Chapter 8 - MASON’S RED BOOK
Mason came back for a second interview.
This time his lawyer let him answer more.
The Sentinel suspension had become indefinite.
His security supervisor credential was under review.
Mason looked like he had not slept.
Andrea placed the red-book photograph in front of him.
“Who wrote ‘Voss called’?”
“I did.”
“What did Voss say?”
“Storage dwell had to be under threshold before snapshot.”
“Did he tell you to use S14?”
“No.”
“Did he give you the password?”
“Yes.”
That mattered.
“Why?”
“Regional supervisors kept it for emergency corrections.”
“Shared password?”
“Yes.”
Grant muttered:
“Unbelievable.”
Mason looked at him.
“You approved our remediation plan that year.”
Grant stopped.
Andrea stepped in.
“Stay with 2018.”
Mason said he used S14 once that night.
At 12:52.
To correct a baggage location.
Not disposition.
Was that in logs?
The detailed action logs were gone.
Thomas's photograph showed only the later override note.
Who used S14 at 1:17?
Mason said:
“I don't know.”
I watched his face.
He looked frightened.
Not slippery.
Maybe both.
Andrea asked:
“Why write Voss called?”
“Because he called.”
“About what?”
“The snapshot.”
“Did you tell him we were overloaded?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Mason hesitated.
Then:
“‘Make the screen match what you'll have by morning.’”
Silence.
Grant leaned forward.
“That is an instruction to falsify.”
Mason shook his head.
“It could mean clear physical backlog.”
“Did you understand it that way?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Mason looked at the photo.
“Later I wasn't sure.”
There.
Mason did not admit changing the statuses.
He admitted the instruction could be heard that way.
Then Andrea asked about Dad.
“Did Peter know you had S14?”
“Yes.”
“Could he use it?”
“If he knew the password.”
“Did he?”
“Probably.”
I felt the case pull back again.
Not clean.
Dad could still have changed status remotely or before leaving.
Then Mason added:
“But he called me at one-oh-nine from the offsite dock asking why the system suddenly showed six bags resolved.”
Everyone stopped.
“Can you prove that?”
“No.”
“Phone record?”
“Maybe old carrier archive. I don't have it.”
“Why wasn't that in your statement?”
Mason looked ashamed.
“Because then I would've had to admit I was watching the screen after Peter left and saw the statuses move.”
“And?”
“And I was afraid Grant would ask why I didn't stop it.”
Grant did.
“Why didn't you?”
Mason looked at him.
“I thought regional was correcting the backlog.”
Then:
“And because I wanted to go home.”
There.
Nobody needed a mastermind for a bad system to keep moving.
Somebody did something suspicious.
Others saw enough to ask.
Nobody wanted to own the question at one in the morning.
Then Andrea asked:
“Why destroy the red book?”
“Voss told us legal preservation had ended.”
“Did you believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Did you want the book gone?”
Long pause.
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because it showed I had the password.”
There.
Specific.
Mason destroyed evidence under what he believed was an administrative instruction—
and felt relieved because the evidence implicated his own failure.
Both.
Then Mason produced one more thing.
The anonymous sender had texted him again after the airport incident.
GRANT LET CARTER TAKE THE FALL ONCE. HE'LL LET YOU TAKE IT NOW.
Attached:
A scan of Grant's original 2018 draft report.
Not the final.
One sentence crossed out:
Evidence does not establish which user applied S14 disposition changes.
Final report instead said:
Carter's credential and admitted record practices materially prevent attribution of later changes.
Subtle.
Important.
The anonymous sender had access to Grant's draft.
May you like
Not just Thomas's archive.
Whoever was doing this had reached both sides of the old investigation.
