Chapter 78: THE SECOND SHIPMENT

DIANA’S POV

By the next day, the northern relay had answered.

Perrin Corven’s shipment had never reached the station.

Diana read the confirmation, then placed it beside the two replacement requests already found in the Citadel archive.

One false receipt had left a real station waiting for material, and one widow’s benefits case had exposed both problems.

The second impossible receipt belonged to Corporal Jerek Tarn.

At least Corporal Jerek Tarn was alive. Unfortunately for the receipt, he had spent the entire period inside the Citadel infirmary with one leg immobilized and had even earned a formal reprimand for attempting the stairs.

He had not received wardstone in the North.

Master Enric Marlon sat across from her with the household copies.

"The first man was dead."

Diana nodded.

"The second was in the infirmary."

Another nod.

Master Marlon looked at the stack.

"I assume you intend to keep going."

Diana wrote: YES.

"That was not a request for encouragement."

Diana pulled the next file closer.

Daric had taken the military portion of the audit to Command Archive.

That suited Diana.

He knew personnel movement, military access, and document control better than she did.

Diana had the permitted copies of the three suspect receipts, the household and casualty cross-checks, and the nonclassified transfer summaries Raigoro had authorized.

She did not need Daric standing beside her while she read them.

She needed the papers to disagree.

The third one did.

Sergeant Olan Trev had not been dead.

He had not been injured.

He had simply been somewhere else.

The receipt placed him at a northern receiving station.

His unit record placed him on duty at East Fortress throughout the same period.

Diana checked the dates again.

Then requested the duty confirmation.

That answer did not require a mountain relay. The Citadel military archive already held the relevant East Fortress duty record.

A military archive clerk returned twenty minutes later with a certified confirmation limited to Trev’s location on the dates in question.

Olan Trev had answered morning inspection, served evening duty, and appeared again the next morning.

Diana wrote: THREE.

Master Marlon looked at the receipts.

"Three men who could not have done what the records say they did."

Diana nodded.

That was the part she understood.

Why did not belong to her office yet.

She arranged the receipts across the desk.

Perrin Corven was dead, Jerek Tarn was in the infirmary, and Olan Trev was somewhere else entirely. The men, destinations, originating depots, clerks, receiving marks, and station seals were all different.

Diana stared until the differences became useless.

Then she began writing what the documents had in common.

WARD MATERIAL.

COMPLETED RECEIPT.

RECIPIENT IMPOSSIBLE.

CENTRAL RECORD CLOSED.

She stopped.

The door opened.

Daric entered carrying three thinner files and a list of names.

He had been working too.

Diana pointed to the chair opposite her.

Daric looked at Master Marlon.

"Am I replacing you?"

"No."

"Unfortunate."

Master Marlon gathered two household files.

"I have actual petitioners."

Daric looked at Diana.

"She has corrupted you."

Master Marlon left.

Daric placed his own papers on the desk.

"I checked access to the receiving marks."

Diana waited.

"None of the original physical seals are missing."

She looked at him.

"That means less than it sounds. Approved commercial copies carry impressions. Old receiving marks appear on completed field documents. Anyone with legitimate access to enough older paperwork could reproduce what these forms needed."

Diana pointed toward the three names.

THEY KNEW THE MARKS.

"Yes."

NOT THE MEN.

Daric looked at the line.

"That is my problem too."

He pulled Jerek Tarn’s record closer.

"The person who used this mark knew what Tarn’s receiving mark looked like."

Then Perrin Corven.

"They did not know Corven was dead."

Then Olan Trev.

"They did not know Trev was serving somewhere else."

Diana wrote: OLD INFORMATION?

"Possibly."

He placed another sheet beside hers.

"Or people with administrative access but no current personnel picture."

Diana considered.

Different explanations.

Same limitation.

A Command Logistics clerk entered carrying the form-control report.

Daric looked at him.

"Tell her what you told me."

The clerk set down the page.

"The forms themselves are not unusual."

Diana looked at him.

"That is the problem, Your Grace. Receiving stations issue them. Depots retain examples. Replacement copies can come through Command Logistics. Contractors may receive approved copies during claims and accounting disputes."

Diana wrote: SO THE PAPER DOES NOT REQUIRE A THIEF INSIDE COMMAND.

"No."

Daric said, "An inside source remains possible."

The clerk nodded.

"But not necessary."

Better.

Between Diana, Daric, and the logistics clerk, they now had three different parts of the same problem.

Diana returned to the receipts.

Who had supposedly received them was no longer producing another useful answer.

She pulled the transfer summaries closer.

Origin.

Transporter.

Intermediary.

Destination.

Central closeout.

The first shipment left North Stores and changed transport at a civilian transfer yard.

The second came through an eastern military depot and passed through a merchant-managed staging warehouse.

The third began farther south before joining Blackharrow’s winter transport network.

Different beginnings.

Different endings.

Diana marked each change of custody.

Daric had moved to the other side of the desk.

"What are you looking for?"

She wrote: NOT PEOPLE.

He waited.

Diana turned the first route toward him.

THINGS THEY SHARE.

Daric took the second route.

The logistics clerk took the third.

They worked through the routes in silence, which suited Diana.

Diana followed the first shipment from depot to wagon assignment to transfer yard to receiving station.

The second used another depot.

Another station.

Another transport company.

She almost moved it aside.

Then saw one authorization mark in the intermediary column.

She pulled the first route back.

Same mark.

Same registered organization.

Diana checked the third.

There.

Her chalk stopped.

Daric noticed.

"What?"

Diana circled the intermediary on the first page.

Then the second.

Then the third.

The logistics clerk leaned closer and read the intermediary Diana had circled.

"Oh."

Diana turned the pages so they could all see.

The depots, stations, receiving soldiers, and transport legs were different, but every shipment had passed through the same procurement intermediary.

She wrote the name in the center of a clean sheet.

NORTHLINE PROVISIONING EXCHANGE.