Chapter 7 - Emergency contracts
Military installations sometimes need fast support.
Storm damages a building.
A water main ruptures.
Temporary training space is required.
Critical equipment needs moving.
Ordinary procurement can take time.
Emergency clauses exist so necessary work can happen quickly.
Aegis had authority, within limits, to issue short-duration work orders to prequalified vendors.
One vendor appeared unusually often:
Carter Field Logistics.
CFL.
Ryan’s company.
That alone was not automatically wrong.
Ryan had started the company before we married.
Its work was legitimate:
Temporary storage.
Freight coordination.
Equipment rental.
Rapid facility setup.
And I had formally disclosed my marriage when I joined Aegis.
Because of that conflict, I was normally excluded from decisions involving CFL.
Then my colleague went on medical leave.
A batch of old emergency orders landed in my review queue.
I saw Ryan’s company name.
I tried to reassign them.
My supervisor said:
“Just do preliminary completeness. Someone independent will sign final.”
So I looked.
I wish I hadn’t.
May you like
I’m glad I did.
Both can be true.
