Chapter 6 - The Graduation Photograph
One Bullet, One Warning
Nobody moved.
The gunshot had come from the records wing.
General Grant immediately ordered everyone into position.
I was told to stay behind the security team.
Then I heard a second sound.
A crash.
Someone had broken the emergency glass.
By the time we reached the records room, the suspect was gone.
The hallway smelled of smoke.
A security officer lay on the floor, conscious but bleeding from his shoulder.
The bullet had missed anything vital.
The records terminal was destroyed.
The memory card was gone.
Someone had known we had it.
General Grant turned toward me.
“Where is your father?”
“I don't know.”
We found his vehicle outside.
Empty.
His phone was still inside.
So was his wallet.
But Dad was gone.
That should have terrified me.
Instead, I felt something worse.
I felt betrayed all over again.
Hours passed.
The academy delayed releasing the official investigation.
My graduation photograph was being printed while security officers searched buildings.
My name was suddenly everywhere.
First in class.
Distinguished Service Award.
Graduation address.
Top leadership candidate.
And now alleged security breach.
The news moved quickly.
A reporter approached me outside.
“Cadet Lawson, are you under investigation?”
I kept walking.
“Did your father have access to classified records?”
I stopped.
I turned.
“How do you know my father's name?”
The reporter smiled.
“Your family is connected to several defense contractors.”
I stared at him.
That was the first time I realized I knew almost nothing about my father's business.
I had always believed he owned a small logistics company.
Apparently, that wasn't the whole story.
General Grant pulled me away.
“Don't speak to the press.”
“What does my father do?”
He looked at me carefully.
“Your father has contracts with the government.”
My stomach tightened.
“Military contracts?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because it wasn't relevant to your academy record.”
“Apparently everything is relevant now.”
That evening, I returned to my dorm.
My room had been searched.
Nothing valuable was missing.
Except one thing.
The drawer containing my medals was open.
Inside was an empty space.
My first-year leadership medal was gone.
I knew immediately someone had taken it.
But why?
I called General Grant.
He arrived fifteen minutes later.
He examined the drawer.
“Was anything attached to this medal?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
I did.
Then I remembered.
The medal had a small engraving on the back.
E.L. 1027
My initials and cadet identification number.
Grant stared at me.
“What?”
“That number.”
He pulled out his phone.
“Wait.”
He made a call.
Minutes later, he turned pale.
“What?”
“Cadet ID 1027 was used twelve years ago.”
I stared at him.
“Twelve?”
“Yes.”
“For whom?”
He looked directly at me.
“It belonged to an officer named Daniel Lawson.”
My father's name.
I couldn't breathe.
“Dad was never in the military.”
Grant's voice was quiet.
“That is what his public records say.”
He searched again.
Then he found something.
A photograph.
A younger man in uniform.
Standing beside Colonel Voss.
Beside another officer.
And in the corner of the photo was a woman.
I knew her.
I had seen her picture before.
In my mother's old belongings.
My real mother's photograph.
I stepped backward.
“That can't be.”
General Grant enlarged the image.
The woman was standing beside my father.
Holding a newborn baby.
Me.
May you like
My father's secret had just collided with my entire life.
And the date on the photograph was the year before he told me my mother had died in an accident.
