Chapter 5 - The Trial Date Looms
Six weeks passed in a blur of high-level security briefings, strategic planning sessions, and physical therapy appointments. My left arm was healing steadily; the bone was knitting back together under the expert care of the Walter Reed medical staff, and the heavy plastic splint had finally been replaced by a lightweight, removable carbon-fiber brace.
Sitting at my new walnut desk in the Pentagon's strategic planning wing, I reviewed the latest updates on United States v. Ethan Vance. The federal prosecutor had officially added three additional counts of wire fraud, tax evasion, and witness tampering after investigators discovered that Ethan had attempted to bribe a base security guard to delete the security camera footage of the chair attack.
The trial was set to begin in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in less than a fortnight.
My phone buzzed on the desk. It was an encrypted text message from Amanda Vance: “Just finished the pre-trial deposition with Ethan’s defense counsel. They are scrambling to offer a guilty plea in exchange for a recommended eight-year sentence instead of ten. Ethan is refusing to sign; he still believes his mother can pull strings with local politicians.”
I smiled faintly, typing back a quick reply: “Let him burn.”
Just then, my office door swung open without a knock. Captain Sarah Vance—no relation to Ethan, but a close friend from my intelligence unit—walked in holding a thick stack of satellite imagery reports.
“Maya, you won't believe who just tried to storm the Pentagon visitor’s gate,” Sarah announced, dropping the folders onto my desk.
I looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Let me guess. Margaret?”
“In the flesh,” Sarah laughed, leaning against the edge of the desk. “She drove all the way up from Virginia in her Mercedes, demanding to see General Hayes to ‘plead her son’s case.’ She started screaming about military tyranny and corruption when the gate guards wouldn't let her past the security checkpoint without an appointment. MP Sergeant Torres had to physically escort her off the property.”
“She still thinks the rules don't apply to her,” I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “For years, she covered up Ethan’s behavior, bailing him out of financial messes and convincing him that he was God’s gift to the world. She created the monster that attacked me.”
“Well, her monster is about to spend a very long time behind federal bars,” Sarah said grimly. “And rumor has it that the IRS is auditing her personal estate down to the last penny. She’s going to lose the country club, the house, and every dime of her social standing.”
May you like
The intercom on my desk chimed softly.
“Major Miller, you have a visitor in the ground-floor reception lounge,” the receptionist’s voice announced. “It’s General Hayes. He asked if you could meet him in his office in ten minutes.”
