MAYA BROOKS: "You may use the appropriate command channels."
The major left the room.
As he walked down the corridor, he took out his phone.
He called Victor Hayes.
Victor answered almost immediately.
VICTOR HAYES: "Sir?"
CALLOWAY: "What happened in that hangar?"
VICTOR HAYES: "The woman was questioning the records. I tried to stop her."
CALLOWAY: "You struck a colonel?"
VICTOR HAYES: "I didn't know she was a colonel."
CALLOWAY: "That is not the point."
Victor lowered his voice.
VICTOR HAYES: "Sir, she's looking at the original inspection reports."
Calloway stopped walking.
CALLOWAY: "Which reports?"
VICTOR HAYES: "The aircraft certification files."
CALLOWAY: "Were the original documents secured?"
VICTOR HAYES: "The security team took the cabinet."
There was a long silence.
CALLOWAY: "You told me those records had been reorganized."
VICTOR HAYES: "They were. But she found them."
Calloway closed his eyes.
CALLOWAY: "Did she find the readiness evaluation correspondence?"
VICTOR HAYES: "I don't know."
CALLOWAY: "Listen carefully. Do not discuss the records with anyone else."
VICTOR HAYES: "Sir, I need you to help me."
CALLOWAY: "You need to cooperate with the investigation."
Victor was stunned.
VICTOR HAYES: "You told me to keep the numbers clean."
Calloway's voice became sharp.
CALLOWAY: "Do not discuss this over the phone."
The call ended.
Victor stared at the screen.
He had expected the major to defend him.
Instead, Calloway appeared to be distancing himself from the entire situation.
Victor began to understand that the people who had praised his work might not be willing to protect him now that the records were under investigation.
He had spent months following instructions that were rarely written clearly.
He had accepted verbal directions.
He had pressured technicians to complete reports.
And he had believed that senior approval would protect him from responsibility.
Now the approval chain was being examined.
And the people above him were beginning to deny knowing exactly what had happened.
Victor sat alone in the administrative waiting area.
He thought about the documents he had kept in his office.
One folder contained a printed message from Calloway.
The message referred to the upcoming readiness evaluation and instructed the maintenance team to ensure that outstanding items were classified appropriately before the final report was submitted.
Victor had interpreted the instruction as permission to change unresolved discrepancies into completed entries.
But the wording was ambiguous.
Calloway could argue that he had only requested proper administrative classification.
Victor knew that he needed stronger evidence.
Then he remembered a handwritten note.
It had been placed inside an old inspection binder several weeks earlier.
The note contained a list of aircraft identification numbers and the dates by which their reports were expected to show completed status.
At the bottom were two sets of initials.
One belonged to Calloway.
The other belonged to a senior officer Victor had rarely met.
Victor looked toward the security desk.
He wondered whether the investigators had already found the binder.
Meanwhile, Maya's team was reviewing the digital records.
The system administrator had recovered the original versions of several inspection reports.
The differences were substantial.
One report contained a note requiring additional examination of a safety component.
The revised version classified the issue as resolved.
Another report listed a problem that had been deferred for further inspection.
The final certification removed the problem entirely.
A third report contained an approval timestamp that did not match the assigned officer's location.
Maya asked the administrator to identify every account that had modified the records.
The results showed repeated activity from Victor's workstation.
But they also showed changes made from an administrative terminal associated with Calloway's office.
Several entries had been completed late at night.
Maya studied the timestamps.
MAYA BROOKS: "Who had access to the administrative terminal after normal working hours?"
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR: "Major Calloway, his executive assistant, and authorized maintenance personnel."
MAYA BROOKS: "Were the changes made using individual accounts?"
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR: "Most of them were. But some entries were processed through a shared administrative function."
Maya frowned.
MAYA BROOKS: "Who authorized the shared function?"
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR: "The command office."
MAYA BROOKS: "Preserve the configuration history. I want to know who approved it and whether the access permissions were changed during the evaluation period."
The administrator nodded.
Then he noticed something unusual.
A new access session had appeared in the system.
Someone was attempting to open the archived readiness reports.
The account belonged to an officer who had transferred from the installation several weeks earlier.
Maya looked at the screen.
MAYA BROOKS: "Is that account supposed to be active?"
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR: "It should have been reviewed when the officer transferred."
MAYA BROOKS: "Who owns it?"
The administrator checked the record.
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR: "Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Mercer."
Daniel looked up.
He recognized the name.
Mercer had been the senior officer responsible for coordinating the previous readiness evaluation.
He had worked closely with Calloway and the maintenance department.
He had also left the installation shortly after the final report was submitted.
Maya turned toward Daniel.
MAYA BROOKS: "What do you know about Lieutenant Colonel Mercer?"
DANIEL PRICE: "He supervised the readiness evaluation process."