Chapter 16 - The Counterattack
The next morning a lawyer representing Mercer Systems sent a formal demand that I stop repeating unproven allegations.
I had repeated none publicly.
The company also claimed the recovered messages were misinterpreted technical records.
Their argument was clever because it had the shape of caution, a language I respected.
But caution without honesty was simply camouflage.
Lena's records were compared with independent timestamps and equipment logs.
The matching details began to form a trail that no public statement could erase.
Then came the surprise.
An audit showed that the false mission log entry bearing my name had been created years after the mission, during a period when I was recovering from injuries and unable to access the system.
Someone had constructed it to support an earlier conclusion.
Reyes explained what that meant.
"The document may have been part of an attempt to preserve the original narrative."
"Whose narrative?" I asked.
"That's what the board is deciding."
Ryan sat across the room and listened in silence.
He had learned that the words I don't know were not evidence of weakness.
That evening Marcus called.
"Mom says the investigation might clear Daniel."
"It could correct the record.
I won't promise what hasn't happened."
He exhaled.
"I used to hate you for surviving."
My eyes burned.
"I know."
"Daniel wrote about you.
Said you were the one person who wouldn't leave them."
I turned toward the dark window.
"I couldn't get him home."
"I know that too."
For the first time his voice held no accusation.
"But maybe you can get the truth there."
A message arrived from Reyes moments after the call ended.
She had located a witness who said the final instruction to hold position came not from Andrew Mercer, but from someone using a naval command identifier.
Someone with authority.
Someone whose identity the board wasn't prepared to disclose.
For one terrible moment I thought of Admiral Voss.
May you like
And the fragile trust we'd rebuilt at Coronado began to fracture.
