Chapter 3 - Blake Recorded Reed’s Secret Drills
Captain Jonathan Ellis did not open the drive himself.
He called Naval Criminal Investigative Service personnel already aboard
for an unrelated port-security review.
That surprised Claire.
So did Reed’s reaction when he saw them.
He knew one of the investigators.
Special Agent Maya Brooks.
She looked at Reed without warmth.
“We meet again.”
Claire noticed.
The captain noticed too.
Reed said nothing.
The drive contained video.
Hours of it.
Blake had secretly recorded training sessions over three weeks.
Reed repeatedly used Tank Three outside approved schedules.
He altered pressure settings.
Disabled automatic release assists.
Ordered sailors to repeat escape drills after they had reached
exhaustion limits.
Claire watched one clip in silence.
A sailor surfaced coughing.
Reed shouted:
“Again.”
The sailor said he could not.
Reed threatened to remove him from advanced qualification.
Another clip showed Harris confronting Reed about safety documentation.
Reed smiled and said:
“You worry about paperwork. I worry about warriors.”
Harris looked sick watching himself.
“I should’ve reported him then.”
Captain Ellis answered:
“You documented the concern.”
“Not high enough.”
Claire understood the guilt.
She also understood Reed had relied on it.
Every person saw one piece.
Nobody saw the pattern.
Blake did.
His recordings included a conversation between Reed and an unidentified
man.
The camera angle showed only boots.
The unknown man said:
“The failure rate needs to be higher before the evaluation.”
Reed answered:
“I can make them fail.”
Claire frowned.
“What evaluation?”
Captain Ellis looked at Agent Brooks.
She answered.
“Commander Reed has been under preliminary review for falsifying
readiness data.”
Reed’s unauthorized drills were not simply sadistic training.
They were producing numbers.
Failure rates.
Stress responses.
Equipment-performance reports.
Someone wanted bad data.
Why?
Brooks continued.
“A defense contractor is competing for a fleet-wide replacement contract
for emergency escape systems.”
Tank Three used the older system.
If Reed could demonstrate unusually high failure rates under “realistic”
conditions, it could support replacing equipment across multiple
facilities.
Claire stared.
“You think he was sabotaging drills for a contract?”
“We think somebody may have been.”
Not Reed alone.
Evidence first.
Then the final video on Blake’s drive played.
Blake stood directly in front of the camera.
“If you’re watching this, Commander Reed found out.”
He looked exhausted.
“I copied the original maintenance logs. Tank Three didn’t fail
naturally.”
Claire leaned closer.
Blake continued:
“Someone installed the wrong release pin.”
Then he held up a maintenance authorization.
At the bottom was a signature.
Not Reed’s.
Chief Petty Officer Harris’s.
Everyone turned toward him.
May you like
Harris went white.
“I never signed that.”
