“Open it.”
Ortiz held up the warrant.
“With pleasure.”
The evidence room required a keypad and physical key.
Ryker claimed the key was missing.
Jared quietly opened a drawer behind the booking desk.
He removed it.
Ryker stared.
Jared said:
“You left it there this morning.”
Federal agents entered.
The room smelled like cardboard, dust, gun oil, and stale air.
Shelves held evidence bags, weapons, narcotics boxes, impounded electronics.
Then Ortiz saw it.
Bottom shelf.
Behind two plastic storage bins.
Black military transport case.
No county evidence label.
No intake number.
No local barcode.
Sarah stopped outside the threshold.
She did not touch it.
“Photograph first.”
Technicians documented every angle.
The case bore a serial number partly covered with black marker.
A technician cleaned one edge.
Sarah recognized the sequence.
One of the three missing Department of Defense cases.
Ortiz looked at Ryker through the doorway.
“You were saying?”
Ryker’s voice shook.
“I've never seen that.”
Sarah said:
“Stop talking.”
He looked at her.
She continued.
“Not for my sake.”
“Your attorney is going to need fewer statements to explain.”
He finally shut his mouth.
The technician scanned the case.
“General.”
Sarah approached.
“Secondary transmitter confirmed.”
“Internal?”
“Yes.”
“Government?”
The technician frowned.
“No.”
Sarah and Ortiz exchanged a look.
Someone had placed a tracker inside stolen military equipment.
Not the Pentagon.
Not Sarah’s task force.
Whoever owned the theft network did not trust the people storing it.
That meant Ryker might not be running the operation.
He might merely be one piece.
Sarah looked at him again.
His fear suddenly made more sense.
“Who gave you the case?”
Ryker said nothing.
Ortiz reminded him:
“She just told you to stop talking.”
Ryker looked relieved to obey.
A military helicopter landed fifteen minutes later at the county athletic field.
Lieutenant General Thomas Reed arrived in an SUV.
When he entered the sheriff’s station, everyone straightened except Sarah.
He walked directly toward her.
“Are you injured?”
“No.”
“Wrists?”
“Fine.”
“Head?”
“Fine.”
“Pride?”
She smiled.
“Moderate structural damage.”
Reed exhaled.
Then noticed the coat.
“You wore the coat.”
Sarah stared.
“Thomas.”
“I said they'd notice the coat.”
“I was unlawfully arrested and you're using this moment to win an argument about tailoring?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head.
Then Reed’s expression hardened.
He looked at Ryker.
“So that's him?”
“Yes.”
Ryker straightened slightly.
Perhaps out of instinct.
Perhaps because Reed wore three stars.
“General, I can explain.”