by Terry Spear
“It’s isolated all right,” Chase said. “Beautiful.”
“And a two-mile hike from here,” she said.
“How did you manage when you were injured the last time?” Dan asked, helping to push the barbed wire aside for everyone to make it through. Then Chet held it apart for him to make it through.
“I slept for a day at the storage facility. It’s fully equipped for living for a time—septic tank, electricity run underground, solar panels, a well. It has a bathroom and kitchen. And Dad added a cellular repeater system to boost a signal out here.”
“If you hadn’t led us here, I doubt I would have found it,” Chet said.
“I rarely come here. Well, never, except this time and the time after my Dad died, and when I was wounded and feared for my life. That means no trails are left behind, not like they would have been if I came here often.”
They finally spied a building that looked like a partially rusted old storage building. Trees, shrubs, and wild grasses had grown up all around it. It definitely looked abandoned.
“No critters living inside, right?” Carl asked.
“Maybe a spider or two. It’s well-sealed off.”
She moved to the only thing about the building that looked secure. The door—solid steel. She used a code to get into another box behind that and another code to unlock the door.
“Are there any boobytraps inside?” Bridget asked.
Dan smiled at her, but Bridget looked serious.
“Dad had considered it, but he was afraid we’d come here and find dead bodies rotting away. Or one of us would trigger a boobytrap accidentally. Because of that, he never wanted to set them up.”
She entered the building and turned on the lights, then locked the door behind them.
Storage lockers lined two of the walls. A bathroom and kitchen were at one end of the building. A loft above was equipped with a bed and extra clothes for her.
“All these lockers are damn secure,” Chet said, examining them.
“Made of heavy duty steel.” She used a password for the first one and opened it, revealing non-perishable foods. Then she unlocked all the rest so everyone could search through them for any clues as to why her parents and she had become targets.
“Where’s the entrance to the hidden basement?” Dan asked.
“I’m not finding anything in these,” Bridget said. “Just tons of cash, clothes, passports, and ID.”
Hal and Chase were searching the kitchen and Chet was looking up in the loft for any hidden compartments. “The floor looks like it’s more substantial than it needs to be up here,” Chet said. “I’m looking for a hidden compartment in the floor.”
“We’ll be in the basement,” Addie said and led Dan to the last wall locker, unlocked a panel in the side, and entered a password.
Bridget and Dan were watching her, and she smiled, knowing they were as in awe about this place as she was. Then she had an idea. “You know, once I’m done being target practice, or even before that, this place could serve as a safe house for any of us in the law enforcement agencies—the Havertons’, the sheriff’s office, and the Cougar Special Forces.”
“This would make one hell of an ideal place to store some of our gear,” Chet agreed.
“I’m all for it,” Dan said, “and I know Tracey and Hal would agree.”
“I definitely am up for it,” Hal said.
Addie heard a click, telling her the movable shelf unit in front of them was unlocked, and she pushed it open to reveal steps down into a basement. She turned on a switch, and she climbed into the locker and down the steps.
“Wow,” Bridget said.
Chase and Hal quit searching in the kitchen and came to check it out. “I want one of these in the house,” Hal said. “Cool hideaway. Not sure what I’d use it for. Wine cellar, maybe.”
Chet continued to look for a hidden compartment in the floor up in the loft.
The basement was all painted in white, fluorescent lights making it appear bright and not dark like a dungeon. Storage lockers filled two of the walls.
“Same as before?” Bridget asked.
“Yeah, only the one three doors to the left on the south wall has the hidden vault.” Addie used codes to get into the first two keypads, then pushed the storage shelf in and it opened to a massive vault.
She turned on the lights in there, and inside, they got to look at all the weaponry—assault rifles, handguns, rifles. Everyone admired the weaponry while Addie began opening all the other wall lockers for everyone to search through.
Dan asked her, “You’ve never come across any papers or anything that seemed out of place?”
“Dad had maps of everywhere, though some of it might be a little outdated, with new roads not marked in areas. He had tons of city maps. Even so, I would have just used my GPS and not bothered with the paper maps, for the most part.”
“I found some thumb drives in a secret compartment in the back of the bedframe,” Chet hollered from upstairs.
“I found some in the false bottom of a can of cleaner,” Carl said from the kitchen.
Addie hadn’t realized he hadn’t come downstairs with them.
Everyone continued to look for anything else, like it was an Easter egg hunt and they each needed to discover their own treasure. She hadn’t realized her dad had hidden anything anywhere. She guessed he thought he’d keep it secret from her and she’d stay safe. She wished he’d told her and she could have exposed the corruption in the ranks.
She just hoped that what they’d find on the drives would really reveal enough to help put some people behind bars and stop people from coming after her. She was looking over the bare walls, not believing she’d find anything, but her dad had been so clever, what if it was right before her eyes and she just didn’t see it?
Hal and Chase were taking apart weapons, looking for anything hidden inside. She couldn’t imagine her father would hide anything inside one of them that would make the weapon inoperable.
