The desert had a way of stealing sound—like it swallowed every scream, every secret, every prayer. Out on the Nevada Test Range, even the wind felt military: sharp, disciplined, unforgiving. Admiral James Harris knew that silence well. He’d served forty years under its weight. But nothing—nothing—prepared him for the way it shattered when the sky above him tore open. A streak of smoke. A concussion of light. Then the helicopter spun out of the clouds like a wounded animal. “BRACE!” the pilot sho