Barry: Five Branches, One Trigger
Owen Bradford left the Corps with nine confirmed kills, a Sierra Match King under his pillow, and a system that logs his life the way a recon team writes a debrief. The reports name five branches: Glass, Edge, Powder, Lens, Skin — sniper, blade, demolitions, surveillance, hands. The reports also name a second column called Class Standing, because Gene Cousineau's Tuesday-night class is the cover Owen needs and the trap he didn't budget for. Every confirmed kill plants seven days of dead-eye that Gene will notice in scene work. Fuches has work in Cleveland; NoHo Hank has a basement and a duffel bag of cash; Detective Janice Moss has a file with Owen's name on the second page. Somewhere between a regional Dodge commercial and a shaped charge under a Sun Valley monastery, the system starts speaking in a voice Owen has heard before.