Chapter 5 - The Man With Two Badges
Captain Owen Mercer arrived at the hospital wearing his service uniform and the sympathetic expression of a man who expected applause for showing up.
He carried flowers.
I hated the flowers before he said a word.
"Kate, I'm devastated by what happened."
"Then tell me why your name is on Lot Seven-Alpha."
He set the flowers down carefully.
"I'm sure the investigation will clarify that."
"Someone used my signature and your countersignature. A little girl was kidnapped. There is nothing to clarify about those facts."
Mercer looked toward Dom.
"Master Chief, perhaps we can talk outside."
"You can talk here," Dom replied.
Mercer held his stare for a moment, then smiled again.
He claimed an automated procurement system could have reused a legacy approval during a database migration.
He promised to suspend every shipment from the affected contractor.
For a moment I wanted to believe him.
Then he said, "I hope your daughter returns safely before this reaches the press."
I hadn't mentioned the press.
Neither had anyone else in the room.
After he left, I told Ellison every word.
She checked his arrival record and found a gap: his vehicle entered the hospital campus nine minutes before his security credential was scanned.
The guard on duty insisted he had come alone.
But hospital surveillance showed another man leaving his vehicle through the passenger door, face hidden by a cap.
The man carried a hard-sided medical cooler.
Ellison sent the image to an analyst.
A few hours later the analyst reported that the cooler matched one used by a contractor called Meridian Tactical Materials.
Meridian had manufactured the rejected prototype four years earlier.
Mercer had chaired the committee that approved destroying it.
And Meridian's founder, Victor Sloane, had been declared dead eighteen months ago.
Dom looked at the photograph.
"Dead people can't approve shipments."
I studied the blurred figure beside Mercer's car.
"No," I said.
May you like
"But someone can collect their money."
