ver involved in the satellite defense program," general ranier pointed out. "i thought the same thing, lily. we've had our suspicions that information was being leaked, but colonel higgens never was a suspect. his record is impeccable."

"i have a disk my father recorded. he must have left the voice-activated recorder secreted somewhere he was certain the colonel would talk openly. dad was very suspicious of the colonel. on the disk, you can clearly hear the colonel plotting your death and delia's using a fire in your home as the means of the "accident" arly made copies and we have the original to be used for voice comparison."

general ranier looked across the room at colonel higgens. "how long has this been going on?"

"i deny everything. they're making up the entire story in an attempt to cover up their own cowardice and guilt," the colonel replied. "i refuse to address this nonsense without my attorney present."

"i believe general mcentire is involved, sir," lily said with sorrow, knowing she was crushing ranier. "i'm sorry, i know he's your friend. but i think he's the ringleader and higgens works for him. i think hilton was planted in your office to keep an eye on you and either plant incriminating documents should there be need, or keep anything that was suspicious from reaching you. such as my father's numerous messages." she looked at higgens. "mcentire had nothing to do with the experiment. he didn't even know about it at first. you didn't really believe it would work. and then you saw them in action and you realized no one else knew the potential. there was real value and for the first time you were in on the ground floor. you didn't let your boss mcentire in on it at first, did you?"

higgens stared at her with malevolence.

"you were the one who decided to sabotage the experiment so my father would think it was a failure and the project would be shut down. but he was so much smarter than you anticipated and he became suspicious of the brain bleeds. they didn't make sense when he wasn't using electrical pulses. he'd told thornton of the danger, hadn't he? so you used it to kill the men."

"i'm lost, lily," general ranier admitted.

"i'll make certain you understand fully just how many men he murdered for monetary gain," lily said. "you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison, colonel, with your friend mcentire. none of that money you sold out your country for and murdered for is going to do you any good, so i hope that you enjoyed every penny while you had the chance to spend it."

"general mcentire?" ranier echoed. "he started in the air force. as a young man he was assigned to the national reconnaissance office. later he worked in building and operating spy satellites. he was influential in getting donovans the defense contract."

"he's buddies with thornton," lily pointed out.

"they went to school together," general ranier said sadly. "we all did."

"i'm so sorry, general," lily said and put her arms around him.