Stop being a drama queen, Jack! It’s just a company ‘tradition.’ Your sister fell because she’s clumsy.” My brother-in-law laughed, patting my shoulder while my sister lay in the ICU with three broken ribs. He looked at my cheap clothes and saw a harmless loser. He didn’t know he just provoked a Major in the Army Criminal Investigation Division. The heart monitor beeped rhythmically in the cold hospital room. My sister, Sarah, lay there, her face a map of purple bruises, her arm in a cast. The door burst open. Derek, her husband, walked in flanked by lawyers. He wore a bespoke Italian suit and reeked of expensive cologne and arrogance. “It’s just the ‘Mud Run’,” Derek chuckled, not lowering his voice. “Initiation rite. We leave newbies in a drainage ditch to build character. Sarah slipped climbing out. She’s always been clumsy, right?” I stood by the window in my faded hoodie, unshaven. Derek looked at me with the pity one reserves for the unemployed. “Don’t worry, I paid for the VIP room,” he sneered, clapping a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Visit for an hour, then go home. This is family business.” He walked away. He thought I was a logistics clerk. But he made a fatal mistake. When he patted my shoulder, I looked at his polished boots. Stuck deep in the tread was a specific red clay. Red oxidized clay. Iron-rich. The kind only found near heavy industrial waste or chemical runoff zones. It didn’t match his story. I waited until he left, then pulled out my phone. I didn’t call the local cops—they were on his payroll. I called the Pentagon. “Major Jack Reiss, CID,” I said. “Open a priority file. Target: Aegis Defense Systems.” That night, I hiked into the ditch he claimed was for “hazing.” And I found what he was hiding. Buried in the mud wasn’t just evidence of my sister’s beating. I found a shattered shard of black ceramic. I shined my light on the inner curve. It was a Level IV ballistic plate. But the black paint flaked off, revealing old olive drab underneath. And the laser etching read: LOT 449 – STATUS: DESTROYED.