Chapter 17 - THE COUNTERATTACK
Rebecca submitted the maintenance footage to investigators with a full chain-of-custody statement.
Rachel's forensic team verified the camera timestamp against independent building-system logs.
A second contractor supplied access records showing Pike used an emergency administrator credential to disable campus security feeds just before the attack.
The evidence was no longer a series of guesses held together by grief.
It was a chronology.
At 10:12 p.m., Pike entered the security office.
At 10:19, the emergency call boxes were taken offline.
At 10:38, cameras serving the marine sciences walkway stopped recording.
At 10:41, the three men followed Chloe outside.
At 10:47, a vehicle left the service entrance using a pass registered to the Holbrook laboratory contractor.
Two minutes later, a janitor called emergency services from his personal phone.
Rachel interviewed that janitor, who admitted a supervisor had told him to leave the scene and say nothing.
He had stayed because Chloe was still breathing.
I thanked him when he agreed to speak with Rebecca.
He looked embarrassed by my gratitude.
"Anyone would've called," he said.
We both knew that wasn't true.
A grand jury issued subpoenas for the three families' communications and university records.
Financial investigators began tracing payments from a Kensington subcontractor to the security maintenance company.
Senator Sterling's office announced an internal ethics review after a staff member produced emails pressuring university administrators.
A court suspended Dean Pike's authority over research evidence pending investigation.
Within a day, the university reversed its action against Chloe and Dr.
Reyes.
That reversal should have felt satisfying.
Instead, I was furious that the institution had needed a court order to behave decently toward an injured student.
Chloe had spent days fearing she might lose her education while recovering from a brutal assault.
A press release could not give those days back.
That evening, Brantley Sterling contacted Rebecca through his attorney.
He offered to testify in exchange for protection from retaliation by his family.
His statement admitted he participated in the confrontation and failed to stop Chad and Wyatt.
He insisted Pike ordered them to recover the data, saying no one was supposed to be badly hurt.
Rebecca told him intention would be decided by evidence, not by a polished apology.
Still, he supplied one important detail.
Pike had promised the boys a private celebration after the operation.
The location was a Holbrook estate overlooking the coast.
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And the guest of honor, Brantley said, was General Rourke.
