29 My Commander Projected My Face On A Screen And Called Me A Traitor — He Didn't Know The Original Recording Still Had My Father's Voice On It

The mistake was Elena's.

It came on the eleventh day after the auditorium, after Marcus Webb had been identified but before he had been arrested, and it came because Elena had not slept in eleven nights and because she had spent eleven days being told by everyone around her that she should let the investigators do the investigating and that she should go home and rest and that everything was going to be fine.

She did not go home and rest.

She called Marcus Webb.

She did not do it to confront him. She did it because she wanted to hear his voice. She wanted to hear the voice of the man who had killed eleven people in a village in Afghanistan and had blamed her for it. She wanted to hear the voice of the man who had taken her father's translation and turned it into a weapon. She wanted to hear the voice of the man who had lived in her file for six months and had never once been in a room with her.

It was a mistake. She knew it was a mistake before she did it. She did it anyway.

She called the number listed on the Fort Belvoir directory for Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Webb at 20:15 on a Tuesday evening.

He answered on the third ring.

"Webb."

"Colonel Webb," Elena said. "This is Staff Sergeant Elena Vega. I am the linguist at Fort Huachuca."

There was a long pause on the line.

"Staff Sergeant Vega," Webb said. "This is a surprise. How did you get my number?"

"It's in the directory, sir."

"Of course it is." Another pause. "What can I do for you, Staff Sergeant?"

"Sir, I called to tell you that I know."

"You know what?"

"I know that the recording that CID gave to my command was altered. I know that the original recording is in the archive at Fort Belvoir. I know that the original recording has my father's voice on it. I know that you know that. And I know that you know that I know that."

There was a very long pause on the line.

"Staff Sergeant Vega," Webb said, and his voice had gone very quiet, "are you aware that you are making a very serious accusation against a senior officer?"

"Yes, sir. I am."

"Are you aware that this call is being recorded?"

"No, sir. I am not recording it. But I would not be surprised if you are."

"I am not recording it. But I am documenting it. And I am going to report this call to my chain of command. And I am going to tell them that a staff sergeant at Fort Huachuca has called me at my home to accuse me of a crime. And I am going to ask them to open an investigation into your conduct."

"Sir—"

"Staff Sergeant Vega, I do not know what you think you know. I do not know what your father told you. I do not know what the archive at Fort Belvoir contains. But I do know that you are a staff sergeant and I am a lieutenant colonel and that whatever evidence you think you have is going to be examined by a great many people. And I am telling you, right now, on this call, that you are going to regret making it."

"Sir—"

The line went dead.

Elena sat in her apartment and stared at her phone.

She had made a mistake. She knew she had made a mistake. She had called Webb on the record, in the middle of the evening, from her personal cell phone, without a lawyer and without a witness, and she had given him everything he needed.

She had given him a warning.

She called Anne Cho.

"Agent Cho," she said. "I did something stupid."

—

Webb moved the next morning.

Not to run. Not to flee. Not to destroy evidence — he had been destroying evidence for eight months, and he had already destroyed everything that could be destroyed.

He moved to attack.

He called his lawyer. He called his friend at the Pentagon. He called his congressman. He called two reporters at the Washington Post. He called the inspector general of the Army. He called the chief of staff of the Army. He called the commander of the Army's intelligence center at Fort Belvoir. He called the deputy chief of staff for intelligence.

By noon on the day after Elena's call, Marcus Webb had opened a formal complaint against Elena Vega for "harassment, defamation, and unlawful contact with a senior officer."

By three o'clock that afternoon, Elena's commander at Fort Huachuca had received a phone call from a colonel at the Pentagon who told him that a staff sergeant at his installation was making "unfounded accusations" against a "decorated officer." By five o'clock, Elena's commander had received a second phone call, from a different colonel at the Pentagon, who told him that "the Army does not need another scandal" and that "the staff sergeant should be reassigned to a quiet posting in the Pacific."

By seven o'clock that evening, Elena was in a meeting with her commander and her first sergeant and the installation legal officer.

"Staff Sergeant Vega," the legal officer said, "I am going to be honest with you. What you did was a mistake. You called a senior officer on the record. You accused him of a crime. And you did it without the authorization of the CID agent who is running the investigation. That is not just a mistake. That is a violation of protocol. That is a violation of procedure. That is a violation of everything that a soldier in a pending investigation is supposed to do."

"Sir—"

"Let me finish. I am not telling you this because I want to punish you. I am telling you this because the Army is going to punish you. Not the Army. The Army is going to try to punish you. The Army is going to try to reassign you. The Army is going to try to give you a formal reprimand. And the Army is going to try to close the investigation into Marcus Webb because you have given them a reason to say that the investigation is 'tainted.' Do you understand what I am telling you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then I am going to tell you what I am going to do. I am going to fight for you. I am going to fight for you because you are a soldier and because I am a soldier and because the only reason the Army has a case against Marcus Webb is because your father kept a recording. I am going to fight for you because you deserve to be fought for. But I am going to tell you right now — because I am going to be honest with you — the next six months are going to be the hardest six months of your career. Are you ready for that?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then go home. Sleep. Eat something. And do not — do not — call anyone at Fort Belvoir again."

"Yes, sir."

Elena went home. She slept for twelve hours. She ate a sandwich. She did not call anyone at Fort Belvoir again.

But the damage was done.

The investigation into Marcus Webb was suspended for six weeks while the Army investigated Elena's phone call. She was formally reprimanded in writing by her commander. She was reassigned from her teaching position to a temporary duty at the installation legal office. She was told, in a formal written notice, that the reprimand would remain in her file for three years.

She did not fight the reprimand. She did not appeal. She accepted it.

She accepted it because she knew — she had known since the moment she hung up the phone — that she had earned it.

She had made a mistake. She had been a soldier for six years and she had never made a mistake that mattered. She had made one now. And she was going to spend the next six months thinking about it.

She spent the next six months thinking about it.

And then the voice analysis came back from Quantico.

And the investigation into Marcus Webb was reopened.