“Those are nice stories,” he said. “They do not explain why he is in my cafeteria.”
Michael’s gaze sharpened for the first time. “Your cafeteria?”
The question was quiet, but Blake heard what everyone else heard. Not anger. Correction.
The main doors opened before he could answer.
A commander entered with a civilian aide and a senior chief. The commander was in his fifties, broad shouldered, gray at the temples. He took three steps into the room, saw Michael in the open, saw the table dragged away, saw the insignia under Blake’s hand, and stopped.
“Captain Morgan,” he said.
Blake straightened automatically. “Sir.”
The commander looked at Michael. “Mr. Carter, I apologize. We were told you had already been escorted to the conference room.”
Michael glanced toward the cafeteria. “I took a detour.”
The senior chief’s eyes settled on the insignia.
“Sir,” he said carefully to Blake, “why are you holding Chief Carter’s Trident?”
No one laughed now.
Blake removed his hand as if the metal had become hot.
Michael picked it up. For a moment he did not pin it back onto the faded jacket. He held it in his palm, thumb passing over the scratches.
“It is not a museum piece,” he said. “And it is not proof that I am more important than anybody in this room. It is a reminder of people who trusted one another when trust was expensive.”
The commander stepped closer. “Captain, I asked you a question.”
Blake’s face tightened. “Sir, I believed there was an unauthorized civilian in a restricted area.”
Daniel, a young operator near the wall, looked toward the floor.
Michael saw it.
“That is not what happened,” he said.
Blake turned to him. “With respect, Chief, you do not know what I believed.”
“No,” Michael replied. “But I know what you said.”
The commander looked across the room. “Who else heard it?”
Silence returned.
It was different this time. Before, silence had protected Blake. Now it was forcing everyone to decide what kind of men they were when the room no longer belonged to the loudest person in it.
Harris raised his hand.
Then the young lieutenant stood straighter. “I heard him tell Mr. Carter this facility was not a place for people looking for sympathy.”
Another operator spoke. “He moved the table away from him, sir.”
A third swallowed. “He took the insignia off his jacket.”
Blake stared at each of them as though betrayal had occurred.
