His wife is an administrative clerk at the naval hospital!
They live in base housing!”
“Staff Sergeant Reed is an active-duty MARSOC Raider assigned to the Special Operations Security Directorate,” Captain Morales revealed, her voice colder than an Arctic blizzard:
“And Clara’s mother?”
Captain Morales unsealed the personnel dossier:
“Clara’s mother is **Colonel Lauren Eleanor Mercer-Reed**.”
“Director of Special Infrastructure Interdiction, United States Army Special Operations Command.”
“Master Chancery Auditor for the Department of Defense.”
“And the registered fee-simple custodian of Conduit Ten!”
Cooper took a step forward, his voice rising in clinical, devastating intensity:
“You didn’t throw Clara’s project into the trash can because you doubted her grammar, Ms.
Harrow.”
“You threw that blue folder into the trash can because inside that report, Clara had written down the exact operational coordinates of Valve Station Ten!”
The classroom gasped.
Cooper pointed his pen toward the blue folder Ben Reed held in his left hand:
