When your father was an Admiral, it was expected that each child would serve, go to sea, and give up the comforts of civilian life. The other two siblings were certainly fulfilling this obligation. His sister, Victoria, was a rising-star helicopter pilot living in Jacksonville, Florida. Their brother, Chase, had been a SEAL, and now continued that type of work for lesser-known government entities. Aside from the occasional holiday, David hadn’t seen much of his father or siblings over the past decade. Being in the military after 9/11 meant a lifestyle of long and frequent deployments. As the commander of the Navy’s newest carrier strike group, this was likely Admiral Manning’s last time at sea. David was the only one who hadn’t turned military service into a career.

David thought about his family and realized that the last time he had seen the three of them was at his mother’s funeral. She died a little over a year ago now. It was a cruel irony that a woman who had loved others so deeply would die of heart failure at the young age of 61. David had thought about her every day since then, and it had taken over a month for those thoughts to stop drawing tears. While his siblings used to tease him that he was her favorite, he didn’t care. They had a special bond, even for a mother and son.

Her passing had the strange effect of transforming David into a late-blooming athlete. He was by far the least physically gifted of the three siblings. While the other two had been athletic superstars, David was the bookworm. With his mother’s death, though, he needed an outlet; something that would provide both meditation and a distraction. Chase used running as his getaway from the world—always had. David hoped it could work for him to0. And that was how, the day after their mother’s funeral, David found himself in a 7-mile run with his brother on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail. David was limping for the next week. But it was the spark that started the flame. Eventually he registered for a 5K by himself. 5K’s turned into a half-marathon. In an email exchange with his brother, Chase had suggested he add swimming to his routine. Now David was training for a full triathlon. What had started as a sort of therapy quickly became a healthy obsession.

Chase. Where was he when you needed him? He had been a ghost ever since he joined The Teams. That was almost a decade ago. David had seen him on a sprinkle of holidays over the years. But nothing like the close relationship they once had. The three siblings were a military fa—

The car came to a sudden halt, followed by the sound of doors opening and shutting. There was an anxious hotness in his chest that he thought could be the start to a panic attack, although he had never had one so he wasn’t sure. Would they hurt him?