Kat shook her head. “Don’t bother.” Maybe she was discovering what she’d been searching for, because she believed she was starting to see a pattern emerge in Gray’s incompetence, if such it could truly be considered. This relaxing of discipline was the key. Not negligence, but design?
This slack discipline wasn’t consistent with the things she’d read in the man’s file. Even if he preferred to delegate everything to avoid doing much work himself, he’d apparently always had a harsh hand on the whip to make sure his subordinates did stick to their duties. But this—Kat thought this looked like nothing so much as deliberate sabotage.
She grabbed MacTierney, turning her back on the pitiful excuses for guards, and pushed the sergeant ahead of her out the door. She knew he’d seen the same problems she’d discovered. However, he wasn’t prepared to question his superiors and probably couldn’t see the conclusions to which she was coming. That wasn’t how soldiers were trained to think. But Kat was no soldier.
MacTierney had fallen behind her fast stride to trail after her. She slowed to allow him to catch up and walk beside her.
“Mam?” At her nod, he continued. “What did you want to see next?”
Kat considered the question. She didn’t intend to waste her time in a fruitless search for Sgt. Rossiter when the man could be anywhere and might well be actively avoiding her. But MacTierney had given her an idea.
“Sergeant, do you know where the feed from the security camera goes?”
“No, mam. I mean, not exactly.”
She’d seen that the video didn’t go to the guards in that tiny hut, which would have made the most sense. “You said headquarters, didn’t you? I suppose you have a general idea where?”
Sgt. MacTierney wobbled his head. “I could just ask Colonel Gray where it is.”
Kat shook her head. “Let’s not bother the colonel. How about we just look around for ourselves. Maybe it’ll turn up.”
MacTierney looked ahead to the headquarters building as they approached the entrance. “I know where the feed isn’t monitored. So maybe that gives me some inkling where it might be found.”
“Good.”
The guard on duty in the lobby saluted as they sailed through the entrance. And seeing him salute the sergeant helped to improve her mood—at least Gray’s corrosive effect hadn’t reached everywhere yet.
MacTierney silently led Kat down one corridor after another, until he stopped at the end of a hall with two doors on either side. He gestured at the door on the left. “That’s a supply closet.” He pointed at the other one. “I don’t know what’s in there, though.”
She turned the knob as a matter of course. Of course it was locked—and it was the type that required a security key. She squinted at the door.
“Congratulations, Sergeant. I think you found what we were looking for.”
She stood back as MacTierney stepped forward and knocked on the door. She watched him knock several times, waiting after each attempt, but there was no response.
The sergeant sighed. “I don’t think anyone’s in there. Must not be the right place.”
MacTierney presumed someone would’ve been on duty. Kat did not. She took her keys from her pocket and considered. The security key Tony had given her was only supposed to work for their own offices. But she’d asked her new friend Ben to do a particular favor for her—only she didn’t know if he had managed it yet. At least there was an easy way to find out.
She plugged the security key into her FURCS pad and pressed her thumb against the pad as she inserted the key and turned. The lock disengaged and she opened the door while the sergeant looked on with awe.
Kat elected not to disillusion the man. If he believed she had more authority than she really had, it might come in handy in the future. She just grinned wide.
They both stuck their heads inside before entering the room, which was small and unoccupied. It contained only an empty chair and a large screen set into the wall—a screen displaying live video of the road as it approached the main gate. MacTierney looked thoroughly around the room before turning to her and swallowing hard. “Um…”
The sergeant was upset and starting to sweat—maybe this was too much adventure for him.
Kat took another quick look around the room and nodded to herself. “Let’s leave before someone shows up.”
MacTierney looked relieved as he followed her out. “Where to now, mam?”
“The firing range.” Kat liked to shoot while she did her deep thinking. “I’d like to get off a few practice rounds.” And some steam while she was at it. She glanced over her shoulder at the sergeant. “By the way. Everything you just saw, what we did, forget it. Don’t. Tell. Anyone.”
The man just nodded his head, but his smile implied that he would obey her instructions. After he watched her shoot, there wouldn’t be any doubt.
She remembered how Tony had taken her to the firing range to give her a lesson as a gift for her fifteenth birthday, and he’d continued teaching her how to shoot. But she had room for improvement. Maybe later she could get lessons from Ken Cameron, since he was an expert.
Right now, Kat wanted to obliterate some helpless paper targets. Then she’d leave this place and head out on a solo patrol—if Tony could ignore policy, so could she.
Chapter 11
Home is Where
7:05 p.m. Monday, December 16th
DAVID lay on top of his bed staring at the ceiling, once again trying to organize the puzzle pieces floating around in his head, attempting to fit them into a picture that made sense. He no longer trusted his own judgment. He wished he could talk through his problem with another person to get a different take on the dilemma he struggled with, but several obstacles stood in the way.
He was no longer sure who he could trust without qualification. Still lacking proof of anything, he wondered who’d listen to him long enough to fully discuss the implications. Even when all put together, the things he’d seen amounted to only a sketch—a rude outline, nothing real or tangible. He needed some tiny sliver of concrete evidence.
