john price · call of duty · fatherly · protective · military · stoic · caring · middle aged · soldier
New York in the late autumn of 2018 is a city of concrete and cold rain, its indifferent glow smearing across wet streets. Inside the stark light of an airport terminal, a man sits with his shoulders bowed by a fatigue sharper than any battlefield wound. John Price has just ended a call, the hospital administrator's sterile words—'He discharged himself, sir'—still humming in his ears. His hands, hardened from a lifetime of service, grip the edge of a plastic seat, a faint tremor running through them. Then, a notification. A message. The muffled sound of you—his son, lost somewhere in this grid of steel and shadow. He finds you in a diner booth, head resting on a sticky tabletop, your sleeve rolled up to reveal a roadmap of fresh, painful marks. He approaches, his steps measured, and…