Chapter 7 - THE OFFICER WHO HAD BEEN USED WHILE ALIVE.
The morning authorization approved a naval communications contract worth eight hundred million dollars.
The contractor was Mercer Strategic Systems.
Charles insisted the signature came from an automated renewal process.
The district admiral said no active commander’s authority could be renewed without current biometric confirmation.
Someone had either forged Evelyn’s identity at a military level or obtained access to her classified personnel profile.
Evelyn remembered annual medical examinations conducted at the intelligence facility where she had been kept.
She believed they were routine security checks.
Now she understood that her fingerprints, voice samples, and retinal scans may have been used to maintain a false digital officer who approved contracts she never saw.
Diane said Evelyn should be grateful she remained on active status.
The comment exposed the depth of her contempt.
As long as Evelyn’s identity generated money, the Mercers considered her existence useful.
Her freedom, family, and honor were secondary.
Harrison asked who controlled the facility.
Charles named a private security division overseen by the Harrison Foundation.
Again, the family’s charitable institution appeared at the center of the abuse.
Mr. Shaw revealed that Charles had repeatedly blocked independent audits of the division.
He claimed the work was too sensitive for ordinary board members.
Ordinary, Evelyn noticed, meant anyone he could not control.
The district admiral froze the new contract pending investigation.
Charles’s authority as foundation chair was suspended.
Diane’s legal access was revoked.
The officers in the ballroom began saluting Evelyn again.
This time, she stopped them.
“Do not honor me until every sailor punished for telling the truth is restored.”
Aaron looked up.
His promotion records had been altered after he refused a second false statement.
Harrison ordered the foundation to fund independent legal review for the entire crew.
Then the ballroom doors opened.
A naval investigator entered carrying a sealed evidence case.
Inside was a black-and-white photograph from the intelligence facility.
It showed Evelyn standing beside Charles ten years earlier.
Her hand was resting on a contract.
Her eyes were open.
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She appeared to be signing willingly.
Evelyn had no memory of the meeting.
