protested. “Look at this pile here,” she said, pointing at the devices still piled up on the table. “Where am I supposed to fit all that, plus generous amounts of toilet paper?”
Sam nodded with large movements, underlining the importance of toilet paper.
“And this thing,” she pointed at the Inmarsat, “weighs a ton!”
“This one’s not so big, neither is it heavy,” Brian said. “It’s a bomb sniffing handheld device. It goes with this,” he said, putting a pack of Oxy pads on the table.
“Acne treatment?” Alex laughed quizzically.
“Not really, but it looks like it. You take a pad out,” he demonstrated, “wipe the object of interest, and then place the pad in here.”
The bomb-sniffing device was disguised as a small electronic alarm clock, complete with a functioning green display and snooze button. Brian opened the device’s battery compartment and placed the pad inside. He closed the battery compartment, then pressed the snooze button. The digits showing the time flashed once and remained green.
“If these digits were to turn red that would indicate the presence of explosives. It recognizes trace amounts of chemicals that are used when handling explosives.”
Sam whistled in appreciation. “Where do you get your devices? I would love to shop there.”
“This one’s special order to my specs.”
“Nice job, Brian,” Tom said.
“Thanks so much, that will come in handy,” Alex said, studying the device up close.
“Done with hardware already? Boys and their toys . . . ” Steve said. “How are you doing with your immunizations?”
A flicker of guilt showed on Alex’s face for a millisecond, but Steve caught it. His initial scowl turned into an expression of sadness and disappointment. Alex reacted to that.
“I’m sorry. I got caught up with other things, but I promise you I’ll get right to it. I swear.”
“The sooner you get those done the better. Your immunity will be stronger. Don’t delay anymore,” Steve insisted.
“Nope, I promise. I’ll get them scheduled next week.”
“This week,” Steve insisted.
“This week,” Alex confirmed sheepishly.
Silence took over the room for a few seconds. Alex stood and started pacing slowly in front of the timeline wall, back and forth, a frown on her forehead.
“What’s on your mind?” Tom asked.
“Umm . . . ” Alex started to say hesitantly, clearing her throat. “There might be something else we need to discuss.” She stopped, thinking how best to present the facts to the guys. “I’ve been back from Vermont for a while and spent a lot of time exploring scenarios, possibilities, and options. There is one big question mark, and that is the transplant clinic’s system record for Melanie Wilton.”
“What do you mean by that?” Tom asked. “We discussed the details when you came back from there. Any new developments?”
“No, no new developments, just thoughts about it, that’s all. There are a few things that don’t add up.” She took a deep breath, then continued, “It’s just that there’s no logic to that record existing in the clinic’s system the first place, that’s all. If you had performed an illegal heart transplant in the middle of the night, paid for it in cash, would you have put a record in the system to show everyone something was not entirely kosher about that patient’s procedure? No matter how hard I think about it I can’t find any logical explanation.”
“You’re right, it makes no sense at all.” Tom agreed. Steve’s gaze was intense, anticipating more to it and not all good.
“Unless,” Alex started to say, but Louie took over.
“I’m thinking booby trap, or a silent alarm of sorts,” he said.
“Exactly,” Alex said, “in which case we stepped in it and we got made.”
“Would anyone care to explain for the rest of us?” Steve asked.
“Let’s think for a minute. What would be the easiest way for the UNSUB to know if anyone was looking to pick up the trail at the only point they could, Melanie’s transplant clinic? That’s where the trail starts, right? That’s why we started there.”
“You mean they put it in the system on purpose to track us down?” Sam asked.
“Precisely. Either by having some intrusion detection software watching that particular record or some other type of silent alarm deployed on that system. It’s my belief this trick gave them the heads up as soon as we started snooping around. From that point forward, they could have been on to us with accuracy, while putting in a minimal surveillance effort to catch us. I think we’ve been made.”
“Fuck . . . I miss the old days of real covert work, gun in