The room was small, maybe eight-by-eight, without any windows. No one-way mirror covered the wall, though I supposed video cameras had long since replaced one-way mirrors.
I closed my eyes. Focused on my breathing. Silently repeated my mantra to soothe my nerves until I realized there was no way to get the upper hand in this situation.
I was at their mercy, plain and simple.
Long after my butt had gone numb in the cold metal chair, the door opened, and I started.
A man I didn’t recognize walked in first, followed by Tyler. The newcomer was tall, his face craggy, and looked to be in his late forties. He took the other chair, while Tyler stood off to the side.
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel John Lendt.” The man sitting across from me looked every bit the leader Tyler had made him out to be. A piercing, sharp gaze, hard jaw, and strong shoulders hinted that this man was confident in both his intelligence and strength. He was downright intimidating without even trying.
“I’m Cash. I’d shake your hand, but my hands are preoccupied.”
“Just Cash?” He raised a brow.
I shrugged. “I’m no longer who I was before.”
One corner of his mouth rose. “I disagree. Who we were shapes us into who we are, and who we are shapes us into who we’ll become.” He leaned back. “But we’re not here to talk philosophy, are we. Captain Masden witnessed you shooting an unarmed man without provocation today. What do you have to say to that charge?”
A thousand different responses shot through my brain. I settled on simple honesty. “Yes, I shot him, but I had provocation.”
His brows tightened. “You realize that under military law the punishment for murder is death.”
I looked down at the table and swallowed.
Lendt came to his feet. “Sergeant Nicholas Lee has volunteered to lead your defense. I’ll have a tribunal scheduled for the day after tomorrow. No need to delay this messy business, but you have my word that you’ll be treated fairly.”
Tyler followed Lendt out of the room.
I frowned. This was an interrogation? No questions about why I’d done it?
“This way.”
Griz stood in the doorway, motioning to me, and I rose and followed him, feeling as though my doom was already sealed. Numbness coated my thoughts as they escorted me out the other side of the building and across a wide sidewalk to a low one-story building. Inside, the short hallway was lined with several cell doors and more hallways, though I could hear no one else nearby. They put me into the first tiny, windowless cell with a narrow bed and a steel latrine and sink.
“Hold still for a moment,” Griz said just before I felt a tug and the plastic restraint snapped free. I rubbed my wrists and faced the two soldiers as one shut the steel door.
Tack faced me through the bars in the door’s window. “The bastard got what he deserved,” he said before disappearing, leaving me alone in my cell.
I collapsed onto the bed and stared at the gray ceiling. How had everything gone to shit so quickly?
Silence boomed off the walls in response.
I thought of Jase. He knew people here. They could look out for him.
But Clutch…
For all I knew, he was lying dead in that zed pit right now.
The sound of boot steps echoing down the hallway brought me back, and I pulled myself up and walked toward the door in time to meet the driver from the Humvee.
He was looking to his left. “Open up.”
“I can’t, sir,” an unfamiliar voice said. “Colonel’s orders. He said the prisoner is a flight risk.”
Nick rolled his eyes before turning to me. “Hi, Cash. I’m Sergeant Nick Lee.”
“I remember,” I replied. “Good to see you again.”
“I’ll represent you at your trial. Since you already admitted to the murder, I think our best defense is to prove that there was no premeditation, and, therefore, this wasn’t first-degree murder. That way, you’ll just get time in the brig, and the death sentence gets ruled out.”