Chapter 5 - The Man Who Knew My Name
The Colonel Behind the Curtain
Colonel Adrian Voss found us before we found him.
He entered the conference room calmly.
Perfect uniform.
Perfect posture.
Not a trace of panic.
“General.”
Grant looked up.
“Colonel.”
Voss noticed me.
“Cadet Lawson.”
My skin prickled.
He smiled.
“Congratulations.”
I said nothing.
He closed the door.
“I understand there has been confusion regarding your academic record.”
“Confusion?” General Grant asked.
“An administrative error.”
The chief of security placed the access log on the table.
“An error occurring at 6:41 a.m. from your credentials.”
Voss glanced at the screen.
Then he smiled.
“Credentials can be stolen.”
“Your biometric authorization was used.”
His smile disappeared.
For the first time, I saw fear.
It lasted less than a second.
Then it was gone.
“General, I have served this institution for twenty-two years.”
Grant stepped closer.
“And today someone tried to remove the highest-ranking cadet from her own graduation.”
Voss looked at me.
“Did you expect to be first?”
I frowned.
“Yes.”
“Did you tell your family?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
I hesitated.
He smiled faintly.
“Exactly.”
My blood ran cold.
“How would you know that?”
Voss said nothing.
General Grant immediately noticed.
“You've been monitoring Cadet Lawson.”
“No.”
“Then why did you know she had not told her family?”
Voss looked at me.
“I've read her evaluations.”
“That information is confidential.”
“Yes.”
“Then answer the question.”
Voss remained silent.
Security officers moved toward him.
Suddenly the door opened.
A young aide rushed in.
“General, there's a message from headquarters.”
Grant took the paper.
He read it.
His expression changed completely.
“What is it?”
He handed it to me.
I read the first line.
URGENT: TERMINATE CADET LAWSON'S SECURITY CLEARANCE PENDING INVESTIGATION.
I looked up.
“Why?”
Grant's jaw tightened.
“They've received an allegation.”
“What allegation?”
He hesitated.
“That you accessed restricted operational files.”
My mouth went dry.
“I never did.”
“I know.”
“But headquarters doesn't.”
“No.”
Voss spoke for the first time.
“This can become very serious.”
I stared at him.
“You knew.”
He shrugged.
“In this profession, everybody knows something.”
Security escorted him out.
I stood frozen.
Then another officer entered.
“General.”
“Yes?”
“We found something else.”
He placed a memory card on the table.
“It was hidden in the records archive.”
Grant picked it up.
“What is it?”
“Video.”
He inserted it into the laptop.
The screen showed a hallway.
Timestamped 5:58 a.m.
A figure entered the records wing.
Male.
Tall.
Wearing an academy officer's coat.
The face was hidden.
The officer approached a terminal.
Then he turned slightly.
I saw the profile.
My heart stopped.
Because I recognized the watch.
A silver band with a black face.
I had seen it thousands of times.
On my father's wrist.
I whispered,
“No.”
General Grant looked at me.
“Emma?”
“That watch.”
The video froze.
My father's watch was unmistakable.
Grant stared at the screen.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
Dad had told me he wasn't at the academy that morning.
He had supposedly gone to a business meeting.
But the timestamp showed otherwise.
I stood up.
“Where is he?”
Before anyone could answer, every light in the building went out.
The laptop screen went black.
Somewhere in the hallway, an alarm began screaming.
May you like
Then we heard footsteps running toward us.
And a single gunshot echoed from the records wing.
