With the Colonel incapacitated in the hospital, Vance and his defense team had free rein to shape the narrative.

If Aaron was arrested for a security breach, any testimony he gave would be useless in court.

I had to get the original manifests before the defense firm could destroy them or scrub the servers.

I turned the car around and headed toward the downtown office of my firm.

The streets of Washington were quiet at midnight, the limestone buildings of the federal district gleaming like tombstones in the rain.

I parked in the underground garage and took the elevator up to the twelfth floor.

The office was dark, the only light coming from the green exit signs and the streetlights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

I unlocked my office door and sat down at my desk, turning on a single desk lamp.

I opened my laptop and clicked the link from the anonymous email.

A password prompt appeared on the screen.

I tried the name of the Colonel’s old unit, then his daughter’s birthdate, but the screen flashed red each time.