Albright sighed, his shoulders sagging beneath the gold braid of his uniform.

“You don’t understand the scale of this,” he said.

“The early authorization forms for Apex Horizon go back five years.”

“The foundations of the contract were laid before Cole even took command of the procurement division.”

I looked at the dates on the transfer logs.

The oldest entry was dated July of 2019.

“These are encrypted legacy files,” I said, pointing to the alphanumeric string at the bottom of the screen.

“They aren’t on the current network.”

“Cole couldn’t have authorized these himself back then.”

“He was still a lieutenant colonel in the field.”

Albright nodded slowly.

“The early files are locked in the deep digital vault,” he said.

“The keys are held by the central registry.”

“Only someone with legacy administrative credentials can extract the physical logs.”

I knew what I had to do.

“Who is still at the registry from that era?” I asked.

“Who hasn’t been bought by Cole or his friends?”

Albright hesitated, his fingers tapping a nervous rhythm on his dark folder.

“There is Miller,” he said.