Not completely.
But enough.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Something you should have asked before you kicked me overboard.”
I broke the seal.
Inside was an authorization bearing the case reference and command routing instructions.
I handed it to the senior security sailor.
He read the first page.
Then the second.
His expression hardened.
Kane reached for it.
“Give me that.”
The sailor stepped back.
It was a tiny movement.
It changed the ship.
For days, Kane’s power had depended on everyone around him anticipating what would happen if they refused him.
Now, for the first time, somebody refused him anyway.
“Sir,” the sailor said carefully, “this directs us to preserve the compartment and contact the ship’s master and investigative authority immediately.”
“I am the authority here.”
“Not for this investigation, sir.”
Kane’s face darkened.
He pointed at me.
“She is lying.
She assaulted me, endangered this vessel, and interfered with secured cargo.”
I said nothing.
That made him angrier.
“Answer me!”
I looked toward the nearest overhead camera.
“You already gave five hundred people an answer.”
Voices began gathering at the passage entrance.
Word had moved faster than orders.
Sailors and Marines who had been on deck were appearing in the adjoining corridor, not crowding close enough to interfere, but close enough to see.
The same witnesses Kane had needed for my humiliation were now witnesses to his panic.
The ship’s senior deck officer arrived moments later, still carrying the emergency radio from the recovery operation.
He looked at me, soaked and bruised, then at Kane.
“Did she fall?”
Kane answered immediately.
“Yes.”
The officer looked toward the security sailors.
Neither spoke.
Then someone at the back of the passage said, “No, sir.”
The young Marine I had passed downstairs stepped forward.
His voice shook, but he repeated himself.
“She didn’t fall.
Colonel Kane kicked her.”
Another voice followed.
“I saw it too.”
Then another.
The witnesses Kane had trained into silence began speaking one at a time.
He kicked her.
She was standing still.
He told us it was discipline.
He refused water to the signalman.
He ordered the swim.
He hit the corporal earlier.
Nobody shouted.
