Larkin’s expression doesn’t change but her eyes harden.
“In interrogation?” she asks.
“No.”
“In holding?”
“Yes.”
She nods once. Just once. No visible shock. No dramatic reaction. That should bother me more than it does. Maybe everybody in Greenport knows that “procedure” is just another word for “what we can still live with” and King stepped past that line the second he thought none of us could afford to keep pretending.
Then she looks at Jon.
“You’re angry because he took your closure,” she says evenly. “You’re angry because you wanted control over how this ended.”
Jon opens his mouth to argue.
Stops.
Because it’s not entirely wrong. Because the truth of it is standing all over him in broad daylight and he knows she can see it.
“You don’t get that luxury,” she continues. “None of us do.”
“That was intelligence,” Jon says, voice lower now but still vibrating with restrained violence. “That was leverage.”
“And it was a liability,” King cuts in. “One that won’t be used against us now.”
I look between them.
This isn’t about revenge.
This isn’t about blood.
It’s about philosophy.
About what kind of soldiersweare.
About whether this war makes us worse than the men we’re fighting.
About whether the difference matters if the dead stay dead either way.
Larkin exhales slowly, like the whole base is one long headache and this is just the newest pulse of it.
“We will deal with the procedural violations later,” she says firmly. “Right now, I need this base under control.”
She looks at Jon.
“Captain. That includes you.”
The weight of command settles back over him like armor snapping into place. It’s almost visible—the second he takes himself in hand because he has to, the second the man gets shoved back behind the rank.
Slowly, painfully, he nods.
“Get everyone back on task,” she orders. “No celebrations. No assumptions. This war isn’t over just because one ghost is gone.”
King steps away first, not looking at either of us. He sheaths the knife he cleaned too carefully, too quietly, and walks like he’s already accepted whatever judgment is coming. Maybe becausehe thinks he was right. Maybe because he knows he was. Maybe because neither of those things matters anymore.
Jon stays still a moment longer.
