Chapter 8 - THE FLASH DRIVE
The flash drive contained forty-seven files.
Digital forensics opened them on an isolated system at 8:03 a.m.
Abigail sat beside Caleb behind the technicians.
Ruiz stood with his arms folded.
The first folder was labeled CROSS.
The second was labeled BELL.
The third had no name.
Only a date from two nights earlier.
Ruiz opened CROSS first.
A scanned journal appeared.
Nathan Cross had documented every day of the Redwater program thirteen years earlier.
He had written about forced submersion drills.
Sleep deprivation.
Unauthorized restraints.
Instructors deliberately withholding medical attention to test compliance.
He had also written three names repeatedly.
Warren.
Hale.
Dane.
Caleb leaned closer to the screen.
"I never saw this."
Ruiz scrolled.
A final entry had been written the night before Cross died.
If something happens tomorrow, it won't be an accident.
Abigail felt her skin crawl.
"He knew."
Caleb's eyes remained on the sentence.
"He was afraid."
"Did he tell you?"
"Not directly."
"What did he say?"
Caleb swallowed.
"He asked me to call his sister if he didn't come back from the pool block."
Abigail stared at him.
"And you still let him go?"
The words came out harsher than she intended.
Caleb did not defend himself.
"Yes."
She immediately regretted it.
But he raised a hand before she could apologize.
"I asked myself that every day for years."
Ruiz quietly stepped away from the computer.
Abigail took Caleb's hand.
"I'm sorry."
"You weren't wrong to ask."
The technician opened the BELL folder.
Videos appeared.
The first showed Lucas standing waist-deep in the Redwater pool.
Warren stood on the deck.
Mason and Ethan were visible in the background.
Abigail looked at them more closely.
They were not participating.
They looked uncomfortable.
Warren ordered Lucas underwater.
Lucas obeyed.
Seconds passed.
Too many seconds.
Abigail leaned toward the screen.
"Bring him up."
No one in the recorded video could hear her.
Warren finally signaled.
Two trainees pulled Lucas from the water.
He coughed violently.
Warren laughed.
The next video was worse.
Lucas was tied to the metal chair.
Dane stood behind the camera.
Hale's voice could be heard offscreen.
"Again."
Someone poured water over Lucas's face while a towel covered his mouth and nose.
Abigail looked away.
Caleb did not.
His hand tightened around hers.
Ruiz stopped the video.
"That's enough for a warrant, arrests, and probably federal charges."
"Where's Lucas?" Abigail asked.
The technician opened the unnamed folder.
A video began automatically.
Lucas appeared on screen.
He looked directly into the camera.
His face was bruised but alert.
"If you're watching this, I got the drive out."
Abigail leaned forward.
Lucas continued.
"I don't know who I can trust."
He swallowed.
"Chief Warren said the hospital nurse lied about me."
His voice shook.
"She didn't."
Abigail felt tears burn behind her eyes.
"Her name is Abigail Preston."
Lucas looked down for a second.
"She was the first person who asked me what happened and waited for the real answer."
Caleb squeezed Abigail's hand.
Lucas lifted his eyes again.
"Commander Hale moved me from the hospital before investigators could talk to me."
Ruiz swore softly.
"They told me I was being transferred for evaluation."
Lucas shook his head.
"They brought me back to Redwater."
He described hidden rooms beneath the pool building.
A locked communications office.
A tunnel leading beyond the property fence.
Dane's storage room.
Then he said something that made Caleb sit upright.
"They keep talking about a list called Anchor."
Ruiz paused the video.
"Anchor?"
Caleb stared at the screen.
"I know that word."
"From where?"
"Old deployment files."
"What kind of files?"
Caleb hesitated.
"People who went through unauthorized resistance programs."
Ruiz's face hardened.
"Names?"
"Operators."
"Why keep a list?"
Caleb shook his head.
"I don't know."
They resumed the video.
Lucas leaned closer to the camera.
"I heard Hale tell Warren that Anchor is worth more than any of us."
He took a breath.
"I think it's blackmail."
The room went completely quiet.
Lucas continued.
"The drive has one copy of the old records, but not Anchor."
He looked over his shoulder suddenly.
A sound had come from outside the room.
"If they move me again, Warren said they use the old shipyard."
The video ended.
Ruiz looked at Caleb.
"Which shipyard?"
"There are six abandoned naval industrial sites within an hour."
The technician spoke.
"The file metadata might help."
He opened the properties.
The video had been recorded thirty-one hours earlier.
GPS metadata had been stripped.
But the device clock was eight minutes slow.
Caleb frowned.
"Why does that matter?"
The technician opened another file.
"Because the same device connected to a Wi-Fi network before the video was copied."
"Name?"
He enlarged the network identifier.
IRONHARBOR-OPS.
Ruiz turned immediately.
"Iron Harbor Shipyard."
Caleb knew it.
"Chesapeake side."
"Decommissioned twelve years ago."
"Private owner now."
Ruiz looked at his team.
"Get me ownership records."
The answer came within minutes.
The property belonged to a shell company called Vantage Maritime Logistics.
Its registered manager was Victor Dane.
Ruiz reached for his phone.
Then another agent entered quickly.
"Sir, Commander Hale is downstairs with counsel."
"Arrest him."
The agent hesitated.
"We have a problem."
"What problem?"
"His phone was found with Shaw's body."
"I know."
"Hale says it was stolen last night."
"Convenient."
"He also has a witness placing him at Naval Station Norfolk from midnight until three-thirty."
Abigail looked at Caleb.
Hale had been in the hospital parking garage after three-thirty.
That did not clear him.
Ruiz asked, "What witness?"
The agent handed him a statement.
Ruiz read the name.
His expression turned grim.
"Rear Admiral Thomas Keene."
Caleb stared at him.
"Keene?"
"You know him too?"
Caleb nodded.
"He signed the closure report on Redwater thirteen years ago."
Ruiz looked back at the flash drive.
The conspiracy had just grown another rank.
Then the technician said, "There's one more file."
He opened a text document hidden inside the drive's system folder.
It contained a single sentence.
May you like
CALEB PRESTON IS ANCHOR ZERO.
