Chapter 4 - The Empty Holding Room
Olivia crouched beside the unconscious guard.
Pulse steady. Breathing shallow. No visible head injury.
"Medical team," Hale ordered.
Olivia studied the lock. No forced entry.
"Who can override this door?"
"Internal security, detention command, base executive staff."
"Ward."
"Yes."
Hale did not sound pleased to say it.
Olivia walked into Pike's empty room.
The message on the wall was too neat. Too theatrical.
She touched nothing.
"They want us staring at Ward."
Hale frowned. "You just said he has access."
"So do several other people. A professional mole doesn't leave a sentence that points directly at himself."
A medic examined the guard and found a sedative patch stuck beneath his collar.
Olivia's eyes sharpened.
"Medical inventory."
Hale understood immediately. "Another logistics breach."
They pulled security footage from the corridor.
For nineteen seconds, the image had been replaced by a perfect loop of an empty hallway.
No glitch.
No static.
Someone had edited the feed in real time.
Hale folded his arms. "Ghost Division trick?"
"Not ours."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning somebody on this base has better access than they should."
An hour later, Olivia returned to the cafeteria in a clean gray T-shirt. The recruits avoided her eyes.
Only one person approached.
Sergeant Lena Ortiz, thirty-six, supply control, sharp-eyed and permanently unimpressed.
She set a tray down across from Olivia.
"You owe me eight dollars."
Olivia blinked. "For what?"
"You ruined my lunch when everybody stopped eating."
Olivia almost smiled.
Ortiz lowered her voice.
"Pike came through my warehouse yesterday. He wasn't authorized."
"What did he touch?"
"Nothing. He photographed a pallet label."
"Which pallet?"
Ortiz slid a folded receipt across the table.
A stock number was written on the back.
Olivia recognized it.
The replacement navigation modules.
"Who signed them out?" she asked.
May you like
Ortiz looked toward the far wall before answering.
"According to the system? You did."
