The command center held a heavier quiet than usual as Sophie pulled up a file on the main display, Sera seated to her left, Brooks standing with arms crossed near the wall, and Lucy's projected image steady on the side screen, arriving through the Raiju relay a few minutes late.
"Volkov sent this an hour ago," Sophie said, the document unfolding across the display. "Everything he could pull on Hendricks without raising flags on his own end. Enlistment records, service history, personnel file."
"And?" Lucy leaned forward on her end, arms crossed.
"And it's a mess." Sophie scrolled through the file slowly. "His official enlistment date puts him at roughly forty years of service. Which lines up fine with looking fifty, fifty-five. Except Volkov's known him personally since he was a cadet, over thirty years ago, and he swears Hendricks was already senior rank by then. Already established. Already someone people deferred to."
