"Morning."
He placed the pads beside the equipment rack.
"Are we still doing movement drills?"
"Yes. Start with balance and controlled footwork."
Hayes hesitated.
"Can I ask you something?"
"You can ask."
"Is everything all right?"
Mara looked at him.
"Why wouldn't it be?"
He shrugged.
"You've been different since the exercise. Not in a bad way. Just... distracted."
She considered denying it.
Instead, she answered honestly.
"I have something to deal with."
"Military business?"
"Something like that."
Hayes nodded.
He seemed satisfied, but before he returned to the mat, he paused.
"For what it's worth, I think the team trusts you."
Mara looked surprised.
"Why?"
"Because when the radio gave us a bad instruction, you didn't panic. You helped us figure out what to do."
He adjusted the strap on his glove.
"I used to think being a good soldier meant never questioning an order. Sergeant Bennett taught me that following instructions matters. You showed me that understanding them matters too."
Mara felt an unexpected warmth in her chest.
"That's a useful distinction, Private."
"Trying to learn, ma'am."
"Then let's begin."
They trained for forty minutes.
Mara corrected Hayes's foot placement, helped him recognize when his weight was too far forward, and showed him how a small adjustment could make a movement more stable.
For a while, the exercise cleared her mind.
Then Captain Mercer entered the hall.
"Lieutenant, Major Shaw wants to see you."
Mara lowered her training pad.
"Now, sir?"
"Now."
She followed him to the administrative building.
Major Shaw was waiting in a small conference room with a civilian investigator and a technical specialist. A laptop sat open on the table, displaying a series of access logs.
The investigator introduced himself as Daniel Foster, a member of the team reviewing Operation Lantern.
"Lieutenant, we've examined the message you received overnight. We haven't identified the sender, but the communication appears to have originated outside the ordinary exercise network."
"Can you trace it?"
"We're working on that."
Mara sat down.
"What's the significance of the original mission log?"
Foster exchanged a glance with the technical specialist.
"How did you hear about that?"
"I received a message telling me to ask what happened to it."
The investigator made a note.
"Then the sender may know something about the review."
"Does the log still exist?"
Foster paused.
"That's complicated."
Mara felt her frustration rise.
"Colonel Vale told me the review was ongoing. Now someone is sending me messages about a missing document. I need to understand whether these are separate incidents or parts of the same problem."
Shaw leaned forward.
"Lieutenant, we're trying to establish exactly that."
Foster turned the laptop toward her.
"During Operation Lantern, several communications records were preserved. The final mission log was submitted after the team returned. It contained the sequence of instructions transmitted during the operation, including changes to the designated route."
Mara watched the screen.
"I remember submitting a report."
"You did. But the original mission log and your written report do not match in every detail."
The room seemed to become very quiet.
"How?" she asked.
Foster selected a document.
"The version in the official archive records an instruction to proceed along the eastern route. Your report states that your team was directed toward the southern route before the final withdrawal."
Mara stared at the text.
She remembered the southern route.
She remembered the briefing, the changing instructions, and the moment when Rourke had told the team that the eastern approach was clear.
She remembered refusing to move immediately because the information seemed inconsistent.
And she remembered the second transmission that had convinced her to proceed.
But the archived document showed only one instruction.
"That's not the complete log," she said.
"We suspect it may not be."
"Where is the original?"
"We don't know."
Mara looked at Foster.
"Then how can you review the operation?"
"We have secondary records, witness statements, and portions of the communications archive. We're attempting to reconstruct the sequence."
"Who had access to the original log?"
"Several people involved in the operation and its subsequent review."
"Names?"
"I'm not authorized to disclose that list at this stage."
She closed her eyes briefly.
Another careful answer.
Another barrier between her and the truth.
Major Shaw spoke before Mara could respond.
"Lieutenant, we understand your frustration. But we have to establish whether the missing document was misplaced, altered, or removed deliberately."
Mara opened her eyes.
"And if it was removed deliberately?"
"Then we'll investigate that possibility."
Foster closed the laptop.
"We'd also like to ask about your recollection of the final hours of Operation Lantern."
Mara looked at him.
"I've already submitted a statement."
"We know. We're asking whether you remember anything that might explain why the records differ."
She considered the question.
There were details she had not included in her original statement. Not because she had intended to conceal them, but because they had seemed irrelevant to the outcome.
A brief interruption in the radio traffic.
A transmission that sounded different from Rourke's usual voice.
A request for confirmation that had gone unanswered.
At the time, those details had appeared to be ordinary confusion during a difficult operation.
Now they seemed more important.
"I remember a transmission that was not included in the official record," she said.
Foster immediately reached for his notebook.
"What did it say?"
Mara took a slow breath.
"I can't remember the exact wording. But someone instructed us to hold our position while the route was being reassessed."
"Who issued the instruction?"
"I believed it was Major Rourke."
"Did you confirm his identity?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because the transmission came through the assigned communications channel, and we had no reason at the time to believe it was unauthorized."
Foster nodded.
"That may be significant."
Mara looked at the closed laptop.
"There's something else."
Both investigators waited.
"Before the operation, our team was told that the designated route had been checked. After the incident, the report described the route change as a decision made by the team."
Foster's expression tightened.
"You're saying the report did not reflect the instructions you received?"
"I'm saying that we followed instructions we believed were authorized. The report makes it appear that we independently chose the route."
Nobody spoke for several seconds.