Chapter 10 - The General’s Last InspectionGeneral Calder arrived at Fort Halbrook surrounded by attorneys.
He denied everything.
He admitted knowing Pike socially.
He admitted signing Ruiz’s discharge.
He admitted returning Hale’s report.
But he denied ordering retaliation.
Then Lena noticed something.
Calder never asked what evidence investigators possessed.
He asked what Pierce possessed.
That distinction mattered.
Pierce had kept encrypted backups.
Someone wanted them.
That night, Pierce disappeared.
His car remained in the barracks parking lot.
His phone was discovered beneath the driver's seat.
Lena found one thing investigators initially missed.
A folded napkin inside his locker.
Written across it were four words.
THE OLD MOTOR POOL.
Lena recognized the handwriting.
Pierce had left it intentionally.
Investigators raced toward an abandoned maintenance building near Fort Halbrook’s western boundary.
Inside they found blood.
A broken chair.
Zip ties.
But no Pierce.
Then Lena heard a phone ringing beneath a workbench.
Pierce’s second phone.
One encrypted message waited on the screen.
May you like
It had been sent thirty minutes earlier.
I KNOW WHO CALDER ANSWERS TO.
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