Chapter 16 - The Person Above the Admiral
The voice belonged to Senator Evelyn Sterling.
Years earlier, before her election, she had been the policy adviser who connected Holbrook's engineers to Kensington's investors and Cross's protected procurement network.
In the recording, she discussed how to avoid mandatory testing and how to influence university administrators through grants.
Rebecca asked whether the surveillance equipment would be used on civilians.
Evelyn did not answer directly.
Instead, she said, “The people making this possible will decide what becomes public.”
The recording was historical, and Elena cautioned us not to treat it as proof of every later crime.
But it established the senator's involvement at the program's beginning.
Independent investigators began matching the recording to contracts, calendars, and transaction records.
A separate witness confirmed that Evelyn had attended a meeting with Chad, Brantley, and Wyatt shortly before Chloe's assault.
The witness was Brantley's former driver.
He recalled hearing the senator demand that the three students retrieve a report before the summit.
She did not explicitly order violence in his account.
Still, it undermined her claim that she knew nothing of the dispute.
Chad's attorney reached out to Elena with an offer to cooperate in exchange for consideration.
Chad wanted immunity.
Elena refused to discuss terms without full disclosure and corroboration.
At their formal interview, Chad admitted he had gone to the aquarium to intimidate Chloe into giving up the files.
He claimed Wyatt threw the first blow.
Wyatt's counsel blamed Brantley.
Brantley denied striking anyone and insisted the entire event was a misunderstanding.
Their polished unity disintegrated under the pressure of independent evidence.
A recovered maintenance camera from a neighboring building had captured parts of their arrival and departure.
It did not show the entire attack, but it contradicted all three initial alibis.
I watched the footage in Elena's office.
Ava had been right about the black car.
The students had left together.
They knew Chloe was still inside the locked maintenance room.
A judge authorized charges based on the accumulating evidence, and arrest warrants were issued.
For the first time, the three men faced consequences that money alone could not postpone.
Then Evelyn made her final public move.
She announced she possessed documents proving that Alexander Vance had authorized the original unsafe program.
She promised to release them at a televised committee hearing.
The documents carried my signature.
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And this time the forgery was almost perfect.
