Chapter 6 - The Target Inside My Office Wall
My hidden server was removed under military and state warrant before sunrise.
Special Agent Pierce carried it through the hallway inside a shielded case. Two officers remained beside him from the office wall to the evidence vehicle.
The precautions were justified.
Before the vehicle reached the gate, someone attempted to connect remotely.
The server rejected the login.
The source came from Fort Adams.
The account belonged to Colonel Vale.
He was already inside a secured interview room without access to a computer.
Someone was using his credentials too.
Project Homefront had become a hall of copied identities.
Daniel’s signature.
Vale’s account.
My forged contracts.
Military spouses whose names opened businesses they never knew existed.
Even the evidence chain could no longer trust the person displayed on a screen.
The investigators disconnected every device from the network and began a physical review.
My forensic map contained three hundred seventeen suspicious transactions.
Forty nine involved Valor Bridge.
Twenty two involved Hattie Ridge Investments.
Six connected to Northstar Tactical Housing.
The remaining accounts appeared unrelated until analysts compared emergency contacts.
Every identity belonged to a current soldier, veteran, spouse, or child who had entered a military support system.
The database had reached into families before selecting targets.
Medical debt.
Divorce.
Deployment.
Disability.
Grief.
The network chose the pressure point most likely to produce cooperation.
Diane had access to Daniel’s pay.
Marcus wanted business status.
Chloe wanted charity influence.
Vale wanted to expose procurement corruption.
I wanted evidence.
Shepherd did not need everyone to share a motive.
It needed each person to justify one compromised choice.
Detective Quinn asked me when the software first behaved strangely.
I remembered a security update from six months earlier.
My deputy analyst had received it through a military contracting portal.
The update came from Northstar.
I approved installation because the portal carried a verified government certificate.
The certificate belonged to Daniel’s brigade.
He had no role in issuing it.
The update began collecting my searches.
Someone knew exactly which financial patterns I recognized.
That explained why the family confrontation became urgent.
Three days earlier, I found a transfer into the Robert Carter trust from an Army casualty reserve.
The transfer was not theft from an existing death benefit.
It was a test.
Shepherd wanted to know whether my software would identify a future dated casualty transaction.
When I did, the network prepared Daniel’s false death notice.
My response exposed the server as a threat.
Vale ordered Marcus to retrieve it.
Shepherd sent Daniel home through investigators.
Or perhaps Major Hayes made that decision independently.
Trust had become impossible without physical proof.
I looked at her.
“Who authorized Daniel’s early return?”
“I did.”
“Did Vale know before the plane landed?”
“No.”
“Then how did he message Marcus?”
“Someone inside the travel office accessed the movement order.”
“Who else knew?”
“Five people.”
“Names.”
She hesitated.
Daniel saw it.
“Rebecca.”
Major Hayes had served with him for eight years. He trusted her enough to enter our house beside her.
She opened a secure notebook and wrote the names instead of speaking them near electronic devices.
Major Rebecca Hayes.
Special Agent Nolan Pierce.
Brigadier General Samuel Ward.
Captain Lena Ross from travel operations.
And Daniel Carter.
Vale should not have known.
Marcus received the landing message thirty minutes after Captain Ross opened the movement file.
Investigators attempted to contact her.
Her phone was off.
Her apartment near Fort Adams stood empty.
A suitcase remained on the bed.
Her military access card had been cut in half and left beside the sink.
Captain Ross had processed Daniel’s predeployment medical screening.
She had access to his biometric capture.
“She created the copied signature,” Daniel said.
“Possibly,” Major Hayes answered.
“Did she know my family?”
“Her name appears on Valor Bridge volunteer records.”
Chloe had recruited her for military spouse events.
Ross was not a spouse.
She used the charity to collect credential forms from soldiers during financial seminars.
She may have been Shepherd’s access point.
The evidence vehicle carrying my server reached the state laboratory.
Then its tracking signal stopped.
Special Agent Pierce attempted to call the officers inside.
No answer.
Police found the vehicle beneath an overpass twenty minutes later.
The doors were open.
Both officers were unconscious but alive.
The shielded evidence case was gone.
Agent Pierce stared at the empty mounting brackets.
Only six people knew the transport route.
One was Claire.
One was Daniel.
One was Major Hayes.
One was Pierce.
One was Detective Quinn.
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The final person was my attorney, Martin Hale.
Continue to the next part: The stolen server forces Claire to question whether the trusted attorney carrying the evidence folder had been guiding the operation from the beginning.
