Page 140 of Fractured Allegiance
Cipher: Kellan Marrow.
The name hits like a punch.
Kellan Marrow.
I worked with him once. A couple of years ago, before I went deep cover. Sharp, methodical, the kind of agent who never made mistakes. Then he disappeared on an overseas op and was declared KIA when his team couldn't recover his body.
Wraith: He's listed as dead?
Cipher: Yeah. Termination Log 238B. Status: Field death. Body unrecovered.
Wraith: So he could be alive.
Cipher: Or someone's using his credentials. Either way, it's bad.
Wraith: What else do you have on him?
Cipher: Not much. His file is heavily redacted. Last official update was 16 months ago—right before he was declared KIA. After that? Nothing. No closeout report. No clearance trail. Just gone.
Wraith: Like someone pulled him off the grid.
Cipher: Or he pulled himself.
I sit back, staring at the screen.
Wraith: Anything else? Recent activity?
Wraith: Anything else? Any way to track if he's been active recently?
Cipher: Hold on. Let me check something.
I wait. Staring at the screen. The dots appear and disappear. Appear again.
Two minutes pass. Then three.
Finally:
Cipher: Ok. Did two things. First, I checked if any other phones from that same procurement batch have been active recently. Figured if Marrow bought one burner, he might've bought more.
Wraith: And?
Cipher: Found activity from another phone in the same batch. Different number, but same purchase order.
Wraith: Where?
Cipher: That's the second thing. I pulled tower data near your area for the past month. Looking for burner patterns—short signals, no history, disposable behavior.
Wraith: What did you find?
Cipher: Two weeks ago. Brief signal in the Red Zone. East End.
I go still.
Wraith: The block where surveillance is supposed to be dark.
Cipher: Yeah. Signal matches the profile. Burner phone. Five minutes. Long enough to send something, too short to triangulate without assets already positioned.
Wraith: Same batch as the phone I found?
