Chapter 2 - THE ORDER
"She fell," Captain Ward said. "That is what goes into the log."
Petty Officer Naomi Bell stared at him across the bridge. Her throat felt too tight to swallow. "Sir, I was five feet away. You kicked her."
Ward straightened the cuffs of his white uniform. "You are emotional, Petty Officer. I recommend you choose your next words carefully."
"She was holding the rail when you—"
"Lieutenant Finch," Ward interrupted, "record an accidental loss overboard at 1817."
Finch, the junior officer of the deck, looked at the navigation display. "Captain, regulations require immediate recovery action. We can still turn."
Ward's smile never reached his eyes. "I have been given operational discretion for this transit."
"By who?" Naomi demanded.
Ward turned. "You are relieved. Security will escort you below."
Two sailors stepped toward her, both young enough to have been in high school when Naomi first enlisted. She saw the shame on their faces and knew they wouldn't refuse him.
Senior Chief Luis Ortega blocked the doorway. His gray hair showed beneath his cover; twenty-six years at sea had put tired lines beside his eyes. "Captain, the crew heard the call. You can't unhear it."
"Then teach them how to remember it correctly."
Naomi felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She had started recording the moment Ward began shouting at Mara by the rail. An ordinary voice memo, nothing official. She hadn't stopped it.
Ward noticed her glance.
"Hand me your phone."
Naomi put her palm over the pocket. "It's my personal property."
"Security."
Ortega moved aside just enough for the sailors to pass. As one took Naomi's arm, he whispered, "Keep your mouth shut until we know who's listening."
Naomi understood and slid her phone into the open cuff of his work jacket in one smooth movement.
"Change the coordinates," Ward said. "Move the recorded incident six miles south."
Finch turned pale. "Sir, that would be falsifying—"
Ward leaned close enough that only the nearest sailors heard him.
"Lieutenant, your little brother is aboard the Mercy Bell investigation team, isn't he?"
May you like
Finch's hand froze over the keys.
"That's what I thought," Ward said. "Now change the coordinates."
