It didn’t contain battle logs or casualty reports.

It was a ledger of wire transfers.

Millions of dollars had been routed through offshore accounts in Cyprus and the Cayman Islands.

The sender was Apex Horizon.

I knew the name immediately.

They were one of the largest logistics and defense contractors in the world, with deep ties to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

They held the exclusive contracts for all the supply lines in Cole’s sector.

I opened a PDF document labeled *Logistics Underwrite*.

It was signed by Cole, with Vanessa’s digital stamp next to his name.

The document detail was clear and devastating.

Cole had falsified the insurgent threat reports in the valley to make the area look completely hostile.

He had claimed the roads were too dangerous for standard military convoys.

This forced the Pentagon to approve emergency sole-source contracts to Apex Horizon for private security escorts.

The private escorts were paid triple the standard military rate.

And Cole was getting a ten-percent cut of every contract approved.

He hadn’t lied to cover up a tactical mistake.

He had lied to create a war.