Chapter 6 - WHAT KOWALSKI ADMITTED
Kowalski came to my quarters after midnight.
He did not enter.
He stood in the doorway staring at the floor.
“I moved the marker.”
I said nothing.
“Graves told me to shift it before sunrise. He said it was part of a stress adjustment.”
“You moved it sixty yards.”
“He said the lane beyond it was flat.”
“You nearly sent Callahan into a drainage cut.”
His jaw tightened.
“I didn’t know.”
“You did not check.”
“No.”
He admitted Graves had selected him because he wanted a recommendation for an advanced training position. Graves told him helping “correct the course” would demonstrate loyalty.
“Why my lane?”
“He said you needed to fail before precision testing.”
“Because of my age?”
Kowalski finally looked at me.
“Because of your father.”
Graves had shown him an old photograph of Ethan and said my family had spent years trying to destroy the program. He claimed I had been sent to manufacture a safety scandal.
Then Kowalski gave me the torn pages from the notebook.
Graves had removed them when he searched my pack and hidden them inside a range-office drawer. Kowalski took them after realizing Callahan could have died.
The final pages contained copies of maintenance codes, dates, and Ethan’s notes from a meeting with Graves.
One sentence had been underlined twice:
Jonas acknowledged changing markers to produce controlled failures. He says nobody respects a course everyone can pass.
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Ethan had also listed a second witness.
Instructor Morrison.
