Chapter 3 - 2:13 A.M.
I remembered that night.
Ethan brought me tea.
I fell asleep on couch.
Nothing sinister.
I had been exhausted after fourteen-hour day.
My government laptop was locked in my home office.
Ethan knew the door code.
Not my login.
Or so I thought.
The access logs showed valid credentials.
How?
Then I remembered something embarrassingly simple.
I once wrote a temporary password hint inside a personal notebook during a mandatory reset.
Against policy.
Stupid.
I changed password later.
But Ethan had enough knowledge of my habits to guess the new pattern.
The violation was mine too.
I reported it.
No excuses.
Accountability first.
Then forensic review showed files accessed.
Halcyon Defense Systems.
Internal concerns.
Source identities were protected.
No evidence Ethan obtained classified material.
But he saw enough to know his contacts were attracting scrutiny.
Then he changed behavior.
Deleted messages.
Stopped meeting Mercer directly.
Used Vanessa.
My stomach turned.
He hadn’t been casually networking.
He was adapting.
Then investigators discovered something that complicated everything.
Ethan had never received direct payments from Halcyon.
No mysterious millions.
No offshore fortune.
His motive looked different.
Promotion.
Influence.
He wanted a prestigious future assignment.
Mercer had relationships with retired senior officers and defense-policy circles.
Ethan believed helping Halcyon would make him valuable.
Career corruption.
Not cartoon greed.
Then Patricia called me.
I didn’t answer.
Twenty-three times.
Finally message:
LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO MY SON.
Not:
What did Ethan do?
Of course.
Then she arrived at our house.
I refused entry.
She screamed from porch.
“You were jealous of him!”
I almost laughed.
“Of what?”
“His future!”
“Patricia, your son accessed investigative material using my credentials.”
“He’s your husband!”
As if marriage made identity theft romantic.
Then:
“You should protect him.”
“No.”
“You’re destroying your family!”
“No.”
I looked directly at her.
“I’m discovering what it was.”
She slapped the door.
Then said something strange.
“After everything he did for Robert Hayes, this is how that man repays him?”
I froze.
“What did Ethan do for General Hayes?”
Patricia’s anger disappeared.
She realized too late.
“I don’t know.”
“You just said you did.”
“I was upset.”
“Patricia.”
She backed away.
Then:
“Ask your precious general about Kandahar.”
Kandahar.
General Hayes had never mentioned serving there with Ethan.
Because according to Ethan’s official record—
May you like
they never had.
Patricia had just opened another door.
