“I didn’t think it would go this far,” he said.

“You brought a fake document to my commanding officer, Daniel,” I said.

“That is exactly how far you wanted it to go.”

General Hayes walked over to the window and looked out at the quiet suburban street.

The morning sun was finally breaking through the gray clouds, casting long shadows across the driveway.

“The civilian police will need to be notified about the forgery,” Hayes said.

“But the attack on a Captain’s security clearance falls under my purview.”

He turned back to the specialist.

“Secure those files and draft the warrant requests for Patricia Vance’s property,” Hayes ordered.

“Yes, General,” the officer said.

The officer’s fingers flew across the keyboard attached to his tablet.

“Wait,” the officer said, pausing.

He squinted at a separate column of data that had just populated on his screen.

“What is it, Specialist?” Hayes asked, walking back to the table.

“I am seeing some heavy data traffic from the mother’s IP address to a secure server,” the officer said.

“Is she deleting files?” I asked.

“No, Captain,” the officer said. “She is downloading.”