Chapter 5 - The Report They Could Not Erase
Thomas cleared the stone wall behind the chapel as two MPs chased him.
Léa did not move.
She wanted every second of their attention on her.
Sloan grabbed her arm.
“Where is he going?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“You’re making this worse.”
“You planted evidence in my room.”
His grip tightened.
“Careful.”
“Did I guess correctly?”
One of the MPs looked at Sloan.
That tiny glance mattered.
Another witness.
Léa smiled.
Sloan released her.
“Take her.”
They drove her to the security building.
No phone.
No access to counsel for the first forty minutes.
No explanation beyond “pending investigation.”
Exactly what Delcourt had predicted.
Across the base, Thomas ran through the maintenance yard, climbed through an equipment bay, changed jackets with a mechanic and walked out through the opposite door.
He did not take the envelope to Delcourt.
He took it to Colonel Miriam Hale.
She was eating breakfast inside the guest officers’ quarters when someone pounded on her door.
Hale opened it.
Thomas stood there breathing hard.
“If you’re going to arrest me, do it after you read this.”
Hale looked down at the envelope.
“What is it?”
“The reason they’re arresting Lieutenant Beaumont.”
Twenty minutes later, Hale had read enough.
“Where did this come from?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Sergeant.”
“If I tell you, someone else gets buried.”
Hale studied him.
Then she tapped Major Sloan’s username on the server log.
“You understand what this implies.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Do you believe Major Sloan altered these records?”
“I believe someone did.”
Hale almost smiled.
“You sound like Beaumont.”
“She’s annoying that way.”
Hale’s phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Sloan.
She declined the call.
“Where are the thirty reports from yesterday?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Command admin.”
“No.”
He frowned.
“What?”
Hale stood.
“If Varenne is doing what you think, those reports won’t survive the morning.”
Thomas’s stomach dropped.
They crossed the compound.
When they entered the administrative office, Captain Rhodes was feeding documents into a shred bin.
Hale stopped.
“What are you doing?”
Rhodes went pale.
“Ma’am.”
“What are you doing?”
“Duplicate administrative material.”
Thomas saw a familiar name on the page in Rhodes’s hand.
SERGEANT MULLINS.
The witness statement.
“Stop.”
Thomas lunged forward.
Rhodes pulled the paper away.
Hale’s voice cracked through the room.
“Captain, step away from that machine.”
Rhodes froze.
Hale opened the shred bin.
Strips of paper filled the bag.
Witness statements.
One after another.
Thomas felt rage climb his throat.
“He destroyed them.”
“Not all of them,” said a voice from the doorway.
Inès stood there.
She was carrying a folder.
Rhodes stared at her.
“What are you doing here?”
“My job.”
She walked directly to Hale.
“Colonel, last night Lieutenant Colonel Varenne ordered me to collect the statements from my platoon.”
Thomas understood before she finished.
“You copied them.”
Inès nodded.
“Every one.”
Rhodes went white.
Inès placed the folder on the desk.
“Fourteen statements.”
Hale opened it.
Every soldier described the same thing.
Varenne stepping on Léa’s report.
Varenne ordering her to remove her rank insignia.
Varenne accusing her publicly.
Several included the same detail.
Major Sloan and Colonel Hale were present.
Hale looked at Rhodes.
“Who ordered these destroyed?”
Rhodes said nothing.
“Captain.”
His face collapsed.
“I was told the first versions contained inaccurate language.”
“Who told you?”
He looked toward the door.
No one was there.
Then he whispered.
“Lieutenant Colonel Varenne.”
Hale reached for her phone.
Before she could call anyone, the building alarm sounded.
Once.
Twice.
Then the emergency voice system came alive.
“All personnel remain in assigned buildings. Security lockdown is now in effect.”
Thomas looked at Hale.
“What happened?”
Her phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
ARCHIVE ROOM. FIRE.
Hale’s face changed.
May you like
Thomas ran for the door.
Because the archive room held the only central copies of every maintenance investigation from the previous five years.
