Chapter 8 - Seven Videos
The first video showed Derek shoulder-checking a young specialist outside the gym.
The second showed him dumping cleaning water over a soldier’s boots while people laughed.
The third showed him blocking a woman named Specialist Rina Cole in a doorway while Colter watched.
The fourth was worse.
Rina told Derek to move.
He smiled at the camera and said, “Make me.”
Rina disappeared from Fort Halbrook two months later on a hardship reassignment.
Lena stared at the screen.
“Find her,” she said.
Captain Reed looked at her. “We will.”
The fifth and sixth videos showed other incidents, each framed like a joke, each designed to make the victim look weak or angry.
The seventh began inside the mess hall one day before Lena was knocked down.
Derek sat with two soldiers and pointed toward the table Lena later chose.
“She always eats over there,” he said. “Tomorrow we move in. Somebody keep the camera up.”
Derek grinned.
“Then I follow.”
Lena watched herself become a plan in someone else’s phone.
Tessa noticed and quietly covered Lena’s fist with her own hand.
Noah sat in the interview room, crying now.
“I’m sorry,” he said when Lena entered.
Reed had advised against direct contact, but Lena asked for two minutes.
She stood across from him.
“You recorded me because he told you to.”
“You laughed because he expected you to.”
Another nod.
“You kept the videos.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Noah stared at the floor.
“Because every time I deleted one, I felt like I was helping him say it never happened.”
“You don’t get to erase your part because you finally did the right thing.”
“I know.”
“But doing the right thing late is still better than never doing it.”
Noah looked up.
Lena left before he could thank her.
Rina refused a video call.
Then she heard Lena’s name.
Finally Rina said, “Is she safe?”
Reed answered, “For now.”
“Then I’ll talk.”
She took a breath.
“But you need to know something first.”
May you like
Reed activated the recorder.
Rina said, “Derek Vaughn wasn’t the person I was most afraid of.”
