Chapter 28: The Missing Timeline
"Look at the signatures," the general whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and ancient defeat. He pointed a withered finger to the bottom of a mission report. The commanding officer had been a man who was now sitting on the board of the academy, a man she saw every morning in the dining hall, preaching about 'honor' and 'integrity.' The timeline was missing a critical four-hour window—the exact window where her father was reported as 'lost in action.' It wasn't a clerical mistake; it was a deliberate, violent erasure of facts.
The realization that her father had been sacrificed for a corporate cover-up hit her harder than any physical blow. The medal in her pocket seemed to grow hot against her hip, a weight that suddenly felt unbearable. The general sighed, a sound of profound, long-term fatigue. "They didn't just forget him, girl. They sold him to the highest bidder." She stared at the redacted lines, seeing the cold, clinical ambition that had turned a human life into a footnote in a boardroom presentation. The academy wasn't just a school; it was a vault for the sins of the powerful, and she had just found the key.
