“You were not authorized to access the terminal in the secure vault.”

I slid a printed log sheet across the table.

His name was highlighted in yellow at the bottom of the page.

“That is a administrative key card log,” Nathan said.

“Anyone could have used my card.”

“Your card was scanned at the outer door at 2214 hours,” I said.

“Two minutes later, your biometric thumbprint was used to access the terminal.”

Nathan looked at the paper, his hand twitching slightly on the table.

“Biometrics can be glitched,” he muttered.

“Not three times in a row, Commander,” I said.

“The system recorded three failed attempts before the successful login.”

I leaned forward, keeping my voice level.

“Each failed attempt generated a silent photograph from the terminal’s security camera.”

I pulled three high-resolution color photographs from the folder.

I laid them face up on the table, one by one.

They showed Nathan’s face, illuminated by the blue glow of the monitor.

His expression in the photos was focused, his mouth set in a hard line.

He looked at the images, and his mouth fell slightly open.