Chapter 6 - Mills Talks
The next stage began with a narrower problem. Mills admits Dorn ordered mechanics to keep the aircraft in rotation. What mattered now was not how dramatic the discovery sounded, but whether it could survive someone else checking it.
By the time Elena Marsh understood what Colonel Frank Dorn wanted from the moment, the answer was obvious: anger, panic, a mistake. She gave him none of those things.
She asked one question at a time. It irritated Colonel Frank Dorn, which told her more than shouting would have.
"I don't need you to trust me," Elena Marsh said. "I need you to stop interfering with what can be checked."
"That sounds like an accusation."
"It sounds like a boundary."
Sergeant Mills kept returning to the same question: what happened first, what was documented next, and who had access in between?
She thought about Elena must prove why she refused the mission without endangering crews or disclosing more than investigators need.. That desire could easily become a weakness if she tried to force the evidence to match it, so she kept writing down what she knew and what she only suspected.
Dates lined up badly for Colonel Frank Dorn. The more the sequence tightened, the less room there was for the explanation he had offered at the beginning.
Rumors moved faster than the investigation. By lunch, people who had never seen the evidence had strong opinions about it.
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.
"If I'm wrong, show me where," Elena Marsh said.
Colonel Frank Dorn gave a humorless smile. "You think this is a debate?"
"No. I think it's a record."
She photographed the item in place, wrote down who was present, and resisted the urge to touch anything that did not need touching. Later, that restraint mattered.
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, Elena Marsh 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. Mills admits Dorn ordered mechanics to keep the aircraft in rotation. Elena Marsh wrote down what had changed and what still had not been answered.
By then, people had divided themselves into camps. Elena Marsh refused to join either one. She would not call Colonel Frank Dorn innocent because he was senior, and she would not call him guilty because she was angry. She wanted the sequence to decide what the titles could not.
Before the chapter of the day could close, one fact shifted the pressure again: He also ordered him to remove a caution note.
At home that night, Elena Marsh 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.
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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. Colonel Frank Dorn lowered his voice and tried to make the dispute sound personal, as if the real problem were Elena Marsh's tone. She kept bringing him back to the same concrete point: the aircraft logbook carries Elena's forged signature and an unauthorized cargo entry under Dorn's initials. Every time she did, his answer changed slightly.
