Chapter 7 - FIVE SOLDIERS
Captain Nolan Price broke the case open from a motel outside Richmond.
Not because he confessed.
Because he was angry Cross had left him exposed.
Price's attorney arranged a recorded interview.
He admitted going to Basement Two.
10:33 p.m.
Not 10:45.
Cross was already there when Price arrived.
Mason had been ordered upstairs seven minutes earlier.
That meant Cross's official timeline was false.
Then Price said:
“There were five.”
Grant stopped him.
“Five members of Echo Squad?”
“Yes.”
“Who was missing?”
“Vale.”
Jonah Vale.
Mason stared at the transcript when Shaw showed him.
He had held six.
At 10:21, rear door opens.
By 10:33, five remain.
Jonah left.
Then what happened to the five?
Price looked directly into the interview camera.
“They asked for Inspector General.”
“Who?”
“All of them.”
“Did Cross allow it?”
“No.”
“What did he do?”
“Told them they were being questioned about unauthorized access to training systems.”
“Were they under apprehension?”
“No.”
“Could they leave?”
Price paused.
“Not practically.”
That phrase would matter.
Cross ordered Price to collect their badges and keep them in Basement Two until morning.
Price objected.
Why?
Because this had moved beyond exercise control.
One of the soldiers—Sergeant Tessa Monroe—said she had already sent documents to IG.
Cross went pale.
Then Price did something Mason had not known.
He called Inspector General himself.
Not CID.
IG contacted garrison legal.
Garrison legal contacted CID because the squad claimed digital evidence manipulation and coercive confinement.
Chief Warrant Officer Grant arrived through the rear loading entrance at 11:18.
Mason was upstairs.
Cross was gone.
Five Echo Squad soldiers were transferred under command-authorized protective administrative status to temporary billeting at another installation.
Not prison.
Not a basement.
Protected witnesses during the initial evidence-preservation phase.
Their locations were restricted because they reported concerns involving their own chain of command.
Mason read that sentence twice.
Five.
Alive.
He sat back.
For the first time in four days, part of the pressure inside his chest released.
Then came the worse part.
Their personnel status should have been entered as:
SPECIAL DUTY — LOCATION RESTRICTED
It wasn't.
At 5:42 the next morning, all six were coded:
FAILURE TO REPORT / LOCATION UNKNOWN
By noon:
UNAUTHORIZED ABSENCE — INVESTIGATION PENDING
No legitimate order ever called them deserters.
Who made the change?
Training operations submitted the accountability correction.
Major Adrian Cross approved.
Supporting document:
A statement signed by Mason.
Mason stared.
“What statement?”
Shaw showed him.
His signature.
He recognized the page.
Tuesday night.
Before the squad went downstairs.
A routine exercise-control memo:
Echo Squad temporarily removed from scheduled training pending integrity review.
Someone had added a second page.
Members released from training control at 2250. Subsequent whereabouts unknown.
Initials:
M.R.
They looked like his.
Mason stared.
“I didn't initial that.”
Shaw asked:
“Could someone have copied your initials?”
“Yes.”
“Can you prove it?”
“No.”
Then Grant had the digital version.
Second page created at 4:58 a.m.
Printed from Cross's office.
Scanner record showed Mason's original signature page had been scanned and merged.
No evidence Mason created it.
For once, the document moved away from him.
But only partly.
Because Mason had learned Wednesday morning that the squad had been marked absent.
He knew at least five had been in Cross's control the night before.
He said nothing.
Then he told Rachel they deserted.
Grant allowed one fact to be passed through counsel.
“The five protected soldiers are safe.”
Mason closed his eyes.
Rachel received the same information.
Her lawyer said she sat down and cried for about thirty seconds.
Then immediately asked:
“Where is Jonah?”
No answer.
Because Jonah Vale was not with the protected five.
He was not in custody.
He was not at another installation.
May you like
He had exited Basement Two at 10:21—
and had not been officially accounted for since.
