Chapter 7 - THE AUDIT
Two weeks later, the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office descended upon the Adrian Sterling Foundation headquarters. Federal agents carried out boxes of financial records, hard drives, and forged commendation documents.
Claire sat in a secure briefing room with Colonel Reed, reviewing the preliminary findings.
"It's worse than we thought, Falcon-07," Reed said, his voice heavy with disgust. "She didn't just cover up Adrian's flight records. She misappropriated millions in veteran rehabilitation funds to maintain her social status."
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Claire stared at the documents, her face impassive. "She built a monument to a lie, and made the taxpayers fund it."
Desperate, Vivian attempted one last, venomous strike. She paid a sleazy tabloid journalist to publish a fabricated story claiming Claire had manipulated the black-box data out of jealousy. The article was meant to destroy Claire's credibility before the military tribunals began. But Vivian vastly underestimated the loyalty of the six men Claire had pulled out of the dirt that night in 2016.
