YOUR BROTHER. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING.”
Richard’s fury cracked loud through the clearing.
“FUCK!”
He slammed a fist into a nearby tree trunk, bark splitting beneath the force.
Edward looked at his friend, the rage, the helplessness, the dawning realization that both his boys had been marked. One was dead and the other one he couldn’t tell.
The ballistic officer cleared his throat timidly.
“General… this case is no longer private. It’s now a government..”
“I found something,” a soldier suddenly yelled, startling the other soldiers.
The shout echoed 3 trees away from where the bullet casing was found
Every head whipped toward him.
“Bring it!” Edward barked, stepping forward.
The soldier rushed over, breathing hard, holding out a mud-stained wallet in gloved hands.
Richard snatched it, flipping it open with shaking fingers.
Two items.
A folded paper with a metal emblem.
He unfolded the paper and saw it was a photograph torn in half.
The half-picture stared back at him, glaring at him the face he knew so well.
Major Vincent’s face.
Richard’s blood turned to ice.
Edward felt the temperature drop beside him and looked over Richard’s shoulder.
“Richard…” his voice dropped to a whisper, “that’s Vincent.”
Richard’s jaw clenched so tight a vein bulged from his neck.
John stepped forward again, his eyes almost bulged out looking at what he had been investigating about voice wobbling.
“This is it, sir… this emblem, this picture, it was in the secret file Captain Boyle received before his death. Captain Maverick had it too. Then came Peter’s death… and the glitch in the footage…it’s the ammunition theft case..sir”
The forest wind carried the weight of those words.
Vincent?
Vincent, was present during the hunting ?
Vincent was last to arrive at the hospital.
Vincent, had access to arms.
And he wasn’t here even though he had called a million times.
Or at least part of something bigger.
He was the one Boyle had died trying to expose.
The one Maverick was shot for getting too close to.
The soldiers around them stood frozen, waiting for the explosion.
Richard inhaled, long and sharp, the betrayal burnt deep that he couldn’t believe it.
Vincent…
was the culprit.