Chương 9
“I didn’t understand she was in charge here. I thought she worked in Washington.”
“She has been here for months.”
“I don’t follow her calendar.”
“No,” Vivian said quietly. “Neither of us does.”
Derek glanced up.
The sentence seemed to offend him, but he lacked the energy to fight it.
His phone vibrated on the bed.
He checked the screen and turned it facedown.
“Who is it?”
“An investor.”
“Answer.”
“There’s nothing to say.”
Vivian looked at the binders again.
“How much do you owe?”
Derek pressed both hands over his face.
When he answered, his voice was muffled.
“One point eight.”
Vivian thought he meant one hundred eighty thousand.
Then she understood.
“Million?”
He nodded.
The hotel room seemed to tilt without moving.
“How?”
“Payroll. Development. Rent. Legal. Customer acquisition.”
“You said the office lease was reduced.”
“It was.”
“You said you had commitments.”
“We had interest.”
“You said contracts.”
“Letters of intent.”
She stood and walked toward the window.
The parking lot below was full of ordinary cars. A family loaded suitcases into a minivan. A man in a red jacket carried two coffees across the pavement. Nothing outside acknowledged that her house, her savings, and perhaps her son’s future had narrowed to numbers on a hotel bed.
“Did you lie to me?” she asked.
Derek did not answer.
She turned.
“Did you?”
“I told you what I believed would happen.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“It was to me.”
Vivian looked at him for a long time.
Then she picked up her handbag.
“Where are you going?”
“To speak to your sister.”
“You already did.”
“No,” Vivian said. “I spoke at her.”
Elena spent the afternoon in meetings.
Housing. Security. Maintenance. Civilian staffing. The work was both larger and smaller than ceremony suggested. A commander could approve priorities but not make pipes arrive faster, convince contractors to hire enough electricians, or cause federal hiring systems to move at human speed.
At four-ten, Captain Pike entered with the conflict review update.
Elena looked at the folder.
“Tell me without paper.”
“Your brother supplied internal emails showing the flag-officer quote was drafted by the communications director. He replied, ‘Make it less obvious who we mean.’”
Elena leaned back.
“That is approval.”
“Legal agrees.”
“Anything else?”
“Three investors received presentations stating that your assumption of command would create ‘new institutional access.’”
Elena’s fingers stopped on the arm of her chair.
“Exact wording?”
Pike handed her the page despite the request for no paper.
There it was.
ROSS STRATEGIC MARITIME ENTERS Q4 WITH UNIQUE ALIGNMENT TO NEW REGIONAL LEADERSHIP.
Beneath it, a family photograph from Thomas’s promotion ceremony.
Elena was twelve in the picture, standing beside Derek, who was two. Vivian held his hand. Thomas wore white.
The photograph had nothing to do with Elena’s current command.
Its purpose was implication.
“He planned this around my assignment,” Elena said.
“Yes.”
“Did he know before the public announcement?”
Pike hesitated.
“That is the difficult part.”
Elena looked up.
“His presentation was created six days before the announcement.”
The room became very quiet.
“Who told him?”
“We don’t know.”
“My mother knew?”
“Did you tell her?”
“No.”
“Your father?”
“He was alive when I was selected, but the information was restricted.”
“Did you tell him?”
Elena thought of the hospital room. Thomas’s breathing machine. His hand closing weakly over hers.
She had told him after receiving permission to notify immediate family. He had smiled and said, About time.
“Only after notification authority was granted,” she said.
“Could he have told your brother?”
“He could have.”
Pike closed the folder.
“That may explain early knowledge. It does not excuse the use.”
“No.”
“There’s another possibility. One of your former staff officers joined a consulting group that had contact with Derek’s firm.”
“Name?”
“Commander Paul Vance.”
Elena knew him. Smart, ambitious, chronically eager to stand near power. He had worked for her three years earlier and left active duty after being passed over for promotion.
“Has he been contacted?”
“Not yet. Counsel recommends referral for a wider review.”
Elena looked through the office window at the darkening sky.
This was no longer merely Derek borrowing family prestige. If restricted assignment information had moved through a former officer into a private company presentation, the problem widened.
“What is my role?”
“None, officially. You remain recused.”
“And unofficially?”
Pike’s mouth tightened.
“People will assume you either helped him or are punishing him.”
Elena nodded.
“That sounds accurate.”
“Public affairs wants to know whether you will address the family relationship.”
“No.”
“Legal agrees.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“Because public affairs enjoys hope.”
Elena almost smiled.
A knock came at the door.
Hayes entered. “Your mother is downstairs again.”
Pike checked the time. “Persistent.”
Elena rubbed the space between her eyebrows.
“Send her home.”
Hayes did not leave.
“What?”
“She says she has financial information related to the company.”
Elena’s hand dropped.
“Legal receives it.”
“She refuses to speak to anyone else.”
“That is not a condition she gets to set.”
“She says she invested three hundred thousand dollars based partly on representations about your involvement.”
Elena stood.
Pike swore softly.
Hayes looked toward the closed door.
“Counsel is on the way.”
Vivian entered the conference room carrying a thick envelope.
She did not wear the ivory blazer. She had replaced it with a dark wool coat, though the pearl earrings remained. Without Derek, without the bright hotel lighting, she looked exhausted.
Installation counsel sat at one end of the table. Pike and Hayes remained along the wall. Elena took the chair farthest from her mother.
Vivian placed the envelope in front of the attorney.
“These are the documents Derek gave me before I transferred the money.”
The attorney did not touch them immediately.
“Mrs. Ross, before we continue, I need to explain that I represent the command, not you or your son.”
“I understand.”
“You may wish to consult private counsel.”
“I don’t have one.”
“We can pause.”
“No.”
May you like
The attorney looked at Elena.
Elena kept her face still.
