Chapter 15 - A SON'S TEST
Travis was furious when he learned Clara wanted him present.
He assumed it was another attempt to punish him for the assault, and perhaps he was right to suspect that consequences followed him now.
I told him the choice was his.
“You don't owe anyone a reckless act to prove you're sorry,” I said.
He looked at his hands.
“I owe you the truth, at least.”
“You owe that to yourself first.”
Vega arranged for Travis to attend a controlled meeting with counsel and investigators.
Clara Wynn arrived through a side entrance with a folder in her arms.
She was smaller than I remembered, but the old certainty remained in the way she held herself.
When she saw me, she stopped breathing for a second.
“You survived,” she said.
“So did you.”
Clara turned to Travis.
“Your father wasn't the coward they made him.”
Travis stiffened.
She explained that Daniel had tried to retain the black case after the extraction, but Vale convinced command that its contents were too sensitive for normal handling.
Daniel kept the physical evidence and then let himself be frightened into silence.
Clara had copied the files before leaving the helicopter.
She wanted Travis present because she'd found a sealed letter Daniel wrote to him the night after Iron Lantern.
Daniel never mailed it.
The letter described the man he hoped his son would become: a Marine who protected the vulnerable even when everyone else stood aside.
Travis read the words without looking up.
His hands shook so badly that the paper made a small dry sound.
“I became the thing he warned me about,” he said.
Clara didn't excuse him.
“Then you have work to do.”
Her storage unit held records, photographs, and the second copy of the encrypted files.
Federal technicians began cataloging the material while Lena checked the chain of custody.
Clara pointed to a ledger entry marked NORTH STAR.
It showed a large payment routed through Meridian one week before the assault at the Anchor Room.
The destination was a consultant who specialized in manipulating military social media groups.
Among the consultant's messages was an instruction to locate “a young Marine with a personal connection to Daniel Cole” and “a visible temper.”
Travis watched his own portrait appear in an investigative memorandum.
“They picked me,” he said.
“Yes,” I replied.
“But you still chose to kick.”
He nodded, tears gathering without permission.
And then the technician opened the final encrypted directory.
May you like
Its title appeared in large block letters.
MERCER: CONTINGENCY.
