Chapter 6 - THE VOICE ON THE RECORDING
The recording lasted forty-eight seconds.
It was enough.
Vaughn’s voice came first.
“Mercer filed again.”
Then Keller.
“I know.”
“What are you doing about it?”
“Same thing as last time.”
A chair scraped.
Then Vaughn laughed.
“She really thinks somebody’s coming to save her.”
Keller replied:
“Just keep your head down until she gets tired.”
“What if she goes higher?”
A pause.
Then Keller’s voice.
“Ramsey will handle it.”
Colonel Hale stopped the recording.
Nobody spoke.
Private Price looked sick.
Captain Ruiz folded her arms.
“We have Keller.”
Hale looked at her.
“We have enough to question him.”
“And Ramsey?”
“We have his name.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Not his involvement.”
Hale looked at Price.
“Who else knows you have this?”
“No one, sir.”
“Keep it that way.”
Price nodded quickly.
Hale turned to Ruiz.
“Make a secure copy.”
She did.
Twenty minutes later, Lena was called into the office.
She saw Price leaving as she entered.
He couldn’t meet her eyes.
Lena looked at Hale.
“What happened?”
“Sit down.”
She did.
Hale placed a speaker on the desk.
Then played the recording.
Lena listened without moving.
When Keller said, “Same thing as last time,” her face changed.
Not shock.
Recognition.
A quiet confirmation of something she had already feared.
When the recording finished, Hale turned it off.
Lena looked at the wall.
“So I wasn’t crazy.”
“No.”
“I wasn’t overreacting.”
“No.”
“They really were doing it.”
“Yes.”
Lena laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You know what’s messed up?”
Hale waited.
“I wanted to be wrong.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“I kept hoping I had misunderstood something. That maybe the first form really got lost. That maybe Vaughn was just an idiot who talked too much.”
She looked down at her hands.
“Being right doesn’t feel good.”
Hale’s expression softened.
“It rarely does.”
There was another knock.
This one urgent.
Captain Ruiz opened the door.
“Sir.”
Hale stood.
“What?”
Ruiz held up her phone.
“We have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“Specialist Vaughn was released to his unit pending further action.”
Lena stiffened.
Hale’s face darkened.
“Who authorized that?”
“First Sergeant Ramsey signed the release.”
The room froze.
Hale reached for his phone.
Then Lena’s phone buzzed.
She glanced down.
Unknown number.
One message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED AFTER THE SECOND ONE.
Lena stared at it.
Hale noticed.
“What?”
She slowly turned the screen toward him.
The colonel read the message.
Ruiz whispered, “Oh, hell.”
Then Lena’s phone buzzed again.
A second message appeared.
May you like
NOW EVERYBODY PAYS.
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