by Janie Crouch
Derek and Jon laughed as if she’d made a joke and continued talking nonsense about a football game.
But as a few more moments ticked on, Derek began to agree. He glanced at Jon. Had the security personnel figured out who Molly was? That she wasn’t Andrea? Would there be agents here to arrest her at any moment?
To run now would be hugely suspicious. But he didn’t want them to stay if it was leading to disaster. He reached down and grabbed Molly’s hand, and felt her fingers grip his tightly. Both she and Jon were having the same thoughts as him.
Derek was about to turn and have them run, damned how it looked. He had to get Molly out of there.
Then they all heard the electronic buzz of the door being unlocked and opened. They were in.
Chapter Twenty-One
Finally, a real lab. Molly was aware of the price they’d paid to get her here. Derek and Jon, and even Andrea and Liam, were all risking their careers by getting Molly into this lab. Because they believed what she was doing was vital.
Molly didn’t plan to let them down.
Even though it felt strange, she kept Andrea’s blond wig on. She’d probably need it to get back out of the building.
The first thing she wanted to do was to start running the prints she’d already gotten through AFIS on the much faster computer than the one at the training lab. It should give them results within the hour.
Much more difficult was the process of accessing the data drive of this comm device. Because of the burn damage she was going to have to chemically remove the top layer of the device in order to access the drive. It was tricky, and like she’d told the guys, she’d only get one chance at it—if she didn’t get it the first time, then the opportunity was lost. Molly donned gloves and set the comm device, still in the bag, out on the table.
Her operation would have to be done in the clean room, since any air particles—dust, allergens, dirt—could combine with the gasses and chemicals she’d be using and contaminate the surface area of the device, making the recovery of any data from the drive impossible.
Of course, air particles were better than heat elements. Anything remotely flammable near these chemicals and Omega would be losing its second lab in a week. But Molly wasn’t really worried about that.
Unlike the training lab, this one was fully stocked and functional. Gathering the materials took Molly a little while since she wasn’t as familiar with the layout, but at least everything she needed was here. She would much rather have been working in her lab. She cringed when she thought about poor David. Things might be bad for Molly, but at least she was alive.
Once she had everything ready, she walked over to where Jon and Derek sat near the door. “Okay, I’m going into the clean room. It will take me a while to get into my dust-particle suit. To be honest, I’m not sure how long the process itself will take me. It depends on how many layers of the comm device are burnt and the status and stability of the data drive itself.”
Derek stood and kissed her on the nose. “Let’s get this done so we can get your name cleared and you can go back to being a brunette.”
“That would be my pleasure. I really hope we find something.”
“Somebody has gone to way too much trouble to make sure we don’t get this far,” he told her. “We’ll find something.”
As long as Molly didn’t screw up getting the data. She took a deep breath.
“I can do this.”
His large hands came up and cupped Molly’s face. “I have no doubts whatsoever.”
She turned to the side and kissed his palm. “You won’t be able to come into the clean room. I can’t take a phone or anything in there, either.”
“Then I’ll see you when you’re done.”
Molly nodded and, grabbing the evidence on a special plastic tray, headed back to the clean room. First she went into the changing area on the outside. She put on her protective clothing: coveralls, boots, gloves, hood and face mask. Opening the airlock door, she set the tray with the comm device inside. She closed the outer airlock door and locked it—it was lockable on both sides—then waited for the air shower. The strong blast of air filtered through ultralow particulate air filters removing any contaminants from her person and the evidence bag.
Only after all that was done could she open the second door and exit the airlock into the clean room itself. The only sound she could hear was her own breathing. She wasn’t in a clean room very often. Most evidence didn’t call for its use, and when cases did call for it, she generally let someone else do the work. It was a unique experience, the quiet, the overall isolation. Molly imagined it was similar to what astronauts must feel.
The entire room was surrounded by glass except for the floor and ceiling. The table in the middle contained all the items she needed to access the data drive from the device, removing the burnt layers. The outer shell wasn’t as important, since they already had the fingerprints from it. Molly used a helium-neon laser to carefully cut away the outer layer. Then using hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acid in very controlled doses she was able to eat away some of the burnt layers attached to the drive.
It was repetitive and exhausting work, eliminating the unwanted, damaged parts bit by bit, without hurting the important data drive underneath. The wig itched, but she ignored it. She ignored every discomfort and focused on the task at hand.
Until finally she had made enough of an opening in the device to carefully remove the drive.
As near as she could tell, it was relatively undamaged by either her workings or the fire. She carefully placed it into a new evidence bag. It was barely bigger than her thumbnail. Now they would get it to a computer and see if it was worth all the pain it had caused.
Molly stepped back into the airlock, closed the clean room door and began stripping off the protective gear. There wasn’t as much need for care coming out as going in and she was back into the regular part of the lab in just a couple of minutes.
