Chapter 6 - STERLING DECIDED TO TALKMajor Sterling lasted eighteen hours.
Then he asked for me.
I found him inside an interrogation room wearing detention fatigues.
Without his uniform, he looked smaller.
Almost ordinary.
He stared at my bruised forehead.
“You enjoying this?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
“I don't enjoy watching institutions fail.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You still think you're the good guy.”
“Tell me about Harbor.”
The laughter stopped.
Sterling leaned back.
“I want protection.”
“From prosecution?”
“From them.”
“Who?”
He looked toward the camera.
“Turn it off.”
“No.”
“Then we're finished.”
I stood.
Sterling panicked.
“Wait.”
I stopped.
He swallowed.
“Thorne wasn't running Harbor.”
“I know.”
“He was scared too.”
“Of whom?”
Sterling looked directly at me.
“General Marcus Vale.”
The name landed hard.
Lieutenant General Marcus Vale.
Deputy Inspector General for Operations.
My former mentor.
The man who had personally approved my Camp Vora investigation.
Sterling saw recognition.
“There it is.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish.”
He leaned forward.
“Who sent you here, Colonel?”
Vale.
“Who gave you the undercover identity?”
Vale.
“Who controlled your reporting channel?”
Vale.
My chest tightened.
Sterling smiled sadly.
“You weren't sent here to expose Camp Vora.”
“Then why?”
“To clean it.”
I stared at him.
“Explain.”
“Vale knew Thorne was becoming unstable. He knew investigators were getting close. You were supposed to identify weak links.”
“And then?”
Sterling's voice dropped.
“Harbor would eliminate them.”
I thought about the missing soldiers.
The burned documents.
The graves.
Private Miller.
Sergeant Hayes.
Me.
Sterling leaned closer.
“You weren't the hunter, Colonel.”
May you like
His eyes held mine.
“You were the bait.”
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