Chapter 5 - The Encrypted Signal
An hour after my father left the ship, the inspection proceeded without further incident. The engineering team, chastised by my catch of the turbine housing fracture, began tearing down the intake seals under Marcus’s direct supervision.
I sat alone in my temporary quarters aboard the Sterett, staring at the bulkhead while the ship’s log scrolled across my tactical terminal.
The encounter with my father had left a dull, throbbing ache behind my ribs—not from regret, but from the finality of it. The bridge was burned. There was no going back to family barbecues where I pretended my career was a hobby while Brandon was treated like a conquering hero.
Then my secure terminal beeped.
Not a standard internal Navy message. A high-priority encrypted data packet routed through naval intelligence headquarters in Coronado, marked with a classification seal that superseded my current command.
RESTRICTED - EYES ONLY - FLAG OFFICER CLEARANCE REQUIRED.
I frowned, entering my cryptographic thumbprint and security PIN.
The screen flickered, clearing the encryption layer to reveal a single dossier and an audio transcript.
The subject of the dossier wasn't a foreign adversary or a tactical threat in the Pacific fleet.
It was a private defense contractor account linked to a series of mysterious logistics irregularities in the Western district.
And the primary civilian corporate officer registered as the conduit for the illicit shell company wasn't an arms dealer or a politician.
It was my father.
Before I could process the first page of financial transfers routed through a dummy corporation in Nevada, my secure comms handset buzzed.
May you like
It was Marcus, his voice tense and urgent.
“Admiral, you need to look at the external radar feed right now. A civilian helicopter just cleared the base perimeter without filing a flight plan, and it’s heading directly toward our coordinates at high speed.”
