Once Bitten, Twice Dead - By Bianca D'Arc Page 0,49
guys for years.” The sarcasm was thick in her tone, but he refused to rise to the bait. He didn’t want to argue with her. Especially about something so inconsequential.
“Next time, I will,” he promised.
She eyed him suspiciously. “Are you humoring me?”
“Not at all, chère.” He made an X across his heart as he grinned at her.
She seemed to consider his words, then shrugged, letting the matter drop. “So where’s your computer and how soon can we check this memory card?”
“Are you finished searching here?”
“Yeah, I’m done. There’s nothing else I can find. Maybe the techs will have better luck with trace evidence.” She looked around the room, her eyes lighting here and there on the areas she’d searched.
“I’m hungry.” He rubbed his stomach as he stretched tight muscles in his neck, shoulders and back. “You about ready for lunch?”
“I could eat,” she answered simply, following him toward the door.
“Then we’ll check out your find over lunch. I noticed a little bistro down the block that had a free Wi-Fi sign in the window.”
He let her precede him out the door and shut it carefully behind them.
They paused for a late lunch at the small café he’d seen. It did indeed have Internet access, which might come in helpful. Xavier pulled a small notebook computer out of the knapsack he’d brought in with him. He fired it up and spent a few moments connecting the USB stick Sarah had found.
“Well, well, well. Would you look at that?”
“What have you got?”
“We’ve got a bonanza of evidence.” His eyes narrowed as he read the damning information contained on the memory stick. “Looks like the good doctor is considering selling his research to the highest bidder. More than considering, actually. He’s taking bids and accepting perks from at least two foreign governments and agents, that, I can only assume are either other foreign powers or arms dealers.” Xavier tapped more keys, getting to the heart of the information on the chip. “He must’ve lost this thing about two weeks ago.”
“How can you tell?”
“That’s when the last file was accessed. No activity since.” He tapped keys as he spoke, scanning the contents of the flash drive.
“Do you still think it was planted?” Her tone was low, almost worried.
“I’m not sure. I’m leaning toward thinking it was truly lost. Sellars would’ve had to plan ahead or just happen to have a drive he hadn’t accessed in two weeks. He also would’ve had to be willing to give up all this information. I don’t know, but considering how he’s behaved to date, he probably wouldn’t have wanted us to have all this. If it were a setup, there probably would’ve been only one or two carrots dangled in front of us. Not all this.”
“Unless he’s willing to sacrifice that much to get what he really wants,” she countered.
“Which is?”
“Beats the heck out of me. That’s all I’ve got.” She sat back and gestured with her palms held outward as if in surrender.
“You may have a valid point. Still, I’m going to send this up the line to see what the others can make of these names. If they’re real contacts, this could help break the investigation of the paper trail wide-open.”
“Then there are more people involved in this than just you and me in the field and your support team?”
“A lot more. Each carefully selected for their expertise or, as in my case, because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and learned about the threat the hard way.” He shook his head slightly. “Those who were chosen to participate after the fact have been carefully screened and have top-level security clearance. People are added as needed, and those in charge are trying to keep the total number who are aware of this problem to a minimum, of course. They may need to get some spooks in on this soon, though. Especially considering what’s on this chip. If there’s a foreign connection, the CIA will most likely become more involved. From what I was told, they were acting in an advisory role because somebody up the chain of command was already worried about foreign powers getting involved.”
“This is bad, Xavier.” She frowned, her face serious with worry.
“And getting worse if this information is correct. But that’s for the spooks and my superiors to worry about. Our immediate assignment is to stop this outbreak by any means necessary. So, if this chip was last accessed two weeks ago…”