Jon and Derek were huddled around the computer at the desk.
Derek saw Molly. “How’d it go? You looked pretty intense in there.”
Molly held up the bag holding the small data drive. “As near as I can tell it is undamaged.”
“We got a hit on AFIS while you were in there. The prints came back from our dead guy.”
“He was in the system?”
“Multiple times over.” Jon responded, but was still staring at the screen. “And it’s not good. Although weird as hell.”
Molly put the drive down carefully on the table and walked over to them. “Who is it?”
“Not necessarily who as much as who he’s associated with. The White Revolution Party, a white supremacy militant group out of Idaho.” Both Derek’s and Jon’s faces were grim.
“That’s not who you thought was responsible for the Chicago bombing?” she asked.
“We were considering them. We pretty much always consider them for everything. They’re dangerous and brutal,” Jon said.
Derek nodded. “So we were investigating them, but they were still part of a pretty long list, and not even near the top of it. But it always sucks even worse when you find out your terrorists are homegrown. Of course, it could also explain how someone in the government could more easily be in bed with them.”
“Let’s see if we can find out anything more useful on this thing.” She carefully took the drive out and connected it to the computer equipment whose primary function was to read any usable data from a drive or any working portion of one.
Data began to flicker on the screen, plans for the Chicago bombing and then pictures.
“That’s Lenny Sydney, leader of the White Revolution Party,” Jon announced. “All of these guys are White Revolution.”
Picture after picture of people in the terrorist group looking at plans for the bombing.
/> And with them was Senator Robert Edmundson. Obviously involved in the planning.
Derek’s curse was angry. Guttural.
“That son of a bitch personally thanked me last week for all I was doing,” Derek said. “Called us and asked what he could do to help us get some traction on whoever was responsible for Chicago.”
Jon shook his head. “Offered us his personal contacts overseas if that’s what was needed.”
“Why would he take all these pictures?” Molly asked. “He has to know that these would be highly incriminating.”
“Look at them.” Derek pointed to the screen. “The way no one is looking at the same place at the same time. The weird angle. These were taken without either party knowing.”
“Somebody was trying to blackmail Edmundson, or have leverage over him,” Jon stated.
Derek’s phone began ringing in his hand. He immediately put it on Speaker.
“You’ve got perfect timing, Drackett. You are never going to believe what we found on the drive we recovered.”
“Derek—”
“Senator Robert Edmundson is our player within the government, Steve.”
“What?”
“I’m looking at irrefutable proof that he is tied to the White Revolution Party and that they planned the Chicago bombing together.”
“Damn it.”
Nobody wanted to think of someone with the caliber and charisma of Edmundson being behind an attack that took American lives.
“Exactly how we felt,” Jon said.
“Well, we’ve got even more immediate problems,” Drackett continued. “Whatever prints you ran connected to the guy from the White Revolution Party? That triggered some sort of alarm with Internal Affairs—obviously Edmundson was waiting to see if anyone would try to run that data,” Steve said.
Molly looked over at Derek. The words alarm coupled with Internal Affairs did not sound good.
“What exactly are we talking about here, Steve?” Derek asked him.
“Local law enforcement are right outside the building, looking for Molly.”
“To hell with that.” Derek barely let Steve get the sentence out before he responded. “No way. This is a witch hunt set up by Edmundson to track Molly down and silence her. Now we’ve got proof of Edmundson’s guilt. It won’t take a judge five minutes to give us a warrant once they see this.”
“I agree. But unfortunately I’m not in charge of what is happening outside right now. I was called away from the building, probably on purpose, right as the locals were being called in. I’m on my way back now. But they’re going to breech the building in the next five minutes.”
“To hell with that,” Derek repeated again. “What’s your ETA, Steve?”
“At least fifteen minutes.”
Derek looked at Molly. “I’m sorry, Steve.” Derek clicked off the phone before the director had a chance to respond.
He turned to Jon. “I’m not letting them take her. I’ll sneak her out or use force if necessary. But I’m not turning her over while Edmundson is still out there.”
“Then I’m going with you. You can’t go out there blind, alone. If she—”
Seriously, they were going to talk about her as if she wasn’t even in the room? “Hey, I’m right here! I’d like to be included in this conversation.”
They at least looked at her, although both seemed committed to their current course of action.
She continued, “Look, before we do anything crazy like rush out there guns blazing and just get ourselves killed like Edmundson wants, let’s think this through. If you sneak me out or use any sort of force, won’t that be considered aiding and abetting a known fugitive?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Derek said.
“Derek, it does matter. You both are going to lose your jobs over this, and you know it. Steve isn’t going to be able to help you and even when my name is cleared there’s a good chance that it won’t be enough to save your careers.”
“Molly, I’m not sending you out there,” Derek said, tone clearly uninterested in further discussion.