Though he wasn’t sure he actually wanted that evidence, tonight he would try again to acquire it. Because somehow his mother was mixed up in everything. Until David knew the what and the how of his mom’s involvement, he wouldn’t be able to move on to anything else. Nevertheless, he feared what he might learn.
He remembered waking up in this same bed on Saturday morning, dazed and disoriented, with the morning sun glaring into his room. Then the bright daylight had set off an alarm in his brain, a blaring that had warned him he was late for work. But he’d still been lying in bed when his boss had barged into the room.
Ken hadn’t looked angry, only concerned. David’s mother had already sent his boss the message that her son wasn’t feeling well, though it was nothing serious, and he wouldn’t be showing up to work. Still Ken had come to see for himself.
David had been touched. And while half asleep, he’d tried to tell his boss about his discoveries. He didn’t remember what he’d said, but it must’ve been fairly incoherent—since Ken had barked something about how he should stop spouting nonsense. His boss had suggested David was suffering heatstroke, or possibly dehydration, or maybe plain over work.
Ken had told David to take care and not worry about coming back to work until he was ready, and then left without listening to another word. Which frustrated David, who really needed to talk to someone. He had hoped to discuss the situation with his boss, who was one person David felt sure he could trust. And he respected Ken’s opinions.
After that he must have drifted in and out, because the next thing he could remember was jerking awake at the sound of Crystal entering the house on Saturday afternoon. Returning from her other job—and that thought had jolted him to sudden clarity.
He’d hopped into the shower to reinvigorate his mind and body, so he could bring all his faculties to bear on his problem. After assuring Crystal he was fine so she wouldn’t interrupt his cogitatio
n, David had sat at his desk and tried to recapture the ideas that had floated through his brain the night before. For all they might have been the delusions of sleep deprivation.
Then as now he’d taken each element and tested it and tried to see the different ways it might fit with the others. He hadn’t found the solution, but he had decided on a plan of action.
He’d done his best to act normal when his mom had come home from work and when they’d all sat down to dinner. He’d assured his mother and Crystal that he was feeling much improved. The way he had scarfed down a giant plate of pasta had likely been more convincing than his words.
His mom had retired to her study to finish up some work, and Crystal had gone back to the dorm to spend the rest of the weekend catching up with some friends. Or so she’d said. Either way it had helped clear the field for David. He’d waited in his room, lying wide awake on his bed, just as he did now, in preparation for the same task. Perhaps this time he would succeed.
After his mom had retired for the night, David had waited over an hour to make as sure as he could that she’d have fallen asleep. Then he’d crept out of his room in the dark and headed down to her study. He had moved slow and managed to avoid breaking his neck on the stairs, then succeeded in banging into various pieces of furniture, causing himself a fair amount of pain but little noise.
As he’d expected, his mother had left her workpad sitting on her desk. In the dark with the door closed, and Crystal hopefully gone in truth, he had tried to guess the password. His attempts with his birthday, his mom’s, both of their middle names—all had failed. He’d even tried his father’s name, but that hadn’t worked either.
He had given up for the night, more in anxiety than frustration, because he didn’t know how many failed attempts it would take to trigger something. David tried to tell himself that he hadn’t done anything that would alert his mother to the intrusion. Clearly he didn’t make much of a hacker.
Then he’d been thwarted again when his mom had taken her workpad to the office early on Sunday morning before services, and left it there. Hoping she’d bring it home the following evening, he had wracked his brains in the meantime.
He’d decided this was his best opportunity for finding the evidence which would either indict or exculpate his mother, and he wasn’t about to throw in the towel. He had searched her study earlier this morning, while his mom and Crystal were away, in case she’d written her password down somewhere. With plenty of time and light, he had looked around thoroughly. But he’d found nothing.
Tonight, David planned to try again to get into his mother’s files. As usual, she hadn’t come home for dinner. So he’d eaten with Crystal, and after she had cleaned up and retired for the night, he’d gone to his room to wait.
He didn’t know what time it was when he heard the front door and knew his mom had returned, and he didn’t bother to check his wrist. He just went to stand at the top of the stairs and look down into the foyer. He didn’t see her then, but several minutes later she came climbing up the stairs, and she gave her son a weary smile when she noticed him.
David smiled back, stepping aside as his mother reached the landing. “Welcome home.”
“It’s nice to be home.” She sighed, shrugging off her jacket and massaging her shoulder. “Did you have a nice dinner?”
David grinned. “Better than yours I expect.”
“Mine was fine.” His mom continued down the hallway. “But it’s difficult to enjoy your food when you’re working.”
“I could fix hot chocolate. To help you unwind.”
“Thanks, but I’m just going to shower and relax for a bit before finishing up some work.” And saying that, she went into the master bedroom at the end of the hall.
David took a long, deep breath. He waited another minute to be sure, then quietly descended the steps and made straight for his mom’s study. She hadn’t brought her workpad upstairs with her, so he expected she’d left it in the study as usual. He found it there on top of the desk.