Then Bridget said, “Uh-huh,” and pulled two flat drives from the butt of the rifle. “Your dad was really brilliant.”
“We’re behind on the job,” Chase said to Hal.
“We have as long as it takes to search every square inch of this place,” Dan reminded them.
Addie agreed with Dan. She didn’t want to find anything in haste, and then leave what could be the most vital information behind.
“Does anyone have a laptop or a cable that can connect to our cell phones to check and see what’s on the flash drives?” Bridget asked.
“There’s a laptop underneath the kitchen table. And a gun,” Addie said. “There should be a cable in one of the storage cabinets upstairs that can connect with your phone, if you’d rather look at the contents that way.”
“Okay, I’ll gather up all the thumb drives and see if there’s anything on them.” Bridget glanced in Hal and Chase’s direction. “Since I found mine.” She smiled at them and they chuckled.
Then Bridget headed up the stairs. “I’m getting the laptop and if you guys will toss me your flash drives, I’ll check and see what they contain. If nothing important, we’re back to square one.”
Addie sure hoped they’d find something. She continued to look at the walls while Dan was checking for secret compartments in the tile floor.
The other guys didn’t find anything in the weapons and had put them back together, then replaced them in their wall lockers. They began looking for any hidden compartments in the floor. Chase paused at the wall lockers. “Are these attached to the walls?”
“I believe so. They don’t seem to move at all when you open the doors,” Addie said.
“I’ll check just to be sure.” Chase began trying to move them from the first one on down the line. “All secure, wait, this one isn’t.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” Dan said, coming to help him. They pulled the wall locker away from the wall, needing Hal’s help too.
And stared at the steel plate hiding a c
ompartment in the floor.
It wasn’t locked and Dan pulled it open. They’d hit the mother lode. Or at least, it appeared that way if all the metal boxes down there contained what they’d hoped for.
“How are you doing up there, Bridget?” Addie asked, going over to see what all the men had found in the floor.
“It’s all your mother’s photos and documents of what she found. What did you find down there?”
The guys were all hauling out the files, and Addie began opening the metal boxes. “Looks like the original documents detailing all kinds of shady deals that went down,” Addie said, pulling out a file and flipping through the documents. “This is going to be bad news for some agents. We need to go through all of this before we leave here and see who all it lists to discover if Alicia or my boss, Briggs, were involved.”
“We need to send it to my contact with the Washington Post,” Carl said. “Hell, I even know someone with the New York Times. We’re not friends. Far from it. I sort of stole his girlfriend. Unintentionally. She just liked me better than him. It didn’t last, but to get a breaking news story like this? He’ll bite.”
“Give it to him to send it,” Addie said. “I’d rather this be sent before we even leave here in case we have any trouble along the way.”
“You’ve got Internet out here?” Carl asked.
“Sure do. It was important for me to keep up with what was happening in the world when I came here. That’s how I knew no one had reported that the courier had died, that I’d been hurt, none of it, the first time I came here.”
“Yeah, got it,” Bridget said.
The guys began hauling the boxes of files up to the main floor, and Addie sat at the table to scan through the documents, looking for names of everyone involved.
“We’ll need to scan all these documents and send them too,” Addie said. “Just in case none of this is documented on the flash drives.”
“I saw a scanner in one of the wall lockers,” Dan said, and went to retrieve it. He set it on a long narrow table.
“Here, I’ll scan them once Addie looks them over,” Chase said.
Dan joined her at the table and considered the documents she’d already gone through. “You’re a fast reader.”
“Scanner, but I also have a really good memory.”
“Photographic?” Dan asked, raising his brows.
She smiled.
“Hell, we want her working for us,” Hal said.
“No, with our agency. You failed to mention that little skill set,” Bridget said, smiling at her.
“I never think about it. It’s so automatic.”
“We need her in the sheriff’s office,” Dan said, taking a stack of the papers for Chase to scan.
Though Addie liked the idea of taking down rogue cougars, or apprehending wildlife traffickers, she wanted most of all to stay and work with the sheriff’s office. She could help out with the mundane and anything wilder. For now, she needed some sanity in her life. She just hoped sending the word to the press would help to protect her. “Send this to CNN also.”
Carl gave her a thumbs up.
“How is it going with your associates?” Addie asked Carl. Bridget was overseeing what he was writing and sending.
“Good. Both of the reporters have dropped what they were working on to start sorting through this stuff. I think I might have had a job with one of the big boys if I hadn’t been turned.”
“Sorry about that,” Addie said.
“Yeah, well, I always say things happen for a reason. Maybe my harassing you so much earlier meant this was destined to be. And now here I am, getting the word out to the world about what’s gone down, and maybe I can do some good.”
“As long as the FBI doesn’t try to stop the press from releasing this information,” Dan warned.
“So far, no mention of Alicia or Briggs, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign,” Addie said.
“Okay, sending the information to CNN,” Carl said. “Maybe, if they feel this is accurate, they’ll put it on the airways.”
Addie looked up from the file she was reading and saw Chet still looking for more hiding places in the kitchen.
