Chapter 13

Rory had obsessed long enough, and she needed to get more information. She entered the building, her mind warring with copying the hard drive for the computer versus ignoring it all and walking away. Normally she wouldn’t show up on a Saturday but had an excuse ready. Still, her being here looked odd. This facility had extra security. The cameras watching their every move from driving into the parking lot until they left were obvious. There were a few exceptions, like the room where she’d found the laptop wasn’t monitored. At least she hadn’t seen any cameras set up around or inside the room.

If she got caught with that laptop, she didn’t know what would happen. She’d tucked a memory stick at the bottom of her bra and couldn’t believe she was sneaking it into the facility with a memory stick. Knowing what was on that computer seemed imperative, and she didn’t feel like she had time to go through the files here in the facility. There was no way she could take the computer out of this place unless she wanted to be questioned. Whoever had brought it in had to have extra special clearance .

Her heart pounded and her stomach turned when she stepped into the room where she’d found the computer in the cabinet. She hurried, not knowing how much time she had. After putting on gloves, she opened the cabinet and snapped a photo to know exactly how it was set up. She retrieved the computer, her hands shaking the whole time.

It only took her a minute to open the computer. The battery was low, so she plugged it in and copied the folders to the thumb drive. That the computer didn’t have a password surprised her. Maybe they didn’t think they needed a password since the computer was hidden at the bottom of a stack of thick manuals.

About ten minutes after she’d entered the room, she heard a door slam down the hall. Every muscle clenched. Another door slammed down the hall. Who was in the building besides her. She hadn’t seen Laelyn’s car in the lot, but what if someone else had driven him?

She rushed to finish copying over the files and ejected the drive before closing the computer and unplugging it from the wall. She had the computer back in the cabinet and the folders back in place, closing the cabinet and opening another cabinet when the door flew open behind her right as she pulled off the gloves on her hands.

She might have let out a slight yelp as she spun to come face-to-face with a guard.

“Sorry, Captain, I didn’t know you were here.”

Rory tried for a smile. “Just finishing up with some stuff I didn’t have time to get to on Friday.”

“Sure. Sorry for scaring you, Captain.”

“It’s okay. Have a nice day.” She tried to stay calm so this man couldn’t see how nervous she was.

“You too, Captain.”

The door closed, and she leaned against the counter, wiping her hand over her face. The guard was young and probably had no knowledge of any wrongdoing going on here. But Laelyn could have asked this young man to report anything odd that happened. She hoped Laelyn never found out that she’d been here on a Saturday and that she’d been in this exact room. The computer might not have anything on it, but it was an odd place to store a computer, especially one that someone kept returning to and using. If it was an old computer someone had accidentally left here, there would be no battery power left. That she’d found it twice with some juice in the battery, she knew someone had used it recently.

After taking care of the items she’d purposely not finished on Friday, she headed out to her car. She worried that someone would stop her and force a search, finding the thumb drive, but she left the building without any hassles.

She grabbed her phone from the space between the seats and checked the messages. Harry had texted. She sighed and closed her eyes, wondering if getting involved with Harry would put him at risk, too.

Rory drove home before sending a text, telling Harry she was looking forward to seeing him. Once home, she grabbed the thumb drive and thought about pulling out her computer, but what if the thumb drive left something like an identifier on her computer? She grabbed some food and then headed out, deciding to go to a library. She’d left her phone at home because she didn’t want anyone to know where she was going. Her car was too old to have any sort of tracking, which made her feel better. Maybe someone would realize she had been at the library looking at the information on the drive, but she would be harder to track.

In the library’s parking lot, she grabbed the burner phone she’d bought and plugged it in before turning it on. She wasn’t sure why she’d bought the phone, but she felt it was necessary if she was doing stuff like this. Should she have Lucia get a burner? She rolled her eyes at the thought. She was being way too paranoid. She didn’t need Lucia to get a burner phone. Heck, she didn’t really need one.

