Chapter 7 - The General Behind the Glass

General Vale's office occupied the top floor of a brick headquarters building with flags on both sides of the entrance. Mara had served with him years before, when he was a colonel famous for memorizing birthdays and humiliating subordinates in private.

His assistant offered coffee. Mara declined.

"I saw what happened in the cafeteria," Vale said when she entered. "Unfortunate. Emotions got out of hand."

"Victor Hale struck me. You watched."

Vale kept an immaculate desk, a display of military coins, and framed photographs with smiling troops. Mara once believed those pictures proved a commander's character. Now she wondered how many soldiers in them had learned to smile because their careers depended on it.

Vale clasped his hands. "You're a trained officer. You understand provocation."

"I understand evidence."

"What do you want, Captain? An apology?"

"I want to know why civilian vendors can send installation emergency alerts."

His eyes hardened. "Choose your battles."

"I chose this one when supplies meant for wounded soldiers went missing."

The office grew still.

Vale stood, moving slowly around the desk. "That is a serious allegation."

"Yes, sir."

"And do you have proof?"

Mara thought of the altered photograph, the planted card, and Thomas's ring. "Enough to know somebody is nervous."

Vale leaned close enough that she smelled peppermint gum. "Your brother was a stubborn man. People who refuse help sometimes drive into trouble."

Mara did not flinch. "Is that a confession?"

He smiled without warmth. "It is advice."

On the way out she passed a glass trophy case. Inside sat a framed photo from a veterans' charity fundraiser. Vale stood beside Victor Hale and a silver-haired businessman Mara recognized from the missing medical contracts: Edwin Cross, chief executive of Cross Meridian Logistics.

Elise called as Mara reached the parking lot. "We traced the spoofed alert. Someone logged in through the contractor network under an administrator account."

"Whose?"

"A deceased employee."

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Mara already knew the answer.

"Thomas Ellis," Elise said. "The login was created the night after his funeral."