Chapter 4 - The Captain’s VersionTrent Holloway sat inside the athletic director’s conference room with his father beside him.
Everett Holloway looked nothing like his son.
Trent was built for stadium lights.
Everett was built for boardrooms.
Gray suit.
Silver watch.
Controlled voice.
A man who had spent decades discovering that anger was far more powerful when whispered.
Across from them sat Athletic Director Raymond Pike, Dean Marjorie Bell and two university attorneys.
Trent’s phone lay sealed inside an evidence bag.
Everett leaned toward his son.
“You will answer only what you are asked.”
Dean Bell frowned.
“Mr. Holloway, this is a university disciplinary interview.”
“And my son is entitled to counsel.”
“Your attorney is on the way.”
“I am his father.”
“You are also a university donor.”
Everett smiled.
“I’m glad you remembered.”
Raymond Pike shifted uncomfortably.
Dean Bell noticed.
So did Trent.
His father had always told him power was mostly about noticing who became uncomfortable first.
One attorney began.
“Trent, explain what happened at 11:59 this morning.”
Trent stared at the table.
“Leo provoked me.”
“How?”
“He called me stupid.”
Dean Bell checked her notes.
“None of the videos contain that.”
“It happened before filming.”
“Fourteen students recorded portions of the confrontation. Several recorded before you approached him.”
Trent’s jaw tightened.
“He hates me.”
“That is not an explanation.”
Everett interrupted.
“My son has been under extraordinary pressure.”
Dean Bell’s expression hardened.
“So has the student whose assistive device he destroyed.”
Trent leaned back.
“I didn’t mean to break the network.”
“Why did you strike that particular box?”
“I saw it.”
“Why?”
“It was there.”
The attorney slid a printed image across the table.
A frame from Marcus Bell’s video.
Trent looking at his phone.
On the screen: the fiber box.
Trent froze.
Everett did not.
“Indistinct image.”
Raymond Pike stared at Trent.
“Who sent you the photo?”
“No one.”
Dean Bell said, “Your phone is being examined.”
Trent looked toward his father.
That was enough.
Dean Bell saw it.
“You know who sent it.”
“No.”
“Then why are you worried about the phone?”
“I’m not.”
Everett placed his hand flat on the table.
“My son has answered.”
Dean Bell ignored him.
“Trent, fifty students missed a major employment deadline. One student was physically harmed. University infrastructure was intentionally destroyed. This is no longer an athletics issue.”
“I said I didn’t know what the box did!”
“Did someone else know?”
Silence.
“Did someone tell you to hit it?”
“No.”
“Did someone tell you Leo had tampered with Apex applications?”
Trent’s head lifted.
That question landed.
Dean Bell noticed.
“So someone did tell you something.”
Trent looked at his father again.
Everett’s face remained calm.
But beneath the table his fingers tightened around his pen.
Trent remembered the message.
Mercer is sabotaging your team’s Apex candidates. Make a scene. Break whatever he’s using. We’ll handle the rest.
It had come from a number saved under a name he was never supposed to mention.
Coach R.
Trent had been furious.
Three football players were applying to Apex.
Including his best friend.
Leo had reported Trent twice that semester.
Once for parking.
Once for making comments in a lab.
So when Coach R. said Leo was manipulating the system, Trent believed it because he wanted to.
Then came the second message.
A photograph of the fiber box.
That’s the device he’s using.
Trent had never asked how a metal box mounted on a wall could belong to Leo.
He simply saw a chance to humiliate someone he hated.
Now fifty applications were gone.
His football career might be gone.
And the person who had sent the messages had stopped answering.
Dean Bell leaned forward.
“Trent.”
He looked at her.
“This is your opportunity to tell the truth before someone else tells it for you.”
Everett finally spoke directly to his son.
“Be very careful.”
Trent heard the warning inside the sentence.
Not careful about lying.
Careful about naming names.
Dean Bell turned toward Everett.
“Are you attempting to influence his testimony?”
“Of course not.”
Trent stared at his father.
A terrible thought began forming.
Coach R. would never have involved himself in Apex applications without a reason.
And his father knew Coach R. extremely well.
They played golf together.
Traveled together.
Sat together at donor dinners.
Everett had personally pushed for Coach Roland Voss’s hiring.
Trent suddenly wondered whether his father already knew about the messages.
His phone rested inside the evidence bag.
The university investigators would eventually find them.
Unless they disappeared first.
Dean Bell stood.
“Until the investigation concludes, Trent is suspended from all athletic activities and restricted from contacting Leo Mercer.”
Trent laughed nervously.
“You can’t suspend me before the conference championship.”
“I just did.”
Everett rose.
“You may want to reconsider.”
Dean Bell looked him directly in the eye.
“No.”
Trent had almost never heard anyone tell his father that.
Outside the conference room, Everett waited until the door shut.
Then he grabbed Trent by the arm.
“What exactly did Voss send you?”
Trent stared at him.
He hadn’t told his father Voss’s name.
Not once.
His stomach dropped.
“How did you know it was Coach Voss?”
Everett released him.
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For the first time all afternoon, his father had no immediate answer.
And Trent realized he might not be the biggest person in trouble.
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