Chapter 10 - Ross Finally Told Me the Truth
Ross dismissed everyone except me, Laura, Mercer, and a security recorder.
He did not ask to speak off the record.
That earned him exactly one point.
Not trust.
One point.
“I helped design Watchman.”
Laura stared at him with open disgust.
“You lied to us all day.”
“I withheld classified history.”
“Aaron is dead.”
“I know.”
“Rebecca is running illegal tests.”
“I know.”
“Sarah was assaulted.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know.”
Ross looked at me.
“You deserve the full history.”
“Yes.”
“Watchman began as software.”
“What did it do?”
“Compared training decisions under stress.”
“Simulated stress.”
“Yes.”
“Then somebody added real-world manipulation.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Adrian Cole proposed limited environmental variables.”
“Like family-threat scenarios.”
“Not originally.”
“When did that change?”
“When Compass moved from simulation rooms into field validation.”
I thought about the mess hall.
Real recruits.
Real slap.
Real alarm.
Same philosophy.
“Your role?”
“I built the decision architecture.”
“Meaning Watchman predicts choices.”
“Probability trees. If subject experiences X, how likely are they to choose Y.”
“Was Aaron a subject?”
“Yes.”
“Did you approve the casualty scenario?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Official approval chain says Rhodes.”
“Do you believe that?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because his digital signature was inserted after the event.”
That matched what Priya had discovered today.
Logs altered after export.
Credentials used as evidence.
“They framed Rhodes six years ago.”
“I believe so.”
“Then why did he disappear?”
“He thought I framed him.”
Laura laughed bitterly.
“Everybody protecting themselves. Nobody protecting Aaron.”
Ross accepted that without defense.
“What happened to Watchman?”
“I ordered the software archived.”
“Destroyed?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it was evidence.”
“Where?”
“A restricted repository.”
“Who had access?”
“Me. Cole. Two investigators.”
“Rhodes?”
“No.”
“Mercer?”
“No.”
“Rebecca?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then how did Harbor rebuild it?”
Ross looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“Someone copied it.”
“Yes.”
“Was there ever an investigation into Aaron’s death?”
“Internal.”
“Result?”
“Driver fatigue.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
At least he stopped pretending otherwise.
I opened the current Harbor protocol.
“The system predicted my response.”
“Based on what?”
Ross looked uncomfortable.
“Existing Watchman data may include your historical training records.”
“I was never a Compass participant.”
“No.”
“So where did they get psychological baselines?”
“Officer evaluations. Leadership exercises. screening data.”
“My personnel file.”
“Yes.”
“Unauthorized.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“You let a system capable of doing this remain intact for six years.”
“I believed it was secured.”
“That belief put my sister on a target sheet.”
His jaw tightened.
“I understand.”
“No. You understand words on paper. Emily understands police standing outside her classroom.”
Laura spoke quietly.
“What does Harbor want?”
Ross looked at the Aaron video.
“Maybe proof.”
“Of what?”
“That Watchman never died.”
“But they’re the ones using it.”
“Exactly.”
Mercer suddenly understood.
“They need us to react.”
Ross nodded.
“If Rebecca can show current command personnel using Watchman methods—or responding to an environment built by Watchman—she can claim the system remained operational.”
“She’s manufacturing the evidence she wants.”
“Yes.”
“Why target Sarah?”
Mercer answered.
“Because Sarah leads integrity assessment.”
A credible investigator.
If I broke publicly, misused authority, or accused command based on manipulated evidence, Harbor could undermine the very people evaluating their contracts.
A revenge story wrapped inside procurement fraud.
Maybe.
But something still didn’t fit.
“Why stage the network breach?”
Ross frowned.
“To divide your attention.”
“No.”
I pulled up the timing sheet.
“0648 breach. 0649 alarm. 0650 priority choice.”
“They wanted to record your decision.”
“Yes. But a real security alarm creates logs. Command response. Documentation.”
Laura leaned forward.
“They wanted Watchman activated inside official systems.”
Exactly.
Not just video.
A data trail.
Someone wanted the Navy’s own network to certify the experiment happened.
“Who can activate Watchman?”
Ross’s face changed.
“In theory, no one.”
“In practice?”
“A legacy trigger module may still exist.”
“Where?”
“Training Systems Repository.”
“Who manages it?”
Silence.
Mercer said the name.
“Adrian Cole.”
Our missing civilian researcher.
Ross immediately ordered his access suspended.
Too late.
The system responded with an error.
COLE ACCOUNT — TERMINATED 11 MONTHS AGO.
Someone had been using his identity even though he no longer had authorized access.
“Where is Adrian Cole?”
Ross asked.
Nobody knew.
Laura searched public records.
His consulting address was empty.
Phone disconnected.
No recent government payroll.
Then one security analyst found a death certificate.
Adrian Cole had died eleven months earlier.
Heart attack.
I stared at Ross.
“Then who has been acting as Cole?”
No answer.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Rebecca Sloan.
You’re finally asking the right question.
Attached was an audio file.
A man’s voice.
The same voice from Aaron Sloan’s old test.
“Continue the task.”
Ross went white.
“What?”
He stared at the waveform.
“That isn’t Adrian Cole.”
“Who is it?”
Ross looked at Mercer.
Then Laura.
Neither spoke.
I stepped closer.
“Who?”
Ross whispered:
“Calvin Rhodes.”
May you like
The man who claimed he had been framed by Watchman.
📖 Discover why Rhodes’s voice appears in Aaron Sloan’s torture video—and whether Priya left with him willingly or became his next subject in CHAPTER 11. 👇
