He shakes his head. “I don’t have access to all that information. Maybe I should have said it all looks legit — but you’d actually have to enter the security codes to be sure. There’s lots of security around the perimeter, but access to the buildings is usually gained by swiping an ID card or entering a passcode. I haven’t been in too many of them, but the passwords on that drive are the right format.”
Xav goes on, “And you know what all this means?”
“What’s that?”
“It means we can get on the property.”
“Why would we want to do that?”
“To find out what the Holy Grail is that everyone is after. To untangle everything. Especially in Building A-13.”
“A-13?”
“It’s on the drive,” Fionna explains. “It seems like that’s where the main program, or research, or whatever, is being housed.”
I glance toward Charlene, anticipating that she’ll object to anything along the lines of traveling to Groom Lake and rescue me from having to argue with Xavier, but she doesn’t. “I’ve had some time to think about this,” she says. “I’m warming up to the idea. I think I need to sleep on it, though.” Then she abruptly switches topics and explains that about half an hour ago she got a call from the FBI agent she met with this morning.
It seems that suddenly Agent Ratchford was very interested in what we had to say about Tomás Agcaoili and this connection with Akinsanya, the man the Bureau has been tracking for the last four months. “He wants to meet with me tomorrow morning,” she explains. “Apparently, he’s going to talk with Agcaoili first in jail. We’re meeting at eleven.”
But that still leaves us with the question of what to do with our new friend Fred.
Despite the trust Xavier has put in him, I’m not comfortable with him staying in the house, but I’m also not sure I want him leaving. By kidnapping Xavier at gunpoint, he’s already proven himself to be dangerous.
“Fionna, did you download everything from the drive?”
“Yes.”
“Can you make the encryption on it even tougher to get through?”
“Sure. I suppose.”
“It took you an entire day to get through — and that was with Lonnie helping you. How many people could get through those files faster than you did?”
She ponders that. “I can only think of half a dozen people I know. Some nation states could, and of course, if it’s someone who has access to the military encryption codes they were using, they could certainly get in a lot quicker.”
By itself, the drive might be enough to buy us enough time to explore this connection with Akinsanya and how Emilio ended up with the drive in the first place. People were willing to kill over this information, so there is obviously something huge at stake. And now that we’re entangled in it all, I’m not going to wait around for the FBI or the ambassador in the Philippines to finally look into things. Not if this poses any danger to my friends.
Which it does.
Also, by adding the firewalls, we can buy Fred some time before those photos are released to the media or posted online.
Whoever this blackmailer is, he put Fred up to kidnapping, and even to the point of threatening murder, in the hopes of acquiring this drive. Who’s to say that he’s going to stop at that? If he doesn’t get what he wants, he might just send someone else, very likely someone even more motivated than Fred was, to get the drive.
“Is it too late to call back this guy who was blackmailing you?” I ask him.
He shrugs uneasily. “I don’t know.”
“You say he was going to post the photos online?” Fionna says.
“Yeah.”
“Well, let me check to see if he has.”
“How?”
“I just need a head shot of you. I’ll do an image search. Trust me.”
She takes his picture and sets to work at her keyboard. After ten minutes she’s convinced that whoever the guy is who was blackmailing him hasn’t posted the photos.
“But are you sure?” Fred asks.
“No, of course not. I can’t be positive. But if he was going to post them to any public site, at least any of the most popular thousand or so, he hasn’t done it yet. And if his point was to expose you, wouldn’t he post them somewhere where people would easily see them?”
“I don’t know. I mean, it doesn’t make sense that he hasn’t. He was very vehement that I get that drive by the time he called. I can’t believe that he wouldn’t have posted them.”
“If he did, he didn’t put them anywhere very public.”
“Maybe he still wants something to hold over you, and he knows that as soon as he releases them he loses his bargaining chip,” I tell him.
“Maybe.”
“Whatever his reasons, let’s do what we can to move forward here. Call him. We’ll give you the drive. Deliver it to him. But there’s just one thing I’m going to ask in return.”
“What’s that?”
“Help us find out what’s in Building A-13.”
He looks like he’s about to say something, but holds back.
“Well?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Trusting Anders not to tell the blackmailer the truth is a risk. I don’t know how we can assure that he won’t do it, except that Xavier could go to the police and explain that Fred had kidnapped him at gunpoint.
“Give me your number,” I say. “I have a feeling I’ll be calling you tomorrow.”
“I work tomorrow.”
“That’s even better.”
I turn to Fionna. “Listen, the more I think about it, the more I think we shouldn’t give the information on this drive to anyone other than the authorities. Can you set up the drive so that, after they get through your firewalls or security measures or whatever, that the drive erases itself?”
“It’d be my pleasure. I’ll even drop a little Trojan in there to have the drive notify me when the firewalls are cracked. That way we’ll know when the bad guys know they’ve been had.”
“Groovy.” Xavier gives her an approving nod.
She takes some time to reinstate the security measures on the drive, adds firewalls of her own, we give Fred the drive, and he leaves to call his blackmailer and deliver the drive to him.
As we’re on our way back to our rooms, Charlene sidles close to me. “I’m proud of you, Jevin.”
“For what?”
“For everything tonight. For standing up to that guy at the bar, for coming up with a card trick on the spot for Solomon, for taking down Tomás. I’m proud of you.”
“You’re not mad that I’m still sort of a leaps-before-he-looks-er?”
“Maybe. A little. But I’m more thankful that you’re a do-anything-for-the-people-he-cares-about-er.”
“Works for me.”
And then we say good night with more than just words.
Calista kissed Dr. Jeremy Turnisen.
They were back in her soundproof suite.
She had her arms around him, and she could feel his heart drumming wildly in his chest.
She drew out the kiss, then pulled away, looked at him devilishly, and pushed him back onto the bed.
He grinned. “You said on the phone you were feeling naughty tonight.”
“Close your eyes.”
Without any objection, he did as he was told. He was hers and she knew it. They both did.
When Jeremy’s eyes were shut, Derek slipped quietly out of the closet. He sprinkled a little liquid onto a handkerchief he held in his hand.
Jeremy lay back and Calista straddled him. “Keep ’em closed, or do I have to get out a blindfold?”
“Promises, promises.”
“Mmm.” She positioned herself on top of him so that he couldn’t roll away and then placed her hand over his eyes.