King of War Tech novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Rook

I walked down the center aisle in a borrowed suit, past four hundred people.

"Security!" Stellan shouted. "That is a janitor! Remove him!"

The chief of security came off the curtain at a run.

Two Navy captains met him at the foot of the stage steps, and one of them put a hand flat against his chest.

The chief looked at the hand, and he stopped.

I climbed the steps.

I took the microphone from its stand, and for a moment I could not find my voice.

Three years is a long time to keep quiet.

"My name is Wesley Tarrant," I said.

"For three years I carried a mop through this club, this tower and the house of the man who just called me a janitor."

"He was right about the mop."

A few people laughed, the nervous kind.

"I designed the Ridgeback targeting system," I said. "Every line of it."

"Clyde Merrick was my commander and my best friend, and he stood in rooms like this one so I could stay in the trailer."

"The press called him the King of War Tech. He took the crown so the mind behind it could stay alive."

"I was the mind."

"Liar," Stellan said. His voice cracked on it.

The Admiral turned to him.

"I'd like to hear the rest," he said, "before I decide who's lying."

He leaned toward the microphone, and his voice dropped into something I had not heard from him since the dock.

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