Chapter 7 - The Shattered Facade
By 1100 hours, the main administrative office of Base Legal had been converted into a command strike center.
Brody sat in a metallic chair inside Interrogation Room B, his dress coat removed, his collar unbuttoned. The smug confidence that had sustained him for years was gone, replaced by the wild, hollow panic of a trapped animal.
The door opened, and Colonel Evelyn Vance walked in alone. She carried a thin Manila folder and laid it gently on the table between them.
"Ma'am, please!" Brody blurted out the instant she sat down. "It was a misunderstanding! I didn't know who you were! You were wearing an unmarked suit! If I had known you were the incoming commander—"
"If you had known I was your commander, you would have treated me with fake respect while continuing to endanger my pilots behind my back," Evelyn interrupted, her tone flat, cold, and emotionless.
She opened the folder.
Inside were crisp, blown-up eight-by-ten photographs. The first was a macro shot of the reversed brake line safety wire on F/A-18 bird 204. The second was a high-resolution scan of the maintenance log bearing Chief Warrant Officer Miller’s stolen stamp.
The third photograph was a crystal-clear security camera frame showing Brody grabbing Colonel Vance by her hair and forcing her downward.
"Your Chief Warrant Officer folded fifteen minutes ago, Brody," Evelyn said, leaning forward, resting her forearms on the table. "Miller gave us the entire paper trail. You’ve been signing off on incomplete structural repairs to hit quarterly maintenance metrics, taking financial kickbacks from contractor supply representatives to clear substandard parts."
"Miller is lying to save his own skin!" Brody yelled, his voice cracking. "You came into my hangar dressed like a civilian! You provoked me!"
"I came into my wing to inspect the readiness of my combat aircraft," Evelyn corrected him, her voice dropping an octave, heavy with dangerous authority. "And when I pointed out a flaw that could have cost a young aviator their life on a carrier landing, you put your hands on me."
The door opened behind her, and Master Sergeant Thomas Reed stepped inside, holding a heavy leather binder containing years of hidden maintenance logs he had quietly archived to protect his crew.
"Master Sergeant Reed," Evelyn said without turning around. "Did you witness the event on Sunday?"
"I did, Colonel," Reed stated firmly, standing at absolute attention. "Sergeant Brody physically assaulted an unidentified inspector, ordered the falsification of flight logs, and knowingly dispatched an unsafe aircraft."
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Brody stared at Reed with open hatred. "You traitorous bastard..."
"No, Brody," Reed said, looking down at his former supervisor with sheer contempt. "You're the traitor. You forgot what those wings on our chest actually mean."
