Chapter 16 - The Admiral's War Room
Derek stepped up beside his father, his face flushing crimson with reckless fury. "You senile old fossil! You can't cancel this trial! The Secretary of the Navy signed the sea-trial authorization an hour ago! The media is here! We are casting off lines in twenty minutes!"
"Derek," I said, stepping forward until I was standing inches from him. My cane tapped once against the concrete, vibrating right through the soles of his thousand-dollar shoes. "You smell like scotch and panic. You know what's in that engine room. You know that if the steam bypass closes at thirty knots, the lower engineering deck will turn into an atmospheric crematorium."
"You're lying!" Derek hissed, though his eyes darted nervously toward his father. "You’re just trying to ruin my life because I wouldn't marry a cripple!"
The microphone booms dipped lower, capturing every venomous syllable. The reporters gasped. Several cameras pivoted instantly from the ship to Derek’s twitching, sweat-sheened face.
"Is that what this is about, Mr. Halston?" a senior investigative reporter from the *Washington Post* shouted from the press pen. "Did you falsify structural certifications to cover up a personal feud with the hero of the *USS Gallant*?"
"Get those cameras turned off!" Richard Halston bellowed, his voice losing every shred of aristocratic composure. "Security! Clear this pier! Board the ship!"
"Nobody boards that ship," Julian’s voice rang out from the back of the command vehicle. He walked onto the tarmac, holding a sealed stainless-steel evidence canister and flanked by four armed Federal Bureau of Investigation tactical agents.
May you like
"Richard Halston," Julian said, his eyes hard as flint. "We have Thomas Bailey in federal protective custody. We have the cryptographic keys recovered from your son's penthouse server. And we have the metallurgy core samples from Hull 804's primary reactor casing. You are under arrest for treasonous sabotage, procurement fraud, and conspiracy to commit manslaughter."
The pier descended into pandemonium. Camera flashes exploded like artillery fire.
