All Chapters of WEBS OF FORBIDDEN ENTANGLEMENT: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The message came late in the evening.We need to talk.Tricia stared at the words on her phone for a long time before responding.She had known this conversation was coming. Ever since Raymond returned, it had been hanging between her and Mark like a storm waiting to break.She typed slowly.Where?The reply came almost immediately.My place.Her heart beat faster.For a moment she considered saying no.But avoiding the conversation wouldn’t make the problem disappear.So she grabbed her jacket and left.Mark’s apartment was quiet when she arrived.Too quiet.He opened the door before she even knocked.“You came,” he said.His voice was calm, but there was tension in his shoulders.“Of course I came,” she replied. “You said we needed to talk.”He stepped aside to let her in.The living room lights were dim, the city glowing faintly through the large windows behind him.For a moment neither of them spoke. The silence felt heavy.Finally Mark exhaled.“So,” he said. “How’s Raymond?”The

Dinner stretched longer than either of them expected.At first it had been simple, cooking together in Raymond’s kitchen, passing ingredients back and forth, exchanging small jokes about his questionable knife skills.But as the evening deepened, the atmosphere between them changed.It became quieter. More intimate.Raymond placed the plates on the small dining table near the window.“You survived my cooking,” he said.Tricia smiled as she sat down.“You barely cooked. I did most of it.”“Details.”They began eating.For a while the conversation stayed light, stories about the base, friends who had visited after his return, small things that made the world feel normal again.But eventually the silence returned. Raymond leaned back in his chair.“I forgot how much I missed this.”“What?”“Eating dinner with you.”Her chest tightened slightly.“You could have had dinner with plenty of people at the base.”“Not the same.”She looked down at her plate.“Why not?”“Because none of them are

Raymond stared at the documents spread across the command desk.The room was quiet except for the soft hum of the overhead lights.Commander Harris crossed his arms.“You see the problem,” he said.Raymond nodded slowly.“The coordinates don’t match the route I was given.”“Exactly.”Raymond flipped back through the recovered flight logs again.The numbers were precise. Too precise to be a mistake.“This says the navigation system changed course about twelve minutes before the crash.”Harris leaned against the desk.“And you didn’t do that?”Raymond looked up sharply.“Of course not.”“I had to ask.”Raymond pushed a hand through his hair, frustration building.“If the system changed direction, it means someone either hacked the navigation controls…”“Or manually altered them before the flight,” Harris finished.Raymond stared at the final page.“If that’s true…”“Then the crash wasn’t an accident,” Harris said quietly.The words settled heavily between them.Raymond leaned back in th

Night had settled over the base. Inside the command office, Raymond sat alone, the recovered mission file open in front of him. The numbers still refused to make sense. He studied the system logs again.Navigation override. Flight path alteration. Two levels of authentication.And one name tied to the access credentials.Mark.Raymond leaned back slowly in his chair.“No…” he muttered under his breath.He trusted Mark Coleman. Mark had been one of the few people who believed he might still be alive after the crash. But trust didn’t erase evidence. Raymond closed the file. There was only one way to deal with it.He needed to talk to Mark.Across town, Mark sat in his apartment staring at the message he had just received.It was from Raymond.We need to talk.Mark exhaled slowly. He had expected this.Once Raymond saw the logs, the same question would appear. Why were Mark’s credentials used?Mark ran a hand across his face.The situation was worse than he thought. Because he now susp

The air inside the base gym was thick with the smell of rubber mats and metal.Raymond finished his final set and wiped the sweat from his face with a towel. Physical training had always helped him clear his mind.But today it wasn’t working. Too many thoughts pressed in.The crash.Sean.And most of all…Tricia.Across the room, Mark Coleman was finishing a run on the treadmill. His movements were sharper than usual, his focus almost aggressive.Raymond watched him for a moment.Their friendship had always been easy. Until now.Mark stepped off the machine and grabbed a bottle of water.When he turned, he noticed Raymond watching him.“Something on your mind?” Mark asked.Raymond shrugged.“Just thinking.”Mark gave a dry smile.“You’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”Raymond hesitated, then said quietly,“This situation with Tricia… it’s not simple.”Mark took a long drink before answering.“No. It isn’t.”Neither man looked away.Raymond spoke first.“I don’t want this to destroy