Chapter 13 - The First CaseGeneral Vance’s office was smaller than Maya expected.
No dramatic maps.
No wall of medals.
Just folders.
Books.
Two flags.
A photograph of Vance standing beside soldiers in Afghanistan.
Maya placed the invoice on the desk.
Vance looked at it.
“You think I was involved.”
Maya’s throat tightened.
“I think the first suspicious equipment was transported in a vehicle assigned to your task force.”
“Correct.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“How long?”
“Since before your father found it.”
Maya stood frozen.
Vance continued.
“The first case was not stolen.”
“What?”
“It was planted.”
Maya stared.
“By whom?”
“Me.”
Silence filled the office.
Maya stepped backward.
Vance raised a hand.
“Sit.”
Maya remained standing.
“No, General.”
Vance nodded.
“Fair.”
She opened a locked drawer.
Removed a folder.
Set it on the desk.
“The investigation did not begin three months ago.”
Maya stared.
“It began six years ago.”
“What investigation?”
“General Pike.”
Maya’s confusion deepened.
Vance continued.
“We suspected Pike was manipulating acquisition programs and moving controlled components into private testing channels.”
“So you planted a case?”
“A tagged inert module.”
“In your own vehicle?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To see whether someone inside the logistics chain would divert it.”
Maya understood slowly.
“And they did.”
“Yes.”
“Then my father found it.”
“Unexpectedly.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“The case in his shop…”
“Was supposed to continue along a controlled route.”
“But the vehicle broke.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad recorded the serial.”
“Yes.”
Maya laughed once in disbelief.
“So he accidentally walked into a counterintelligence operation.”
“Essentially.”
“And you remembered him from twenty-four years earlier.”
“I recognized the shop name.”
Vance smiled faintly.
“I could hardly forget the mechanic who dismantled his own van to keep an evacuation moving.”
Maya paced.
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
“Compartmentalization.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Yes.”
Vance accepted the accusation.
“It also protected him.”
Maya looked at the invoice.
“So Pike diverted the first planted module.”
“Through intermediaries.”
“And that gave you evidence.”
“Not enough.”
“Then why did the operation continue for six years?”
Vance’s expression hardened.
“Because every time we approached the center, someone altered the route.”
“Richard?”
“Eventually.”
“Pike?”
“Yes.”
“Who sent me the envelope?”
Vance’s eyes changed.
“I did.”
Maya froze.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because there is one last part of this investigation.”
Maya felt suddenly sick.
“What part?”
Vance walked toward the window.
“When Richard Sterling was arrested, we recovered financial records connecting everyone we expected.”
She turned.
“And one person we did not.”
Maya waited.
“Your father.”
The words hit harder than Victoria’s hand ever had.
“No.”
Vance raised a hand.
“Listen.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“My father reported you.”
“Yes.”
“He helped expose this.”
“Yes.”
“He—”
“Received money.”
Maya stopped.
Vance opened another folder.
Bank transfers.
Small amounts.
Spread over years.
A shell company.
Deposits into Minh Lin’s business account.
Maya stared.
“No.”
“Your father says he does not know where the money came from.”
“That’s true.”
“You cannot know that.”
“I know him.”
Vance’s gaze softened.
“I know.”
Maya looked at the documents.
“How much?”
“Forty-eight thousand dollars over five years.”
Maya’s face went pale.
“That isn’t enough.”
“For what?”
“For risking everything.”
Vance’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
Maya pointed at the papers.
“If he were corrupt, why report the car?”
“That is one reason he is not under arrest.”
Maya stared.
“Then what do you think happened?”
“I think someone paid him without his knowledge.”
“Why?”
“To create a future scapegoat.”
The answer chilled her.
Vance continued.
“If the scheme collapsed, investigators would find suspicious equipment repeatedly passing through his shop and money entering his accounts.”
Maya understood.
“They were setting him up.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“That is what remains.”
Maya thought of Richard.
“Sterling?”
“He denies it.”
“Pike?”
“Possible.”
“Then why send me the envelope?”
May you like
Vance looked at her.
“Because the answer is inside your family history.”
