Chapter 3 - BASEMENT TWO
Mason spent the next four hours in an interview room.
Not custody.
Not yet.
His command-appointed attorney sat beside him.
Captain Rebecca Shaw.
She had already told him:
“Stop volunteering explanations before you know which question you're answering.”
Mason hated her.
Which probably meant she was useful.
Grant placed a floor plan on the table.
The canteen above.
Kitchen.
Freezers.
Service elevator.
Then Basement Two.
Built in the 1980s as a continuity-feeding shelter during installation emergencies.
Storage rooms.
Old communications closet.
Small briefing room.
Loading passage connecting to a rear service ramp.
No sleeping quarters.
No approved holding space.
Grant tapped the briefing room.
“Echo Squad was there.”
Mason looked at Shaw.
She nodded once.
Answer factual questions.
“Yes.”
“How did they get there?”
“I took them.”
“Why?”
“Major Adrian Cross ordered an integrity review.”
“Written order?”
“No.”
“Exercise inject?”
“Verbal.”
“Why six soldiers?”
“They had access to missing training equipment.”
Rachel's squad had been supporting the annual Iron Lantern readiness exercise.
Communications.
Supply security.
Emergency logistics.
At 8:50 p.m., an encrypted training tablet disappeared from a locked cage.
Cross believed someone from Echo Squad removed it intentionally.
Mason was told to isolate them.
Grant asked:
“Isolate.”
“Yes.”
“Where does Army policy authorize a sergeant to confine six soldiers in an unapproved basement room while taking their phones?”
Mason's jaw tightened.
“It was an administrative hold.”
Shaw immediately wrote something on her legal pad.
Mason saw it.
Don't say that again.
Grant waited.
Mason corrected himself.
“I understood it as an after-action interview.”
“Did they?”
Silence.
“Did you tell them they were free to leave?”
“No.”
“Did they attempt?”
“One did.”
“Who?”
“Staff Sergeant Jonah Vale.”
Echo Squad leader.
Thirty-two.
Sharp.
Respected.
A problem for Mason long before the disappearance.
Grant leaned back.
“What happened?”
“He said he was calling Inspector General.”
“And?”
“I had their phones.”
“So?”
“He tried to leave.”
“What did you do?”
Mason stared at the table.
“I blocked the door.”
“How?”
“With my body.”
“Did you touch him?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Chest.”
“Push?”
“Yes.”
“How hard?”
“He stayed inside.”
Grant nodded.
Precise enough.
Then:
“Why the food?”
“They'd missed dinner.”
“Who ordered it?”
“I did.”
“At 9:47.”
“Yes.”
“Why six trays?”
Mason almost snapped.
“Because there were six people.”
Grant let that sit.
Then:
“How long were they below?”
“About ninety minutes.”
“Start time?”
“9:18.”
“End?”
“Cross came down around 10:45.”
“Alone?”
Mason hesitated.
There.
Grant saw it.
“With Captain Nolan Price.”
“Unit?”
“Training operations.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
“What happened then?”
Mason looked at Shaw.
She nodded.
“Cross told me the six were being transferred to a secure debrief site.”
“Did you see them leave?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“He ordered me upstairs.”
“So the last time you personally saw Echo Squad was Basement Two.”
“Yes.”
Grant looked at him.
“Why did you tell CID it was operations wing?”
Mason did not answer.
Shaw touched his sleeve.
“Sergeant Reed will not answer that without conferring.”
They stepped out.
In the corridor, Mason whispered:
“If I say why, I admit I knew it looked wrong.”
Shaw stared at him.
“You're past looks wrong.”
Mason said nothing.
She continued.
“You assaulted two soldiers in a canteen while evidence from your false statement came up an elevator.”
Fair.
“Why did you lie?”
Mason looked at the closed interview door.
“Because Cross told me the location was compartmented.”
“Did Cross tell you to lie to CID?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you to say operations wing?”
“No.”
There it was.
Mason had done that himself.
He went back inside.
Grant asked again.
“Why did you give us the wrong location?”
Mason stared directly at him.
“Because if I said Basement Two, you would've asked why I put them there.”
Grant nodded.
No satisfaction.
Then:
“And you didn't have a good answer.”
“No.”
Grant closed his notebook.
“That's the first useful thing you've told me.”
Before Mason left, Grant pushed one photograph across the table.
The Basement Two briefing room.
Six chairs.
Six trays.
A whiteboard.
On the whiteboard, written in black marker:
WE DID NOT TAKE THE TABLET. CHECK THE TRAINING SERVER.
Below it:
R.C. WAS NOT HERE.
Rachel Carter.
Her squad had gone out of its way to make clear she was not involved.
Mason looked at the handwriting.
Jonah Vale's.
Then Grant placed down a second photograph.
The rear Basement Two service door.
Open.
Mason frowned.
“That was locked.”
“According to you.”
“It was.”
Grant pointed toward the mechanical override.
Someone had opened it from inside.
At 10:21 p.m.
Twenty-four minutes before Major Cross supposedly arrived to transfer everyone.
May you like
One member of Echo Squad had left that basement before Cross ever got there.
And Mason had never known.
