Chapter 4 - Through the SmokeMiller led me to a maintenance passage behind headquarters.
Smoke poured through the ventilation grates as we entered.
“You stay behind me,” I ordered.
“With respect, ma’am, I know the layout better.”
He was right.
We crawled beneath the smoke until we reached Sterling’s administrative wing. The fire had started near the records room, but the flames had not yet reached his office.
Someone had known exactly where the evidence was stored.
The door was locked.
Miller seized a fire extinguisher and struck the handle twice. The lock broke.
Inside, several drawers stood open.
The computer hard drives were gone.
“So much for the fire destroying everything,” I said. “Someone removed it first.”
A floorboard creaked behind us.
Captain Marcus Rourke stood in the doorway.
Rourke was Sterling’s operations officer. He had spent the afternoon pretending to cooperate with investigators.
Now he held a pistol.
“Step away from the desk.”
Miller went pale.
Rourke had been processing every disciplinary action on the base. He knew which soldiers were vulnerable and which complaints needed to disappear.
“You started the fire,” I said.
“I protected the installation.”
“You protected yourself.”
His weapon shifted toward Miller.
“Both of you were overcome by smoke. Tragic, but believable.”
I stepped in front of the private.
Rourke smiled. “Still playing the hero?”
“No. I’m keeping you talking.”
His expression changed when the red light on my shoulder began blinking.
My body camera had transmitted everything to Shaw’s team before the network went down. Its internal storage was still recording.
Rourke rushed forward to tear it away.
Miller swung the extinguisher into his wrist.
The pistol hit the floor.
I drove Rourke against the wall and locked his arm behind him. Miller kicked the weapon out of reach.
Military police entered through the smoke seconds later.
As they dragged Rourke outside, I found a flash drive taped beneath Sterling’s desk.
Rourke had missed it.
Written across the label were four words:
PAYMENTS — T. STERLING PRIVATE.
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The fire had nearly buried the truth.
Instead, it had shown us exactly where to dig.
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