Chapter 5 - The Pentagon Line Comes Alive
The line went quiet for half a breath.
Then a calm voice answered.
“Eagle One, confirm duress status.”
Higgins stepped toward me, face hard.
“Turn around,” he barked. “You are under arrest.”
I did not turn.
“Duress present,” I said. “Officer attempting to force a secured federal case with a crowbar.”
Higgins grabbed the crowbar tighter.
“There are no feds out here to save you.”
The phone crackled.
A different voice came through.
Older.
Lower.
Absolute.
“Colonel Hayes, report.”
The desert seemed to stop moving.
Higgins looked at the phone.
Then at me.
Then at the crowbar hooked beneath the lock.
The confidence drained from his face in pieces.
I watched him understand the first part.
Colonel.
Then the second.
Hayes.
Then the third.
He was not dealing with a nervous civilian suspect.
He was being recorded in real time during a Pentagon audit.
His hand froze on the crowbar.
Far down the base road, a low diesel rumble rose through the heat shimmer.
Dust lifted in the distance.
An armored military vehicle rolled into view.
Higgins swallowed.
May you like
I did not move.
I had learned a long time ago that real authority does not need to rush.
