Chapter 10 - The Defector’s Logbook
The storm hitting the Hawaiian islands that morning was nothing compared to the storm brewing inside the fleet.
Mercer had established an emergency forward operating post aboard the supercarrier USS *Nimitz*, anchored twenty miles south of Oahu outside the jurisdiction of local base commanders. When our helicopter landed on the pitching four-acre flight deck amid torrential rain, Vice Admiral Mercer was standing by the island structure in a drenched foul-weather jacket.
"You look like hell, Avery," Mercer said as we walked into the secured flag mess.
"I’ve had worse days, Admiral," I said. "What do we have that can definitively link Sterling to Trident Global Dynamics?"
"Her," Mercer said, opening the door to an inner stateroom.
Sitting at the table, surrounded by armed Marines, was Dr. Beverly Hayes. She was the Chief Research Physiologist for Trident Global Dynamics and the woman who had personally co-signed the falsified dive protocols with Commander Sullivan.
"She turned herself in to NCIS in Honolulu three hours ago," Mercer explained. "Her partner in the company tried to poison her breakfast. She realized Sterling was burning every loose end."
Dr. Hayes looked up, her hands trembling around a mug of black coffee. "I kept the original drives, Commander. Not the sanitized versions Callahan tried to burn. The raw telemetry from Morales’s dive. He was at nine hundred and fifty feet when the prototype hull ruptured. Admiral Sterling was watching the live feed from his office in Pearl Harbor. When Morales started begging for emergency ascent, Sterling personally keyed the mic and told the dive master to hold position for another ten minutes to gather acoustic signature data."
The room went dead silent. The hum of the carrier's nuclear reactors felt like a deep, vibrating rage running through the deck plates.
"Do you have the audio recording, Doctor?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
"I have the audio, the cryptographic keys, and the bank transfers showing eight million dollars transferred from Trident’s Caymans account directly into Sterling’s blind trust," Hayes said, opening a Pelican case containing three military-grade flash drives.
"That's high treason," Lin whispered.
May you like
"It is," Mercer said, looking at me. "And we are going to present it at the Pacific Fleet Flag Officers Conference at 0900 tomorrow morning. In front of every admiral, general, and visiting congressional delegate in the theater."
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