Chapter 7 - THE WRONG UNIFORM
"Don't open it," Olivia said.
"I didn't. He's still outside."
Chen took the phone, confirmed Tessa's location, and notified the local officers already assigned to the missing-person case. Olivia sat on the edge of a metal chair and listened to Tessa's breathing until police reached the property.
The visitor was gone. He had left a business card with no telephone number, just a defense-contractor logo and the name TALON LOGISTICS.
Walter Ward's company.
"I know that logo," Ethan said when Chen showed him the card during a second interview. "It's my father's."
He looked sick. "The man who brought me to the training gate last month had that emblem on his jacket. He said he worked with the general."
"Which general?" Chen asked.
"Lieutenant General Victor Sloane. He and Dad play golf together."
Hale stopped pacing. Sloane had been the regional commander during the Lantern evacuation. His office had issued the order canceling the rescue route. Nine years later he still carried enormous influence, and his photographs hung in offices across the post.
"A name is not evidence of a crime," Chen warned them. "We follow documents and people who can testify."
Olivia knew she was right. She also remembered Mara's final radio call and the trucks that had rolled past the schoolhouse on the wrong road.
Hale's attorney arrived while the command staff debated Olivia's status. The public video had made the recruit a liability. Some wanted her sent home at once. Sergeant Mercer objected.
"She didn't tear her own shirt," he said. "We're not punishing a victim because someone posted a lie."
Olivia surprised herself by speaking up. "I joined because I wanted to serve. I'm not leaving just because they found out I'm still breathing."
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That evening, Chen received a copy of a gate log from the day of the attack. A contractor's badge had opened a side door to Hale's building at exactly the time the secret photograph was taken.
The badge belonged to a man listed as dead nine years ago.
