The Isolde Protocol
Three years after the case that shattered her career at Quantico, retired investigator Vera Marchetti wakes at 3:07 AM to a single line on her phone: The Isolde Protocol is active. She thought the name had been buried with her badge, redacted from every file she ever touched. Now it is back, and so is the countdown. Vera is soon pulled into a labyrinth of old allies and older enemies. Jonathan Hale, her former handler, claims the protocol was never what she was told. Sofia Ricci, a journalist who survived what Vera could not, insists the cover-up runs deeper than either of them imagined. And somewhere in the shadows, Marcus Reid, the operative who vanished the moment the original case went dark, is watching her rebuild the trail he was paid to erase. Each clue points to a network of silence: Elena Vargas, a federal liaison with too much to lose. Frank Delaney and his brother Patrick, whose family name is stitched into the protocol itself. Nathaniel Pryce, a retired agent whose memory has been bought. Walter Cho and Diana Voss, witnesses whose names keep appearing in places they should not. As the body count climbs and the clock runs down, Vera must decide whether to trust the system that betrayed her or burn the whole case down before Mary Kane becomes the next name to disappear.