Chapter 14 - Nine Days of Knowing
Cho authenticated the equipment findings and the photographs taken before the tag was altered.
She explained the difference between a maintenance request closed as a duplicate and equipment cleared after a repair.
Hale’s attorney asked whether an intermittent fault could sometimes appear to resolve.
“Yes,” Cho said.
“And the cylinder might have shown pressure.”
“Yes.”
“So someone without your technical expertise could believe it worked.”
“They could believe that. That belief would not constitute a repair or an authorized release.”
The original tag appeared on the display.
REMOVE FROM USE—VALVE FAULT.
Victor Hale.
Nia watched the board members compare it with the photograph from the day Eli collapsed.
The scratches no longer looked like a mysterious clue. They looked like damage somebody had chosen to do to a warning.
Reyes testified next.
He admitted altering the tag, returning the cylinder to the reserve station, and assuring Nia that maintenance had handled it without verifying a release.
Hale’s attorney questioned his motives for cooperating and the responsibility he was assigning elsewhere.
“You were the equipment custodian.”
“Yes.”
“You could have refused to return it.”
“Yes.”
“You chose not to.”
“Yes.”
Reyes didn’t become innocent because he was finally useful.
Then the counsel presenting the case asked about the instruction he had received.
“Hale said the unresolved item would delay the readiness review,” Reyes answered. “He said the second response kit was available if something actually happened.”
“Did the availability of that kit repair the cylinder?”
“No.”
“What were you told about obtaining the inspection signature?”
“That Brooks would complete it.”
“Before or after you advised him there was no documented repair release?”
“After.”
Nia’s stomach tightened.
She had known the answer from the investigation. Hearing it said across a room from Hale was different.
On further questioning, Reyes described the morning she refused.
He had gone to retrieve records that didn’t contain the answer he’d promised her. Hale intercepted the conversation before he returned.
“I should have told her there wasn’t a release,” he said.
No one in the room offered him a way to make that failure smaller.
When he stepped down, he passed the photograph of the original tag.
He looked at it for a second too long.
Nia wondered whether he was remembering the words he had crossed out or how ordinary the task had seemed at the time.
The next witness was waiting outside.
May you like
Nineteen years old.
The colonel’s son.
