Middle-aged

Ethan Cole returns to Crestfield City after five years of silence carrying nothing but a duffel bag and a debt that isn't his to pay. His father is dead. His family home has been seized. And the men he once commanded the brothers he bled beside are being decorated as national heroes for a mission that was his in every way that mattered. Nobody in Crestfield knows that Ethan Cole doesn't exist in any public military record. The name that exists classified, redacted, spoken only in the highest corridors of military intelligence is Ghost. The supreme commander behind three of the most consequential covert operations in recent history. The soldier four governments tried to eliminate and failed. The man whose real file carries a classification level that most generals will never hold clearance to read. Ethan isn't back for revenge. Revenge is beneath him. He's back because the people who destroyed his name made one critical miscalculation they assumed his silence was surrender. It wasn't. Working from a budget motel room and a mall security job, Ethan begins dismantling the corruption quietly and precisely freezing promotions, routing evidence to a journalist, cutting financial threads that connect his betrayers to a corrupt general named Hutchins who buried the true record of Operation Blackfall to protect his own interests. When Hutchins sends six armed contractors to silence him permanently, they end up on the ground in forty five seconds, and the footage reaches military high command before morning. The reckoning that follows is swift, public, and absolute. Hutchins is detained. Delta Seven faces tribunal. And in the middle of a half empty shopping mall, the second highest ranking officer in the country walks across the floor in full dress uniform and salutes a man in a security guard's uniform.

"Mother," I opened my eyes. Everything around me is a haze. I gazed at the candlelight. It was wobbling from side to side. I noticed a woman seated near me, but everything was fuzzy. I heard a voice unexpectedly. It was a woman's voice, echoing in my ear. She was singing a low-toned lullaby. "Mother, is it you?" I heard my name, "Maxilin, I am here." "Mother," I said with a tremble in my voice. I have no idea what's wrong with me. I reached out cautiously to touch her, but she was out of my reach. "Where are you, mother?" "Oh, my beloved, try to hold me, come here, " "Mother," Maxilin tried to stand up, but he was too weak. Maxi narrowed his eyes in an effort to see her face clearly, but he couldn't because everything was fuzzy. A woman in a white outfit moved in front of his sight. Maxi took a few steps forward while still gripping the chair. "Mother, don't leave," he murmured, dizzily. As he said, he saw in his fuzzy vision that someone had opened the door. "Mother, please don't leave me," Maxilin pleaded. He let go of the chair's hold and dashed behind her. "Mother, don't leave me. Wait." In his frail state, he shouted and followed her. "Huf". In the middle of his path, he stopped. "Mother, you've left me here alone," "Maxi," he heard the voice unexpectedly. Maxi glanced up and looked around. It's all clear now, but he's stuck in the midst of the woods. He gazed up at the sky. A giant moon was staring at him, and a horde of deadly, voracious creatures were roaring around him. "Son," someone touched his shoulder, he looked back, saw a terrifying creature standing in front of him. "Hello, dear."