The lights were all on, and he didn’t know how much time he had, so he sat right down and turned on the pad. He was trying to remember what passwords he’d decided to try, and in what order, when he realized with a shock that the pad was unlocked.
His mother must’ve logged on briefly when she came home and forgotten to log out. She’d looked that tired. Remembering that he hadn’t much time to waste, David stopped dawdling and searched the recent activity logs.
It required several minutes for him to decipher the various files and find what he wanted. He took out his own FURCS pad, because he didn’t want to leave any more traces than he might have already, and snapped a picture of the screen. The one showing what his mom had been doing with her access codes, with time and date stamps. The incriminating evidence.
David sat there stunned for several minutes as he tried to process the information. He could only imagine one explanation. His own mother had been conspiring with Governor Roberts.
Though he’d been unable to find any details of their plot in the files, the fact of their collusion appeared to be inescapable. He could only guess at the specifics, but he no longer cared about them.
He carefully set the pad back on the desk as he’d found it—and wondered whether he should leave it unlocked, or log out and hope his mother wouldn’t realize she’d forgotten to do that herself. He chose to log off the workpad.
He left the study and went to stand in the foyer, staring up the staircase and thinking that his mother would be down soon. He’d found the evidence he’d been seeking. Now he wasn’t sure what he should do with it—except he knew he didn’t want to stay here while he considered. David certainly wasn’t ready to face his mom, so he opened the front door and left the house.
The night sky was heavy with clouds pressing down on the lights dotting the neighborhood. He breathed in the fresh, moist air with its promise of incipient rain. David almost turned back to grab his umbrella, but found himself reluctant to enter the house again.
He rubbed the underside of his wrist and saw it was barely a quarter ‘til eight. He’d think while he walked. He ambled away aimlessly, allowing his mind and feet both to wander where they willed.
He realized he would have to do something with the information he’d just found. But this was his own mother. Before he took any irrevocable action, he wanted to be sure he was doing the right thing.
Three times he’d tried to tell his boss about his suspicions, but Ken hadn’t wanted to listen—and if David could get his attention with what he had now, he knew what would happen. His boss would insist on taking the evidence to the proper authorities and leaving it with them. Whatever the consequences of that might be.
David hoped to find a way to solve his problem, to deal with the plot without exposing his mom. But that would require a more nuanced approach. Perhaps it was foolish, but he’d have to try.
David tried to think of what person in a position of authority he could trust most to help him. Not his mother, under the circumstances.
Director Miles was above suspicion, but even if David dared to speak to the man, whom he’d never met in all the years his mom had worked for him, that would be no help. It would only put his mother in the worst possible position.
He looked around the empty street as he walked on. His feet had taken him by habit down the sidewalk along the main road, toward the gate where he had often waited for Ken in the morning. Close to the Guard Headquarters.
Lt. Henson had certainly been willing to listen. And the lieutenant had shared his own doubts about Chief Gray, so it seemed unlikely he was a part of the conspiracy himself.
He wouldn’t have encouraged David’s questions and amateur investigation if the man had anything to hide. And Henson had the authority to act. Since the man hadn’t been willing to do anything when it was all speculation, perhaps he’d show similar caution now there was evidence.
Altogether, it caused David to hope for the more nuanced approach he sought�
��and he did need to share with someone. He thought Lt. Henson was his best choice. He could try talking to the man at least, and see if it felt right before committing himself.
Thus decided, David crossed the empty street, heading through the dark to the Guard HQ. It started raining just as the door was closing behind him.
He went right up to the guard in the lobby. “Is Lt. Henson in?”
The man nodded slightly and hit a button on his FURCS pad. “The Belue kid is here. Wants to see you.” After a pause, he waved David down the hallway.
The lieutenant stood just inside his office, holding the door open with an easy smile—which would probably fade when he heard what David brought.
Henson shut the door and crossed to sit behind his desk. “Since it’s a little late for a visit, I’m assuming this is something important.”
“Very.” David looked around the office and put his hand on the back of a chair.
The lieutenant eased back in his own chair and gestured to David. “Please, take your time.”
David found himself staring at the chair in front of him for a long moment before shaking his head.
Henson’s countenance turned serious. “Is this about Gray or Rossiter, or maybe that Crystal person?”
David took a deep breath, his hands clenching the padding on the back of the chair. “You’re still concerned?” David paused as he tried to order his thoughts. “I guess it’s about all three.”
“All three?” The lieutenant scratched his nose. “Well, I’m pretty sure Colonel Gray has been sabotaging things here, but in small ways. Hard to do anything about, because it’s not even obvious negligence.” Henson nodded to himself. “I think he’s unlikely to do too much damage, though. Do you have anything more on Rossiter?”
“I told you about his visits to the Rec Center and the vanishing duffel bag. Definitely something fishy there.”
“Without a doubt.” The lieutenant seemed to chew it over for a minute. “I’ve looked into it, but so far I haven’t found any evidence.” His face turned grim. “Probably smuggling contraband. Black market stuff. How bad that could be—depends on what it is he’s got in the bag.”
Starting the Slowpocalypse (Books 1-3 Omnibus) Page 16
