Chapter 3 - REPORT FOR DUTY

At 0600, I walked into headquarters in full uniform with a completely shaved head.

Every conversation stopped.

Brigadier General Malcolm Reed looked at me for two seconds.

Then he said, “Colonel Carter, my office.”

I followed.

He closed the door.

“Do I need to know?”

“Yes, sir.”

I gave him the shortest version possible.

My mother-in-law had assaulted me while I slept.

Financial fraud had surfaced hours later.

The general’s expression never changed until I mentioned the attempted insurance-beneficiary switch.

Then he leaned back.

“You have security concerns.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Any chance this is connected to your new assignment?”

“I don’t know.”

That answer bothered me more than I admitted.

The intelligence unit I had been chosen to command handled sensitive threat analysis. I did not possess movie-style secret files at home, but my clearance and access mattered.

Anyone manipulating my finances and personal records created a vulnerability.

General Reed called security.

Within thirty minutes, I was speaking with a counterintelligence officer named Major Ellis.

He asked one question that changed the direction of everything.

“Has your husband ever asked about your work?”

“Constantly.”

“What kind of questions?”

I thought back.

Names.

Travel dates.

Why I sometimes carried two phones.

I had always treated it as curiosity.

Then he asked, “Does he know where you keep personal identification documents?”

“Yes.”

“Does Linda?”

“She lives in my house.”

He nodded.

My house.

The words stung.

By 8:30, I had completed an official security disclosure.

At 9:05, Sarah called.

“I found where part of the mortgage money went.”

“Tell me.”

“Three hundred thousand dollars was wired to a company called Northstar Consulting.”

“Who owns it?”

“That’s the strange part.”

She paused.

“The registered agent is a former civilian contractor named Victor Hale.”

I knew the name.

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He had been investigated five years earlier for mishandling restricted government information.

And Ryan had once introduced Victor to me at a barbecue as an old friend from high school.