Chapter 4 - The Silent Partner
The next morning, the Admiral woke up.
The morning sun broke through the gray clouds, casting long shafts of pale yellow light across his recovery room. He looked pale, but the fierce, commanding intelligence in his blue-gray eyes was entirely back.
Nora entered with a fresh whiteboard.
GOOD MORNING, ADMIRAL. SURGERY WAS A SUCCESS. WE SAVED THE NERVE PATHWAYS IN YOUR SHOULDER.
Arthur Vance read the board, then reached out, taking the black marker from her hand. He wrote:
WHO IS THE CHARGE NURSE? HOLLOWAY?
Nora’s breath caught. She nodded.
Arthur wrote:
SHE WAS AT THE BASE CLINIC THREE DAYS AGO. BEFORE THE EXERCISE.
Nora stared at the words. Britt Holloway, a civilian charge nurse at a naval hospital in San Diego, had been at a closed military base clinic in the desert just days before a catastrophic training accident?
"Why was she there, sir?" Nora whispered, forgetting for a moment that he couldn't hear her. She quickly wrote the question on the board.
Arthur’s face darkened. He grabbed the marker and wrote:
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I AM INVESTIGATING A BLACK-MARKET PHARMACEUTICAL RING. MILITARY MEDS ARE SYPHONED FROM NAVAL STORES AND SOLD TO CIVILIAN CLINICS. HOLLOWAY IS THE RECIPIENT. THE 'ACCIDENT' WAS AN ATTEMPT TO SILENCE ME BEFORE I FILED THE REPORT.
Nora felt a chill run down her spine. The "joke" Britt had played by giving her the deaf patient wasn't a hazing ritual. It was a calculated move to ensure the Admiral was assigned to an inexperienced, easily overwhelmed rookie who would miss the signs of medical tampering, or who could be blamed if the Admiral suffered a fatal "complication" during recovery.
