“I understand there has been a terrible misunderstanding.”
Adrien said nothing.
“My son is protective of this facility.”
“He filed a false emergency report.”
Sterling’s smile weakened.
“I’m sure emotions were high.”
“Mine weren’t.”
Sterling glanced at Wexler.
The captain looked away.
That worried him.
Sterling lowered his voice.
“Can we discuss this privately?”
“Anything relevant to the evaluation can be discussed with counsel present.”
“You’re really going to turn this into a formal matter?”
“It became formal when your son interfered with an active inspection.”
Preston snapped.
“I didn’t know who you were.”
Adrien looked at him.
“That is not the defense you think it is.”
Preston frowned.
“You looked like—”
He stopped.
Nobody helped him.
Adrien asked, “Like what?”
Preston’s face reddened.
Sterling stepped between them.
“My son made an assumption.”
“Yes.”
“An unfortunate one.”
“Yes.”
“We can apologize for that.”
Adrien closed the case.
“The problem isn’t that he failed to recognize me.”
Sterling waited.
“The problem is what he believed he was entitled to do to someone he did not recognize.”
No one spoke.
Adrien turned toward Gate Seven.
“And now we have a larger issue.”
Technical specialists spent the next four hours inside the marina’s security system.
What they found was not a malfunction.
The unauthorized credentials had been created deliberately.
Each existed for less than two hours.
Each disappeared from the normal administrative dashboard afterward.
Whoever had created them understood the software.
More troubling was the timing.
Four previous overrides had occurred within seventy-two hours of scheduled federal security exercises.
Adrien stood beside the lead technician, Sarah Mitchell, while she reconstructed the deleted logs.
“Can you trace the administrator account?” he asked.
“Not directly.”
“Why?”
“Someone cleaned the obvious record.”
“But?”
Sarah smiled faintly.
“There’s always a but.”
She opened a secondary archive.
“The system stores device fingerprints separately.”
A string of numbers appeared.
“Every override came from the same workstation.”
“Location?”
Sarah entered the code.
The answer appeared.
EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION.
OFFICE 3A.
Preston Harrington.
Adrien stared at the screen.
Sarah looked at him.
“That’s his?”
“Yes.”
Sterling learned within an hour.
He demanded an immediate meeting.
“This proves nothing.”
Adrien sat across from him in a conference room overlooking the harbor.
Preston sat beside his father.
Three attorneys occupied the opposite end of the table.
Mason stood near the door.
Sterling tapped the printed report.
“My son has assistants.”
“Four.”
“Exactly.”
“They have separate logins.”
One attorney leaned forward.
“A device identifier does not prove Mr. Harrington personally created anything.”
Adrien nodded.
“Correct.”
Preston looked surprised.
Adrien continued.
“That is why there will be an investigation.”
Sterling relaxed slightly.
Then Adrien placed another page on the table.
“This is the unusual part.”
Preston stared at it.
Adrien looked directly at him.