“Do you know who did this?” DeSantos asked.
Meadows’s eyes moved over to DeSantos when he saw Uzi look at his partner. DeSantos repeated his question.
Meadows tilted his head. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? I assume the same person who wanted my PC and backup files. And, if I might guess, the same person who wanted that Russian round you gave me to analyze.”
Uzi glanced at DeSantos, then looked at Meadows. “Your PC is missing?”
“I’m the one who’s near deaf, Uzi. Do you really need me to repeat myself?”
Uzi rolled his eyes. “Are you sure they got the bullet?”
“Your concern for my health is flattering.” He turned to DeSantos. “I thought he’d ask if I’ll regain my hearing, and how long I’ll be laid up here. Instead he asks about his bullet.”
Uzi leaned on the hospital bed, getting closer to Meadows. “Tim, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I didn’t mean for you to get dragged into this. And I sure as hell didn’t want you to get hurt. You know that.”
Meadows looked away. “Yeah, I know it.”
Uzi ducked down, got in front of his friend’s face. “You need somewhere to crash, I’ve got room at my place.”
“I may take you up on the offer. But first things first.” Meadows kicked back the thin blanket and swung his legs over the side of the cot.
“Where are you going?”
“Going? Nowhere without a freaking wheelchair.” He pointed. “There’s one over there in the corner.”
As DeSantos turned to retrieve it, Uzi grabbed Meadows’s arm.
“You sure it’s a good idea for you to get out of bed?”
“First of all, I hate hospitals. Second, if you give me a hand, I might be able to access the data that was on my PC — including the ballistics results I took from that round.”
Meadows looked at DeSantos. “You’re all business, Mr. DeSantos. I can tell. Tell your buddy to get me over to a computer that’s hooked up to the Internet, and not to waste any time because whoever stole my PC knows what he’s doing. He’ll be going through the hard drive. And that’s when he’ll find my trail.”
“Your trail?” DeSantos asked.
“His online backup account,” Uzi said.
“If it’s still there. Our bomber may try to delete it. We should hurry.”
“Where do we find a computer?” Uzi asked.
Meadows shrugged. “Doctor’s lounge?”
Uzi helped him off the bed and into the wheelchair while DeSantos sorted out the wires and tubes so he could unhook Meadows from the monitors and take the IV stand with them.
“I tried to get the nurse to get me to a computer, but she clearly didn’t understand what was at stake.” He grabbed the armrests of the chair. “Whoa.”
“You okay?”
“Just dizzy. They’ve got me a little doped up.”
“If you weren’t in such a bad way, I’d say that you’re always a little dopey.”
“I’m glad you restrained yourself. Your lack of humor might depress me even more.” He closed his eyes for a second. “Head’s killing me.”
“Let’s get going so we can get you back to bed as soon as possible.” DeSantos gave the chair a push toward the doorway.
“So, since it damn near cost me my life, I’m a tad bit curious. Just what is at stake here?”
Uzi shared half smiles with DeSantos, and then leaned in front of Meadows so his friend could read his lips. “Believe me, Tim, you really don’t want to know.”
“You said the same thing to me when you gave me that Russian round to analyze. Still sticking with that line, huh?”
“It still applies.”
The third floor doctor’s lounge featured four computers sitting on a long work shelf against the far wall. Uzi pushed Meadows in front of one of the keyboards, and Meadows lifted his splinted hands. “Oh, Christ. This isn’t gonna work.”
Uzi pulled over an adjacent chair and followed Meadows’s instructions to log into his SafeStor online data storage account. As Uzi scrolled down the list of hyperlinks, Meadows scanned the items, mentally ticking off each one.
“Well?” Uzi finally asked.
“There,” Meadows said, pointing at the screen with a bandaged paw.
Uzi looked at Meadows’s hand and then at the screen. “Can you be a little more specific?”
Meadows scowled. “Click that box where it says, ‘Select all,’ and then that green button that says ‘Download.’”
Uzi did as instructed.
“Where are you going to put all of it?” DeSantos asked. “It says there’s nineteen gigabytes of data. I may not know much about computers, but my former partner did, and I do know that when you’re talking gigabytes, it’s an awful lot of shit.”
Meadows bobbed his head. “Yes and no. It’s all relative.” He pointed. “We’re going to borrow some room on the hospital’s server. I’m sure they won’t mind.”
“Anything sensitive in here?” Uzi asked. “We really shouldn’t—”
“Would you rather lose it? Because unless we move fast, in the time it takes for me to argue with you, all our data could vanish.”
“Do it,” DeSantos said. “Now.”
Meadows directed Uzi to download all the data to a special folder they created on the hospital server. The green status bar began moving from left to right at a rapid pace.
“Looks like they’re on a DS3 connection,” Meadows said, “so this should go quickly.”
Uzi swiveled his chair toward Meadows. “Give me the lowdown on that Russian round. Did it match the one pulled from Bishop?”
“It sure did. One hundred percent.”
Uzi shared a look with DeSantos. Regardless of what his partner thought of Bishop’s paranoia, the informant’s fears were clearly justified. “Only one thing bothers me.”
Meadows’s brow hardened. “Only one thing?”
“How did they find him?” Uzi asked DeSantos.
DeSantos shrugged. “Good question. I’m sure he didn’t broadcast the fact that he had the stuff we gave him.”
Meadows’s gaze shot back and forth between the two men as if he were watching a tennis match. “Will you two stop talking about me like I’m not here? And talk louder!”
“If we were tailed…”
Uzi nodded. “I’ll check the car when we get out of here.”
As the last bytes of data were being transferred to the Virginia Presbyterian server, a red dialogue box popped up. “Connection to SafeStor server lost. Authentication cannot be verified. Attempt to log in again or contact administrator for assistance.”
DeSantos stepped closer to the screen. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means we’ve either got a security issue on the hospital’s end, or… we were a tad bit late getting this done.”
“How much did we get?” DeSantos asked.
Uzi leaned back in his seat. “Ninety-three percent.”
“Try logging off and signing in again,” Meadows said.
Uzi did so — but upon returning to the SafeStor account, the files were gone.
“Looks like our friends didn’t want us getting at your data.”
Meadows sighed. “If they were a few minutes faster we wouldn’t have gotten anything.” He nodded at the screen. “Click on our folder, let’s see what we got.”
A moment later, after scrolling through the file names, Meadows concluded they had retrieved everything that was important — both to him and to Uzi.
Uzi blew a mouthful of air through pursed lips. “So who would’ve gone to all this trouble?”
“That, boychick, is the million dollar question.”
“We need a cover story,” DeSantos said. “For him.” He nodded at Meadows.
Meadows threw up his bandaged hands. “Again with the third person.”