The Blue Signal Light
After naval officer Ava Monroe triggers a five-tap SOS during an attack in her kitchen, her late father's brass compass opens a trail through a planted envelope, encrypted files and a compromised military operation. The evidence forces her to question the mentor she suspected, the friend she trusted and the official story of her father's death.
Fiction. Contains physical assault, blood and injury, military conspiracy, illegal weapons trafficking, murder, grief, betrayal and legal proceedings.Chapter One: Blue Signal Light
Ava Monroe always believed her emergency plan was perfect. Click the side button five times. Send a distress signal. Pull up medical files. Lock GPS location. Turn on recording. Trigger continuous photography. Three emergency contacts.
Captain Elena Ross. NCIS Agent Malik Hayes. Admiral Thomas Pierce. This plan was formulated after her first secret mission failed.
Pierce once said to her personally: “If one day you feel that you have become prey, Ava, don’t insist on being a hero. Send the signal first.”
she was lying in a pool of blood in her kitchen, but she couldn’t help but have a ridiculous thought in her mind: Did the man who taught her this iron law send someone to shut her up completely?
An uninvited guest wearing a black hoodie was looking down at her condescendingly, clutching the yellow leather envelope stolen from Pierce’s office in his hand. She could barely breathe. The burning pain in my shoulder was unbearable.
The uniform jacket was torn. The heavy rain outside the window slapped the glass crazily, making a sound like fingernails scraping.
“You’re upsetting the big guys,” the man said coldly.
Ava reached for the phone with difficulty. By the time he realized it, it was already too late. Click five times. The screen turned blood red. [SOS has been activated] [Safe Harbor is activated]
The man cursed secretly and tried to cancel the alarm, but the distress signal had already been sent out. Just then, the phone flashed. The camera shutter fires continuously. His hood accidentally slipped off. Ava recognized the scar at the corner of his eye immediately.
“Evan,” she whispered weakly.
Commander Ethan Shaw pulled off his hood. He looks a lot older than he did six months ago. His eyes were cold and hard. With a lingering sense of evil.
“I wanted to pick you clean.”
“You attacked me.”
“I just stopped another person from getting it done.”
Ava froze.
“Is there anyone else?”
Before Evan could answer, the phone rang suddenly. Admiral Pierce is calling. Emergency mode answers automatically.
“Ava, are you hurt?”
Ava stared at Evan.
“He’s here with me.”
Pierce’s tone changed.
“Evan?”
Evan grabbed the phone.
“You were supposed to protect her.”
For one second, the call went dead quiet.
Then, Pierce asked coldly: “Who leaked the route?”
Evan looked at Ava, and for the first time, Ava saw guilt instead of anger in his eyes.
“The one who gave Ava the envelope.”
Ava was furious: “I stole it.”
“No,” Evan said, “You thought you stole it, but in fact you were just used as bait.”
Outside, sirens were getting closer. Evan knelt down on one knee beside her and lowered his voice.
“Pierce’s office was a bureau. Those documents were a bureau. Even that photo was a bureau. Someone wanted you to accuse him publicly so the real leaker would disappear.”
Ava’s mind was racing.
“Who is it?”
Evan thrust something into her hand. A small brass compass. Her father’s compass. The blood all over Ava’s body froze. The compass was supposed to be locked in a safe in the base chapel.
“How did you get it?”
Evan’s voice was trembling.
“Caleb gave it to me.”
Ava shook her head violently.
“My brother?”
The front door was slammed open from the outside.
NCIS agent Malik Hayes yelled: “Put your hands up, let me see it!”
Evan slowly raised his hands. But Ava’s eyes were fixed on the compass. A tiny storage disk is hidden on the inside of the cracked watch cover. And on the metal surface, there was a line of small words engraved on it that she had never seen before:
[Pierce knows everything] Malik moves quickly. The two agents quickly took control of Evan. Another person knelt next to Ava and placed sterile gauze on her injured shoulder.
“Ava, hold on.”
Through the mist and thunderous roar, she heard Malik’s question:
“Who did it?”
Ava glanced at Evan. He glanced at the compass again. He took one last look at the yellow cowhide envelope that fell to the ground. The envelope contained photos, road maps, and a largely blacked-out payment bill—a bill that seemed to point to Admiral Pierce as the man behind the ambush and murder of her father six years earlier.
Ava should have said the name “Pierce” naturally.
That was the answer that the envelope had deliberately wanted her to tell.
However, she murmured weakly: “I don’t know yet.”
Evan slowly closed his eyes. Inexplicably, he looked relieved.