GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "Where is she now?"
INVESTIGATOR: "Waiting in the administration office. She has agreed to provide a statement."
VICTORIA HAYES: "Interview her separately. Ask whether Cole gave her the destination account and whether he specified which camera recordings were needed."
INVESTIGATOR: "Understood."
The investigator left.
Mitchell looked at Victoria.
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "If Cole ordered the export, we need to know whether he was acting alone."
VICTORIA HAYES: "Exactly."
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "And if he was following someone else's instructions?"
VICTORIA HAYES: "Then we need to identify that person too."
The security commander returned to the workstation and opened a newly received notification from the central archive.
His expression changed.
SECURITY COMMANDER: "General, we've received a response from the records department."
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "What did they find?"
SECURITY COMMANDER: "The original testing file is no longer available in the standard procurement directory."
VICTORIA HAYES: "What does that mean?"
SECURITY COMMANDER: "It appears to have been moved to a separate archive location. The transfer was made several months ago."
VICTORIA HAYES: "By whom?"
The commander opened the transfer record.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he turned the screen toward Victoria.
The transfer had been authorized through an account belonging to the procurement oversight office.
But the user listed in the detailed activity record was not Colonel Stephen Ward.
It was someone whose name Victoria recognized from the original technical evaluation team.
Peter Lawson.
The former officer who had supposedly resigned months earlier had accessed the original testing archive after leaving the program.
And the transfer had taken place only two days before the revised report was submitted.
Victoria slowly straightened.
VICTORIA HAYES: "Find out where that archive was moved."
SECURITY COMMANDER: "We're checking now."
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "Can Lawson still access the system?"
SECURITY COMMANDER: "His regular account is inactive, sir. But the transfer record shows that the operation was completed using a temporary authorization."
VICTORIA HAYES: "Who issued the temporary authorization?"
The commander opened another record.
The answer appeared on the screen.
Colonel Stephen Ward.
Victoria stared at the two names displayed together.
Ward had authorized the access.
Lawson had moved the original file.
And now both men had been connected to Alexander Grant.
Before she could say anything, the security commander's computer produced another alert. A new access attempt had been detected against the relocated archive.
It had occurred less than one minute earlier.
The request was coming from an active workstation inside the procurement oversight building.
Victoria moved closer to the screen.
VICTORIA HAYES: "Can you identify the user?"
SECURITY COMMANDER: "The account is still being verified."
VICTORIA HAYES: "Don't wait. Lock the archive against further changes and preserve the current session."
SECURITY COMMANDER: "Yes, ma'am."
The commander began issuing commands.
Then the system displayed a new notification.
The archive location had been successfully accessed.
Someone had opened the original testing file.
And before the security team could terminate the session, a deletion request appeared on the screen.
The deletion request appeared on the screen.
For a moment, nobody in the security office moved. The archive system displayed a warning that the operation was still being processed. A small indicator beside the original testing file began flashing, showing that someone was attempting to remove the document from its relocated storage directory.
VICTORIA HAYES: "Stop that operation. Immediately."
SECURITY COMMANDER: "I'm trying, ma'am. The request is coming through an authorized session."
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "Can you terminate the session?"
SECURITY COMMANDER: "If I terminate it now, we may lose the active transaction details. I need to preserve the system logs first."
VICTORIA HAYES: "Then preserve them. Do not allow the deletion to complete."
The commander opened another security window and initiated an emergency preservation procedure. The screen refreshed twice. A progress indicator appeared, moving slowly across the display.
Victoria watched every second.
The original testing file might contain the information she had been searching for over several months. It could reveal whether the communications equipment had genuinely failed its evaluation, whether the results had been manipulated, and who had authorized the changes that eventually allowed the contract to move forward.
If the file disappeared, the investigation would become considerably more difficult.
SECURITY COMMANDER: "The preservation lock is active."
VICTORIA HAYES: "What about the deletion request?"
SECURITY COMMANDER: "It's still pending. The archive is attempting to validate the command."
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "Cancel it."
SECURITY COMMANDER: "Attempting cancellation now."
A few seconds passed.
Then the screen changed.
ACCESS DENIED. PRESERVATION LOCK ACTIVE.
The deletion request had been blocked.
Victoria released a breath she had not realized she was holding.
VICTORIA HAYES: "Good. Now identify the account that submitted it."
The commander opened the session information. Several technical fields appeared, including the account identifier, workstation reference, authorization level, and connection timestamp.
He read the information carefully before looking up.
SECURITY COMMANDER: "The request came from an account assigned to Colonel Stephen Ward."
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL: "Ward himself?"