“‘This is Diana—our family dropout,’ my mother said for the fifteenth Thanksgiving in a row, but when my sister’s new husband reached across the table to shake my hand, his grip locked, his face went still, and the room forgot how to laugh before he said the two words nobody there was prepared to hear”

I was surprised. Ethan was exactly the kind of officer who earns early promotions.

But because of the Oracle 7 part.

He had put it in a speech without classified detail, just the designation. Two words in a room full of Marines, and apparently that had been enough.

I typed back, Tell him I said well done.

I set my phone down and looked out the window at continue reading …