Chapter 17 - The Price of Silence
The name on the account was Hayes.
Not the defense counsel standing before us today: the account was under his father's consulting company, which had employed him before he joined the Navy. Investigators had to determine whether the similar name reflected a real connection or an attempt to frame him.
Hayes denied knowing anything about Harborlight. But an old company email showed he'd helped draft an agreement with Meridian two years before his military service. He immediately requested independent counsel and withdrew from representing Thorne to avoid a conflict.
The judge halted proceedings while a new defense team reviewed the evidence. No one was going to win this by denying Thorne a fair trial. I was relieved, even if the delay felt unbearable.
Meanwhile, Daniel Rusk was arrested crossing a state border with forged identification. His attorney negotiated an interview under federal supervision.
“I paid Thorne to move the communications case,” Rusk said. “I didn't order those men killed.”
“Then who knew their location?” Tess asked.
Rusk hesitated. “The case contained a device that copied tactical channel assignments. It was supposed to be demonstrated to a foreign buyer. Thorne discovered the buyer planned to use it that night. He could've stopped the transfer.”
“Instead?”
“He wanted his cut before he canceled anything.”
Rusk produced records of coded messages. Their timestamps matched the convoy's arrival and the first radio interference. Independent technicians verified the records against the recovered network logs.
Tess called me after the interview. “There's one more message,” she said. “It wasn't sent by Rusk. It came from Thorne's account.”
May you like
I asked her to read it.
“Let the ridge team take the contact. We leave with the package.”
