For several long seconds, no one spoke.
The old photograph rested in the middle of the conference table beneath the white lights of the Crisis Operations Room.
Five young men.
Five confident smiles.
Five men who looked as though nothing in the world could stop them.
Sebastian's eyes lingered on the faces.
He recognized Dorian immediately.
Chairman Elias stood beside him, decades younger but unmistakable.
Adrian Keller looked almost unrecognizable without the silver hair and permanent scowl he carried today.
Then there were the remaining two men.
Unknown.
Ordinary.
Yet Dorian had looked at them with something Sebastian had never seen before.
Fear.
Real fear.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of what remembering them might unleash.
Finally Sebastian broke the silence.
"Who were they?"
Dorian didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he reached for the photograph with hands that had grown old carrying secrets.
