Chapter 2

• Forcing her eyes to look anywhere but at Brody took a lot of concentration, Tess could feel his eyes on her and refused to give in. He was always looking at her with those dark brooding eyes and it unnerved her. Rubbing her aching temples she turned her attention back to the Captain, her uncle, and the decorated Military Colonel. So far they’d all sat around the room while the two men had talked quietly while looking over some papers. Smithy looked tense and didn’t take his eyes off them, which worried Tess; he would be listening in on their conversation— while it was still inside their head. Whatever it was, it was serious.
• When they finally turned around, Tess didn’t need to be a mind reader to know this was as serious as it got.
• Her Uncle cleared his throat, all eyes turned to him. “This is Colonel Reynolds and from this moment on you are to discuss none of this with anyone not in this room.” Pausing he glanced around. “What we bring you today is high up on the food chain and we trust no one until we know more.”
• Not liking the sound of it so far, Tess glanced around to get everyone else’s take. Smithy looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Dom, even with his arm cradling Jennah into his side was on full alert. Jennah, well, she looked anxious but that had been her mood for a month now. Grayson always looked bored. Unless it was a computer talking to him, no one ever knew if they had his attention or not. When she turned to Joslee, he looked down at the floor—again nothing he didn’t do all the time. It was the feeling she picked up on when her eyes connected with Brody’s that started her heart racing silently in her chest. That dead serious look met hers and confirmed what she originally thought; she wasn’t going to like this one at all.
• “Give us the details,” Dom said in his get to the point tone.
• The Captain nodded and sat down at the end of the table. The only sound you could hear were the pages he flipped out onto the table. No one moved or spoke. “What we have at this point it nothing but pieces of a puzzle that don’t quite give us the whole picture.” Holding up one page, he made eye contact with Dominic. “All of this, including a hard drive in rough shape were found in a dumpster at a building —a government building.” All bodies around the table straightened. “It could be from any one of over a hundred different people.” He started passing out the papers from the folder. “We have accounts we haven’t been able to trace—they no longer exist, remnants of files that don’t add up, exporting dates with freight large enough it could on be weapons or worse…”
• “Where’s the hard drive?” Grayson looked very interested now.
• “We brought it.” Colonel Reynolds went over and pulled a mangled piece of metal out of his briefcase. “My department couldn’t get anything conclusive off it.”
• Grayson snorted. “Well they’re not me.” He took the hard drive and began studying it.
• “This is an appointment calendar.” Jennah leaned forward out of Dom’s arm and held up the page. “It’s full until the date that’s been blacked out. . .”
• Uncle Mike nodded slowly. “We know. The blacked-out date is just a little over three weeks away and if you’ll take notice there isn’t one thing on the calendar after that day.”
• Tess took the calendar from Jennah and read over it. “There are a lot of odd places on here, for a government employee.” She stuck the page into Brody’s outstretched hand.
• He looked from her to Dominic. “A few of these are your old stomping grounds from when you were setting up the prison sting.”
• “Really?” Dom took the calendar. “What the hell would anyone with a real job want at any of these spots?”
• “Nothing good,” Smithy mumbled.
• “These amounts are huge.” Tess glanced over at the Colonel and then to her Uncle. Setting the printout down, she sat back. “Why would someone even print something that was evidence?”
• “Probably figured no one would ever catch on.” Brody eyed the Colonel. “How—or why were you in a dumpster in the first place?”
• “That was a complete fluke.” Tucking his hands into his pockets, he wandered over and looked over Grayson’s shoulder as he still studied the hard drive. “I was at the building to pick someone up and that came flying out of the dumpster as it was being emptied, almost through my windshield. When I got out to give the driver hell, I had to wonder why someone would throw it away. No government equipment or parts are just tossed away; they’re wiped and disposed of by other means.”
• Brody held up a few pages from the file. “So you commandeered an entire dumpster to sort through?”
• “Yes.” He turned and walked over to the window. “The men that sifted through it are presently on a short leave of absence and won’t be returning until this is pieced together.”
• “You had them shipped out somewhere?” Tess met Jennah’s suspicious look.
• The Colonel shrugged. “They won’t be complaining about their present situation. Their families are with them. I didn’t know if it was safe for anyone to find this.”
• “So they’re being monitored without knowing it while on holiday.” Grayson said in a dry tone without looking up from the object in his hands.
• “Something like that.” Colonel Reynolds nodded over at Tess’s Uncle.
• Clearing his throat, the Captain stood and walked around the table. “If you do this one you have to stay off the radar out there. It’s entirely your call but you must know there is no protocol or procedure for this. Find what you can in as little time as possible and let’s see what the fully assembled picture looks like.”
• Dominic stood up, reading over the account page again before he said anything. “If we do it, Jennah stays here at the headquarters—it’s secure. Not knowing where this will lead doesn’t sit well with me.”
• “I don’t have a problem with that.” Jennah agreed too quickly.
• Dom paused and studied her for a moment before looking around the room. “I think all of us should stay here and away from our homes while we dig.”
• Brody got up and picked up the calendar. “Probably best, just in case we uncover something nastier than what we’re all thinking.” He turned to Smithy. “You may pick up a trail out of some unsuspecting head at any of these locations.”
• “I’ve got his back.” Dom motioned to Jennah. “I can get news back to Jennah if we find anything.”
• “I’ll go as well,” Joslee added quietly. “Just in case.”
• Tess glanced around at everyone. “I’ll stay back here and start sifting through all of this, see if it connects somewhere.”
• “I’ll stay put too until Dom sends back a starting point.” Brody moved over to the blank board and picked up a marker.
• “Well, I’m going to go get more off this.” Grayson held up the hard drive as he exited the room without further comment.
• Tess sat there and watched as everyone kicked back into work mode.
• The Colonel went over and picked up his briefcase. “I’ll wait for word.” He paused on his way towards the door. “Good luck.”
• ~
• Tess wandered back out of the kitchen. It had been a few hours now since the team had headed out and there still wasn’t any word. Grayson was still leaning over the mangled computer hardware, as his computers dug through the lives of every name associated with the building the info was found at. After ten minutes of standing there watching the screens flashing and scrolling, she’d decided any other aspect of this investigation would be more exciting than Grayson’s toys. Three weeks wasn’t a lot of time when you had no definite place to start. Waiting was not one of her strong points and she readily accepted that, which is why she decided making a snack was the most productive thing to be doing at the moment. She paused in the door when she saw Jennah scribbling something down on a piece of paper, her brow creased as it often did when she was talking to Dom—from a distance.
• Brody held up his hand so she wouldn’t interrupt whatever was taking place. The white board was now filled with information from the pages, possible solutions and a lot of lines that didn’t connect no matter how you tried to work them.
• Jennah sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. “This might be something to look into.” She handed the page to Brody. “Dom said that Smithy picked up a really nervous and excited internal dialogue from some guy’s brain. He couldn’t wait for the meeting at that location.”
• “We’ll go check it out.” Brody tucked the address in his pocket.
• Jennah nodded. “Okay. Joslee is sticking with the guy and Dom and Smithy are going to keep at it and see if they can find anything else where they are.”