And I intended to remain all of those things.
A week later, Caleb Voss entered a private conference room accompanied by two attorneys.
He looked confident.
His suit was expensive.
His hair perfectly styled.
And his manner suggested he expected the meeting to be resolved through careful phrasing.
The investigators were less interested in phrasing.
They wanted documents.
Dates.
Communications.
Financial relationships.
And explanations for why a contractor preparing an emergency support proposal had maintained contacts with people who appeared to know the Deputy Director's travel plans.
Voss denied involvement in the traffic stop.
He said the company had no authority over county police.
That was true.
He also said Meridian had done nothing more than prepare for possible communications emergencies.
That was plausible in isolation.
But the records increasingly showed coordination that had no legitimate place in a technical contingency plan.
Investigators examined consulting payments.
Calendar entries.
Communications with the county intermediary.
And the movement of documents through the internal review process.
As the evidence developed, the apparent scheme became clearer.
Meridian had been seeking a much larger government support role.
Certain executives believed a dramatic emergency would create pressure for rapid authorization.
The problem was that the independent technical assessment did not support the most severe interpretation of the anomalies.
So people associated with the proposal began shaping how the information was presented.
They emphasized the worst possible scenarios.
Minimized conflicting evidence.
And attempted to accelerate a decision before the independent records arrived.
The scheme did not require them to disable an entire communications network.
Its central purpose was to manipulate the decision-making process around a perceived threat.
That distinction mattered.
The danger was not only technological.
It was institutional.
If senior officials made decisions based on distorted information, a government could commit enormous resources and alter critical arrangements without understanding whether the action was necessary.
And in this case, the people attempting to influence the decision appeared to have crossed another line.
They sought to prevent a senior official from reaching the meeting on time.
My traffic stop was part of that effort.
The investigators eventually established that a Meridian-associated intermediary had conveyed information to people connected with the Garnet County Sheriff's Department.
The instruction was presented as a security concern involving a government vehicle.
But its purpose was not ordinary traffic enforcement.