Molly looked at Jon, hoping he could be persuaded to see reason.
Jon just shrugged. “I’m with him, Molls. Your life is not worth it.”
Why wouldn’t they see reason?
“Look, you said it yourself. A judge will give you a warrant for Edmundson’s arrest immediately. Let me give myself to the police, you guys hurry up and get that warrant through, and get me out. I’ll be okay. Even Edmundson can’t have people everywhere all the time.”
She could see just the slightest hesitation in Derek’s eyes. He wanted to protect her, and she loved him for it, but he knew there were permanent ramifications for what he was about to do.
But then the hesitation was gone, determination back in its place. He was going to protect her no matter what it cost him. And damned if she didn’t love him for that stubbornness, too.
“I can’t lose you,” he whispered.
She realized Derek couldn’t be reasoned with, and Jon was just going to fall on the sword with him in some misguided bro-code pact.
Except Molly wasn’t going to let them do that.
“Okay, we’ll do it your way,” she told them. “But I need you guys to help me get a couple of things out of the clean room. If we’re leaving, it’s got to go with us.”
The both nodded. “Okay, then we need to come up with a plan,” Derek said. “Do either of you know anything about this section of the building?”
They followed Molly to the clean room quickly. She opened the airlock door and immediately opened the second door, without waiting for the air shower. That action completely contaminated the clean room, but it didn’t matter, it was about to get much more contaminated. She stood to the side and ushered with her arm for the guys to enter.
“I vaguely remember some of this section, but it’s been years since I’ve been over here, honestly,” Jon was responding.
As soon as they were through the second door Molly went back out the first one, closed it and turned the heavy manual metal lock on the door.
Derek and Jon were now trapped inside.
She couldn’t hear inside the room, but she saw Derek’s face as he stopped talking to Jon and looked over at the closed door. His eyes narrowed as he walked quickly through the airlock to the outer door, and realized it was locked.
His fist came up and slammed against the thick glass of the door. Molly startled even though she could barely hear the sound. Fury was written on every aspect of his features. He spoke to her through the glass—angry words—but she couldn’t tell what he was saying. Based on his face, she was glad.
He couldn’t get out; the clean room seconded as a bomb disposal area and could withstand a relatively large explosion, so hitting or even shooting at the glass wasn’t going to help Derek.
She saw him get himself under control and look her in the eyes. He mouthed the word open.
She shook her head no.
He flattened both his hands against the glass.
Molly, please.
She walked closer to him, wanting to let him out, but knowing she couldn’t.
“I can’t lose you,” she repeated his words back to him. But it was the truth.
She didn’t know if he could understand her, but couldn’t stay to find out. She turned back around and walked out the door of the lab and the building, taking off her blond wig as she went. Colorado Springs Sheriff’s officers were everywhere. Lights were blazing in the husky dawn light.
She raised her hands far in the air. “My name is Molly Humphries and I am surrendering. The two agents I took captive are inside, unharmed.”
She heard the sound of guns being cocked and knew they were pointed at her. As two officers rushed up to her and forced he
r onto the ground and put her hands behind her back to cuff them she hoped she wasn’t making the worst mistake of her life.
Chapter Twenty-Two
As soon as Molly walked out the door, Derek did what he did best: worked the problem. He immediately called Steve Drackett.
“Molly just surrendered to local PD and whoever else is out there,” Derek told his boss with no greeting whatsoever.
“Good. That was the best thing to do. I was afraid you were going to do something completely asinine like try to get her out using force. That would not have been a good idea.”
“Yeah, well, that was my plan. But she locked us in the clean room and went out on her own.”
“She probably saved you a couple of years in prison, not to mention your career.”
“Damn it, Steve, I would’ve gladly spent a couple years in prison, if it would save her life!”
“Molly, as usual, is thinking more clearly than anybody else in the room, it sounds like. This is not a dichotomy, Derek. We know the danger she’s in. We can protect her.”
Derek rubbed a hand over his face. God, he hoped what Steve said was true. “Get some agents on her, Steve. Right now.”
“I’ve already got three on her. Nothing is going to happen. And the chief of police in Colorado Springs is a personal friend. I will make sure he’s apprised of the situation and knows that Molly is not to be handed over to anyone, short of a presidential order.”
Derek didn’t like Molly being out of his care, but he knew Drackett was right—she’d probably just saved him, or at least his career. He’d thank her as soon as he throttled her.
As soon as she was back safely in his arms.
“We need to start the warrant on Edmundson.”
“I already have someone in the office working on the initial paperwork. I’ll be there in five minutes. We’ll get you out and get Molly.”
Derek gripped his phone tighter. “Hurry.”
“You just hang tight,” Steve told him. “Oh yeah, I guess Molly didn’t leave you much choice.” He chuckled.
Derek clicked off the phone. Everybody was a comedian.
