“Good evening, Lieutenant,” I said, continuing up the stairs to my office.

The hallways were quiet, smelling of floor wax and old paper.

I unlocked my office door and flipped on the overhead lights.

My desk was clean, except for a neat stack of folders waiting for my signature.

I sat down and pulled the secure laptop toward me.

A red light on the external drive began to blink rapidly.

I entered my administrative password into the secure terminal.

The screen glowed green, then blue, reflecting off the glass of my framed commissions on the wall.

I opened Commander Nathan Reed’s personnel file.

The digital flags on his record were already blinking yellow.

I clicked on the log files for his last three deployments in the Pacific.

There were gaps in the fuel consumption reports and unauthorized signatures on the equipment manifests.

I picked up my secure office phone and dialed Captain Miller’s direct line.

“Miller,” he answered on the first ring.

“I need a formal review board assembled in Briefing Room B at nine hundred hours tomorrow,” I said.

“Yes, Admiral. Who is the subject?”