Chapter 2: The Ocean Was Supposed To End My Investigation
The first thing I noticed was that nobody looked at me.
Not the officers.
Not the sailors standing near the rail.
Not even the guards positioned by the entrance.
They all knew something was coming.
I walked onto the deck and saw Colonel Kane standing beneath the fading orange sky.
The ocean behind him stretched endlessly.
Beautiful.
Calm.
Almost peaceful.
That was the cruelest part.
Because nothing about that moment felt peaceful.
Kane held a folder in his hand.
My personnel file.
At least, the fake one.
“Petty Officer Cole,” he said.
“Sir.””
“You have created unnecessary disruption aboard my vessel.””
I kept my expression neutral.
“I assisted an injured sailor.””
“You disobeyed an officer.””
“I followed medical necessity.””
His mouth tightened.
“You always have an answer.””
“No, sir.””
“Then what do you have?””
I looked at him.
“The truth.””
Several officers exchanged uncomfortable looks.
Kane noticed.
He noticed everything.
“That is your problem.””
“What is?””
“You think truth matters more than authority.””
I almost laughed.
Because he had no idea how close he was.
Truth was exactly why I was there.
Not his authority.
Not his reputation.
Not his threats.
I had spent weeks collecting small pieces of information.
Missing logs.
Unexplained movements.
Restricted access around Deck Four.
And one name appearing repeatedly.
Victor Kane.
Kane stepped closer.
“You know what happens to people who cannot follow orders?””
“They get removed?””
“Sometimes.””
He looked toward the ocean.
“Sometimes they disappear.””
The words hung between us.
A warning.
A confession.
Maybe both.
I kept my voice steady.
“Are you threatening me, Colonel?””
A few sailors nearby stopped breathing.
Kane smiled slightly.
“No.””
He turned toward the crew.
“I’m reminding everyone what happens when someone believes they are above their station.””
That was when I understood.
This wasn’t discipline.
This was a message.
He wanted everyone watching.
He wanted every sailor aboard the Resolute to remember one thing.
Nobody challenged Victor Kane.
The guards moved toward me.
The deck became completely silent.
I looked around.
Five hundred sailors.
Some looked away.
Some looked terrified.
Some looked ashamed.
But nobody stopped it.
Kane nodded toward the rail.
“Remove her.””
My heartbeat remained steady.
Because fear wasn’t useful.
Not when you were already expecting betrayal.
As the guards escorted me forward, I caught sight of Lieutenant Ellis near the back of the crowd.
Her face had gone pale.
She knew.
She knew Kane was crossing a line.
“Hannah!””
Her voice almost broke.
A guard blocked her.
Kane didn’t even look back.
That told me more than anything.
He was confident.
Too confident.
Because he believed this was the end.
He believed the ocean would erase the problem.
The guards stopped.
The waves crashed against the side of the ship.
Kane approached me one final time.
“You should have kept your mouth shut.””
I looked directly at him.
“You should have protected your crew.””
For the first time, his expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
A flicker.
A moment of uncertainty.
Then it disappeared.
The next second, I went over the rail.
The Pacific swallowed me.
Cold water surrounded my body.
Above me, the ship became smaller.
The voices disappeared.
The sunlight faded.
And for a moment, everything was silent.
But Kane made one mistake.
He thought throwing me into the ocean meant he had removed me.
He forgot one thing.
I wasn’t aboard the Resolute because I was a sailor.
I was there because NCIS had a mission.
And before Kane ever touched me, I had already hidden the evidence I needed.
Beneath my bunk.
Inside a sealed packet.
A location.
A name.
A reason.
DECK FOUR.
Hours earlier, before Kane decided to make me disappear, I had found the final piece of the puzzle.
A maintenance record hidden inside the ship’s system.
A list of unauthorized movements.
Every entry led to the same place.
Deck Four.
And every entry had one person’s approval.
Colonel Victor Kane.
As I fought against the current beneath the ship, I reached for the emergency beacon hidden inside my uniform.
The device activated.
A tiny signal.
Invisible to everyone except NCIS.
Because Kane believed the Pacific had taken me.
But he didn’t know I had planned for this.
He didn’t know someone was already tracking my location.
And he definitely didn’t know what I had discovered before he threw me overboard.
Because the sealed packet beneath my bunk wasn’t the only thing hidden on Deck Four.
There was someone else down there.
May you like
Someone Kane had spent years trying to erase.
And that person was still alive.
