Chapter 5 - The Consultant
The next stage began with a narrower problem. Ruiz traces meeting notes showing Voss had pushed to include a civilian consultant in a restricted briefing. What mattered now was not how dramatic the discovery sounded, but whether it could survive someone else checking it.
By the time Camila Price understood what Commander Neil Voss wanted from the moment, the answer was obvious: anger, panic, a mistake. She gave him none of those things.
That was when training took over. Emotion could come later. First came sequence, custody, names, times, and the stubborn difference between what someone alleged and what the record could support.
"You can still walk away from this," Commander Neil Voss said.
"I could," Camila Price answered. "But the evidence would still be here when I left."
Later, away from the confrontation, Chief Ana Ruiz admitted there had been doubts for longer than anyone wanted to say publicly.
Anger came in short, hot waves. She let each one pass before she made a decision. The next step had to survive review by people who did not know her and did not owe her sympathy.
By the end of the review, nobody was relying on memory alone. The paper trail, access history, and witness accounts began to overlap.
A sympathetic colleague suggested she compromise. Camila Price asked what part of the record should be compromised first. The conversation ended there.
She asked one question at a time. It irritated Commander Neil Voss, which told her more than shouting would have.
"You want a simple story," Commander Neil Voss said.
Camila Price shook her head. "I want the true one. Those are not the same thing."
The clue was small enough to miss if someone was looking only for a confession: the envelope has a resealed slit and the leak printout points to Voss's login. Small evidence had a way of becoming important once the timeline stopped cooperating with the official version.
Anger came in short, hot waves. She let each one pass before she made a decision. The next step had to survive review by people who did not know her and did not owe her sympathy.
At home that night, Camila Price could not stop hearing the confrontation. She wrote down what she remembered, then crossed out every sentence that described what someone 'must have meant.' By midnight she had fewer words and better evidence.
The practical consequence came quickly. Ruiz traces meeting notes showing Voss had pushed to include a civilian consultant in a restricted briefing. Camila Price wrote down what had changed and what still had not been answered.
At home that night, Camila Price could not stop hearing the confrontation. She wrote down what she remembered, then crossed out every sentence that described what someone 'must have meant.' By midnight she had fewer words and better evidence.
Before the chapter of the day could close, one fact shifted the pressure again: The consultant received an unexplained late-night call.
Camila Price kept thinking about the cut seal and adhesive edge. It had been present at the beginning as a symbol of humiliation. Now it had become a reminder that objects did not care about the story people wanted them to tell.
The case changed when someone finally stopped asking who looked bad and started asking what had physically happened. Once that question took over, rank and reputation became context instead of proof.
The next conversation happened without an audience. Commander Neil Voss lowered his voice and tried to make the dispute sound personal, as if the real problem were Camila Price's tone. She kept bringing him back to the same concrete point: the envelope has a resealed slit and the leak printout points to Voss's login. Every time she did, his answer changed slightly.
At home that night, Camila Price could not stop hearing the confrontation. She wrote down what she remembered, then crossed out every sentence that described what someone 'must have meant.' By midnight she had fewer words and better evidence.
One witness remembered something differently than Camila Price did. Instead of fighting the discrepancy, she wrote it down. Later, a timestamp explained why both memories could be honest and still incomplete.
Camila Price kept thinking about the cut seal and adhesive edge. It had been present at the beginning as a symbol of humiliation. Now it had become a reminder that objects did not care about the story people wanted them to tell.
Camila Price kept thinking about the cut seal and adhesive edge. It had been present at the beginning as a symbol of humiliation. Now it had become a reminder that objects did not care about the story people wanted them to tell.
Camila Price kept thinking about the cut seal and adhesive edge. It had been present at the beginning as a symbol of humiliation. Now it had become a reminder that objects did not care about the story people wanted them to tell.
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At home that night, Camila Price could not stop hearing the confrontation. She wrote down what she remembered, then crossed out every sentence that described what someone 'must have meant.' By midnight she had fewer words and better evidence.
At home that night, Camila Price could not stop hearing the confrontation. She wrote down what she remembered, then crossed out every sentence that described what someone 'must have meant.' By midnight she had fewer words and better evidence.
