The rescue team reached Red Basin too late for most of Echo Squad.
That was the sentence no one wanted to say plainly, so the official report wrapped it in softer language: delayed extraction, hostile disruption, communication failure, limited survivability. Elena hated all of those words. They made death sound administrative. They made betrayal sound like weather.
Adam’s report was submitted before Elena left the field hospital.
That alone should have raised alarms.
His version said Sergeant Elena Marlow violated communication discipline during a sensitive recovery operation, transmitted on an unauthorized channel, exposed the squad’s position, and contributed to the fatal compromise of Echo element. It did not accuse her of treason. It did something more effective. It made her look reckless. Emotional. Unreliable under pressure.
It also said Adam attempted to regain control after her mistake.
That was the lie that spread first.
By the time Elena woke fully in the medical ward, two soldiers had already stopped outside her door and looked in like they were trying to see what a survivor who killed her squad looked like. No one said it to her face. They did not need to. Rumors do not need signatures.
Nina Hayes survived, but with gaps in memory from the blast.
That helped Adam.
Tomas Vail was listed among the dead.
That helped Adam more.
Staff Sergeant Holt was gone.
June Mercer was gone.
Eli Park was gone.
The engineers were gone.
Elena was alive, holding a black case and a comm tablet with corrupted local recordings.
That looked suspicious if someone wanted it to.
Adam wanted it to.
He visited her once in the ward.
Not alone. He brought another officer with him and spoke in the careful tone of a man performing concern for witnesses.
“You should rest, Sergeant,” he said.
Elena stared at him from the bed.
“You changed the route.”
The other officer looked up.
Adam’s face did not move.
“The route was cleared.”
“No.”
“You were disoriented.”
“I heard you say package entering now.”
“That was not my transmission.”
“Tomas heard it.”
Adam stepped closer to the bed.
“Tomas is dead.”
The words were quiet.
That made them worse.
Elena felt the room tilt slightly, not from injury but from the realization that Adam was not only denying the truth. He was measuring which witnesses could no longer contradict him.
She lowered her voice.
“You sent them there.”
Adam looked at the officer beside him, then back at Elena.
“Be very careful,” he said. “A lot of families need someone to blame.”
Elena never forgot that sentence.
Not because it scared her.
Because it showed her the plan.
Adam did not need to prove she killed Echo Squad.
He only needed grief to find her first.