Sarah's breath hitched. She picked up the brush, her knuckles white. "The official log says county dispatch received the call at seven-twenty-eight, and we arrived on scene at seven-thirty-two. We responded immediately when paged."
"The official log is a lie," I said. "My father was assaulted at 7:02 AM. He lay there for nearly thirty minutes before Hollister picked up his radio."
Sarah shook her head, backing away. "Hollister was already there when we arrived. He told us he just walked in for coffee and Walter must have tripped. We just treat the patient. We don't interrogate the police."
"You're a mandated reporter, Sarah. If the injury didn't match the story, you were required by state protocol to note it."
"Note it where?" she hissed. "Hollister collects the carbon copies himself. He told me point-blank in the ER hallway that if I complicated the paperwork, the county would shut down this station. People will die waiting for a rig from the city."
Hollister had weaponized the town's vulnerability to protect his own violence.
"I'm not asking you to fight him, Sarah. I'm asking for the truth. Did you document the real timeline?"
Sarah stared at the blood-stained gurney. A long, agonizing silence stretched between us. The radio cracked with static, making her flinch violently. Finally, she reached into the deep cargo pocket of her uniform pants. She pulled out a small, spiral-bound field notebook. The edges were frayed, the cover stained with sweat and black ink.
"I keep my own notes," she whispered, her hands trembling. "For liability. When we walked into the diner, the blood pool was already heavily coagulated. The laceration had stopped active spurting. That doesn't happen in four minutes. I noted the discrepancy in the coagulation rate, the core temperature drop, and the blunt-force pattern. He was struck. Hard."
She ripped the page out and shoved it into my hand. "Take it. But Maya, if you use this, he'll know it came from me. He'll ruin my life. He'll take my medic license and run me out of the state."
I looked at the handwritten notes. Blue ink detailing the exact physical evidence that destroyed Hollister's fabricated timeline. It was the irrefutable corroboration I needed. But it came with a massive price. I couldn't use Sarah's notes in a local court without exposing her to Hollister's immediate retaliation. The only way to shield her was to bypass the county entirely. I had to force the evidence into a federal jurisdiction where Hollister's local badge meant absolutely nothing.
I opened a secure channel to my command center at Naval Base Coronado. Using my military authority to intervene in a domestic civilian matter was a direct, career-ending violation of my operational protocols. It would trigger an internal investigation and permanently burn my covert status.
My father had bled on that floor because he thought nobody was coming to help him. I wasn't going to let that happen again.
I keyed the transmission.
"Actual, this is Echo-Seven. Initiating a priority command override."
"Echo-Seven, this channel is restricted," the watch officer's voice clipped sharply through the earpiece. "Confirm operational emergency."
"Confirmed," I said, my voice cold and absolute. "I am submitting a classified data packet containing audio and forensic medical data. I require an immediate, locked-down federal preservation order on all dispatch, police, and medical records in Oak Hollow County, effective zero-seven-hundred hours today. Route it through the Department of Justice liaison immediately."
There was a heavy pause on the line. "Echo-Seven, initiating this action on domestic soil will flag your dossier for an immediate review. You will be pulled from active rotation. Do you copy?"
"I copy. Lock the records."
"Orders received. Transmission secured."
I ended the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket. I looked at Sarah. Her eyes were wide, uncomprehending.
"You don't have to worry about your license," I told her quietly. "By noon, Hollister won't have the authority to access your files. The FBI will have a federal preservation order on his entire department."