Rules of Engagement
Rules of Engagement Chapter 1 The clock in the upper-right corner of the primary display did not blink. It didn’t need to. It simply existed—cold, absolute, and indifferent—counting down in bright white digits against a black strip like a hospital monitor announcing life in the language of numbers. T–12:00 Captain Evan Cole sat with his spine straight and his hands lightly resting on the controls, as if he were waiting for a weather report instead of deciding whether someone would stop breathing on the far side of the world. The operations floor at Creech Air Force Base was a windowless warren of fluorescent light and recycled air, the kind that never smelled like anything except filtered dust and warmed plastic. Rows of consoles faced forward in disciplined symmetry, each manned by airmen and officers with headsets clamped on, faces lit by monitor glow, shoulders hunched in the quiet posture of concentrated work. There were no raised voices, no dramatic gestur...