Chapter 16 - High-Stakes Betrayal
Claire stared at the monitor in absolute disbelief. The secondary recipient address belonged to General Arthur Sterling—a senior three-star official who sat on the Armed Services Promotion Board and held ultimate authority over battalion command assignments in her region.
"Sterling..." Claire whispered, the pieces of the puzzle instantly locking into place. "He was the one who pushed for my rapid promotion after Julian's trial. I thought he was supporting me because of my record..."
"He wasn't supporting you," James said grimly. "He was setting you up. He put you in command of the exact battalion handling the hardware logistics so that when the leaks started, all eyes would immediately fall on you—the ex-wife of a convicted traitor."
"Victoria Vance provided the software infrastructure and sold the stolen hardware on the black market, while Sterling got a massive kickback and cleared his own administrative trail by scapegoating me," Claire realized, her blood running cold with anger. "It was a perfect loop."
"The Inspector General team arrives at your headquarters at 0900 tomorrow," Sarah said from the driver's seat, looking at the rear-view mirror. "If General Sterling is leading that oversight panel, you walk right into his trap the moment you step onto base."
Claire pulled out her military phone. "Not if we strike first."
"Claire, Sterling is a three-star general," James cautioned gently, touching her hand. "You're a lieutenant colonel. If you accuse him without absolute political leverage, he will have you arrested for treason before you can finish your sentence."
"I don't intend to accuse him in a private room," Claire said, her voice dropping into the quiet, terrifying tone of a commander preparing for decisive battle. "We are going to give him the target he thinks he's hunting."
"What's the plan?" James asked.
Claire looked at the drive in James's hand. "Marcus, can you upload a altered data payload back into the Aegis server mirror?"
"Easily," Marcus replied over the comms. "What do you want the payload to say?"
"I want it to show that the ghost key is scheduled to perform a final, massive data wipe of the entire Regional Supply Database tomorrow morning at 0830 hours—from the master terminal inside my personal battalion office."
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James grinned, seeing the brilliant tactical trap. "Sterling will hear about the wipe signal through his illegal mirror feed. He'll show up at your office personally at 0830 with his military police detail, expecting to catch you red-handed at the terminal."
"And instead," Claire said, "he’ll walk into a room full of federal prosecutors, Colonel Hayes, and the full decrypted record of his bank transfers to Victoria Vance."