Dan and Hal had begun to read over the documents, looking for names too.
“The person I’m talking to at CNN says I’m no longer working for the Denver Post. I explained I’ve been working investigative pieces. Can I mention the sheriff’s office in Yuma Town is coordinating this with me? I don’t want to cause trouble for everyone.”
“Yeah, let me talk to them,” Dan said. “Everyone here can testify at a trial, except for you, Carl.”
“What can we do about that?”
“Fake you’re dying or something and get your testimony on tape.” Dan joined Carl at the laptop and said to everyone, “I’m going live.” He said to the news reporter on Skype, “I’m Sheriff Dan Steinacker of Yuma Town, Colorado, and with one of my deputies, one FBI agent, one agent who takes down wildlife traffickers, and a couple of other agents, we’ve located a cache of documents that supports what the investigative reporter, Carl Nelson, has told you already. We’ve had some real issues with assassins trying to take out the FBI agent, and us along with her, as we’ve fought to protect her. We need to get this on the air so that everyone who is involved in the graft and corruption, and trying to silence us, will back off.”
Wendy Holcomb asked, “Can we air what you’ve just said, Sheriff Steinacker?”
Dan smiled. “You sure as hell can.”
“We’re still getting the documents in as we’re speaking,” Wendy said, “and we’ll update you on all the latest information as we learn of it.” The reporter signed off, and they realized what they were witnessing was her live broadcast while they were watching her on Skype.
“Thank you,” Wendy said to Dan. “And to all of you who discovered this. We’ll be posting more news on it as we go through the files.” She paused and looked in someone else’s direction. She nodded. “The FBI Director has already called our boss.” She smiled. “He wouldn’t if this wasn’t real news. Keep the documents coming.”
“Thanks,” Dan said. “We figured we needed the word to get out to protect ourselves.”
Then they ended the conversation, and Carl had to field calls from the “Washington Post” and the “New York Times,” the editors furious with him that he hadn’t given them exclusive news stories.
“Hey, they’re trying to kill us,” Carl said. “I just got involved, but these hard-working law-enforcement officials’ lives have been on the line since they tried to protect the FBI agent, whose mother, another FBI agent, first uncovered this.”
That started another bout of questioning and Carl was in his glory, explaining all he knew. Addie knew then he was one of the team. He might still have to work on being well-liked, but he was one damned good reporter, worked well under pressure, and was in his heyday.
She began to go back over the documents and found some mentions of Alicia’s job to watch over Addie’s dad, to learn what he knew, if anything, about what Addie’s mother had uncovered before she’d been murdered. It appeared Alicia had been telling the truth. She’d been there to protect both Addie’s dad and Addie, but when he began seeing other women, Alicia had terminated the contract. Addie realized Alicia had fallen for her dad, and though it was supposed to be a marriage in name only, it appeared it had been more than that for her. She’d left and he’d been fine until Addie turned eighteen and her father was out with his girlfriend, also an FBI agent.
He’d mentioned her too.
Addie paused to look up newspaper accounts on the incident and learned they’d gone out drinking, had taken separate cars, and he’d died. She’d conveniently been following his car home when he drove off a bridge.
The girlfriend had stated no other cars had been involved, and the accident was attributed to him having had too much to drink and losing control of his car on the bridge. She was hysterical when she called the police and they came to investigate. She d
idn’t call Addie, letting the police contact her instead.
Of course, Addie knew all about that from having lived it. Now she wondered if the woman was also part of this whole business. Like Alicia had said—the girlfriends had been in place to watch him, to listen, to learn if he knew anything about what Addie’s mother had known.
“One of the field agents involved in stalking my mother before she died, according to my father, was Paris Pepion’s father, Seth Pepion.”
“What about any connection to Dirk Carter?” Dan asked.
“I haven’t seen one yet.” Addie was still looking for information about Briggs.
It was nearly eleven that night when she found a connection to Dirk. “He’s the son of the woman who was dating my dad, the last one to see him alive the night he died. She’d divorced Dirk’s father, and then used her maiden name. Dad says here she had a son who wants to join the FBI like me. Maybe we could be friends, though he was living with his father so I never met him. Dirk Carter.”
“One mother, one father, both who could be directly related to your parents’ deaths and who work on the same team as you. To protect their parents, they were to keep an eye on you?”
“We’ve only been working together for the last six months.”
“Right before the attempt on your life,” Dan said.
“You’re still thinking it had to be either your boss, Briggs, or Alicia who had a hand in this,” Bridget said.
“Yeah. How could we all be on the same team, I was sent on a mission, and then I am nearly killed, and it’s all hushed up? Besides the team members, both Briggs and Alicia knew what we were doing.”
They worked until midnight, sorting through everything. “Didn’t find anything else,” Chet said, sitting on the bed in the loft.
“I think we have enough files to take a couple of years for investigators to comb through, but I don’t want the FBI to have it, not until we know they won’t cover it up,” Addie said.
“I’ve scanned the last of it,” Chase said.
“Sending the last scanned documents to the newspapers and CNN,” Carl said.
