Thorne continued, his voice steady, “Alex was part of a covert group within the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, focusing on cybersecurity threats. Officially, he worked in corporate IT, which provided the perfect cover for monitoring and protecting classified data from emerging threats. He was instrumental in developing a countermeasure known as the Sentinel Protocol.”

As the pieces began to fall into place, my heart swelled with a mix of pride and disbelief. The quiet nights he spent working late, his inexplicable knowledge of global affairs, the coin he’d given me—all of it suddenly made sense.

Thorne wasn’t finished. “The Sentinel Protocol was a failsafe—a digital fortress designed to protect top-secret data from internal and external threats. Alex discovered that the Deputy Director of Covert Operations, David Shaw, was involved in a treasonous scheme, selling intelligence to foreign entities. Shaw was onto him, which is why Alex had to keep his work a secret, even from you.”