Chapter 6 - The Officer Who Chose Himself
Calloway ordered Pike’s badge and weapon removed.
The military police officer hesitated only once before obeying.
Pike did not resist.
He looked toward Hannah.
“You don’t understand what they can do.”
She stared at him.
“I understand better than anyone.”
“They know our families.”
“You gave them ours.”
Pike’s face tightened.
Three years earlier, he had been approached by a defense intelligence contractor.
They offered money for access codes.
He refused at first.
Then they showed photographs of his younger brother accepting illegal payments overseas.
They threatened prison.
Disgrace.
The destruction of his family.
Pike gave them one temporary communications key.
He believed it would be used for surveillance.
Instead, it redirected the Resolute.
“You could have reported them,” Calloway said.
Pike laughed bitterly.
“To whom? They had admirals. Contractors. congressional staff.”
“So you kept helping.”
“I tried to stop.”
Hannah’s voice turned cold.
“You authenticated the casualty report.”
Pike looked down.
“They told me everyone aboard was already dead.”
“You never checked.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You chose not to.”
The words landed hard.
The transport beneath the base reached the server-vault door.
Security teams waited beyond the corridor.
Calloway looked at Pike.
“How do we stop it?”
Pike remained silent.
Hannah stepped closer.
“They still need him.”
“For what?”
“The server vault requires two command authorizations.”
Calloway looked at the access system.
One credential had already been transmitted remotely.
The second belonged to Pike.
That was why the attackers had not killed him.
They needed his living biometric confirmation.
Calloway ordered his access revoked.
The technician tried.
The system rejected the command.
Nightglass had already replaced the security database.
Pike’s authorization remained valid.
Hannah studied the screen.
“They’ll force access through his wearable signal.”
Pike looked at his luxury military watch.
He tore it off.
Too late.
The vault door began unlocking remotely.
Hannah grabbed the watch and smashed it against the steel table.
The face cracked.
The signal continued.
“Internal transmitter,” she said.
The military police officer reached for it.
“Don’t touch the casing.”
Hannah used the edge of Pike’s file to pry the rear panel open.
A red light blinked inside.
She ripped out the battery.
The vault stopped opening with six inches remaining.
Calloway ordered the security doors sealed around it.
Then the intercom crackled.
A woman’s voice came through.
“Commander Mercer.”
Hannah froze.
She knew the voice.
Everyone watched her.
The woman continued.
“You left us behind.”
Hannah’s fierce control shattered for one second.
Calloway saw grief in her face.
“Who is that?”
Hannah whispered the name.
“Captain Laura Vance.”
Calloway stared at her.
Vance had been declared dead aboard the Resolute.
The voice returned.
May you like
“Open the vault, Hannah—or the surviving crew dies with me.”
👉 Hannah was not the only sailor who survived—the attackers still held members of her crew three years after the ship vanished.
