Chapter 2 - An Order With No Signature
"Don't move, ma'am." Ruiz's voice cut through the silence, but his warning was aimed at the two private security contractors entering behind Victor Hale.
The contractors wore gray jackets, hard plastic badges, and expressions that told Mara they had expected her to be alone. One had a restraint pouch on his belt. Neither displayed military police identification.
"Under what authority?" Mara asked.
Victor held up his phone. "Command emergency notice. You're suspected of taking classified material."
The first rule of an uncertain order, Mara had taught recruits, was to slow down enough to establish who had issued it. Panic could turn a minor mistake into a life-changing disaster. Watching Nina's face, she knew the lesson was no longer theoretical.
"Show me the commander's signed order."
"You don't get to bargain."
Mara turned to the soldiers. "Stay where you are. Nobody touches anybody. Sergeant Ruiz, record the names of every person who entered this room."
Victor's forehead tightened. "You don't command this space."
"I command my own conduct," Mara answered. "And so do they."
She felt the eyes of the youngest private on her—Private Nina Brooks, who had carried stretchers beside Mara all night. Nina's hands trembled. She had joined the Army to pay for nursing school, not to watch a stranger humiliate the officer who saved her friend.
One contractor stepped toward Mara. Ruiz moved into the space between them, palms open.
"Easy," Ruiz said. "This is a military installation. We can verify that order without anyone getting hurt."
Victor swung his phone toward Ruiz. "Your career is over, Sergeant."
"Probably," Ruiz said. "But first, your name for my report."
A laugh escaped somewhere in the ranks. Victor lost his smile.
Mara studied the alert. Its formatting was wrong. Fort Avery emergency orders carried a digital routing number and a duty-office signature. This one had neither. And the message reached the troops before it reached the military police desk.
Someone had inserted a fraudulent alert into the base notification system.
May you like
She knelt slowly, picked up her cap, and discovered a small white card caught beneath its brim. Nobody had seen it fall. On it someone had written a single warning in blue ink:
THEY KNOW ABOUT THE DEPOT.