Maybe Laelyn had mentioned Toovey because he knew the guy. Just talking about Toovey didn’t mean Laelyn knew what she was up to.

She blew out a breath and headed into the library. The place was busy but not too packed, so she was able to grab a computer after waiting just a few minutes.

She did her best not to look suspicious as she plugged in the thumb drive and started looking at the files. There was junk on the computer, but she found a file with numbers and locations. It was like the other files she’d found that tied Toovey to trafficking, or that’s what she thought it did.

She studied the numbers, realizing some dates were for the last week. She closed her eyes, worry filling her. Someone had been in the building where she worked, entering information about the cargo they were moving. She had to do something, but she didn’t have enough information. Maybe she could mail the drive to the FBI.

It was a new drive, and the only thing on the drive was information from the laptop she’d copied files from. She could be implicated if she mailed this to the FBI. But people were being trafficked. She couldn’t sit back and just let this happen. Based on what had happened before when she’d voiced concerns, her direct chain of command would suppress the truth. She needed someone to investigate the crimes, but she had no idea who she could ask.

What if she was really wrong about all of this? Could Toovey be innocent of all wrongdoing? She needed more resources to investigate or more information to clear the man. But she wasn’t set up for an investigation of that scale, and no one she knew wanted to look too deeply into Toovey. Her conscience wouldn’t allow her to sit back and do nothing.

She closed her eyes and tried to think. What else could the information represent? It would be best if she could ignore the information. She’d tried that, but the weight of the information had sat heavy on her, weighing her down. She couldn’t ignore this.

She disconnected the thumb drive and made sure nothing from the drive was up on the screen before leaving the library. She had to think before she did something stupid.

If she had another thumb drive, maybe two, she could find a computer that could never be traced back to her so she could copy the information. Barring stealing a computer, she had no idea how to access a computer that wouldn’t be tied to her. Anywhere she went would either have cameras monitoring usage or they would take her information like the library had.

After stopping by a store to purchase two thumb drives with cash, she headed to a local coffee shop and ordered something to drink as she tried to devise a solution. She sat at a table and waited for her coffee and noticed another woman working on her computer. If she could use a stranger’s computer, maybe she could copy the information. There were four people in the shop on their computers.

A woman’s phone rang, and she jumped up, taking the call outside. Her computer had been left alone with no one paying attention.

Rory glanced around, seeing that the two cameras in the shop were pointed at the cashier and the line of customers in front of the cashier. She acted fast, moving to the woman’s computer and plugging in the drive. After making a copy of the folder on the hard drive, she plugged in the second thumb drive and copied the information to the new drive. Guilt made her stomach turn and Rory glanced outside, seeing the woman on the phone waving her arms like she was very angry. There was plenty of time to copy the information to the second drive. Quickly, she made the second copy, dismounted the drive, then trashed the folder and clicked for the woman’s trash to be emptied right as her name was called for her coffee.

She stood, trying to act cool and calm as she moved to pick up her coffee. Worry seeped through her. She hoped no one realized what she’d done. The store would have her on camera ordering her coffee, but there wasn’t any trace of her using that woman’s computer.

When she stepped outside, the woman was just finishing up on the phone. Hopefully, she would never know what Rory had done. No one in the shop seemed to notice her using the woman’s computer, which was a good thing. It had been reckless and maybe even dumb to copy the drives, but she needed something to send out.

She left the area, walking back to her car in the other lot as she sipped her coffee, glad to have two copies of the thumb drive. She had a plan but needed to think about it. It would be easy to type up and print out a page, but every printer left behind a nearly invisible watermark. She had to come up with a way to leave no trace.

Someone with more clearance and a higher grade than her knew what was happening, yet nothing had been done to stop it. She needed someone to care enough to say something, but she felt like she would be the only whistleblower.

She stopped by Walmart, bought a ream of paper, and decided that a stencil set would be the best option for writing anything and sending it out. Working through everything was giving her a headache. Maybe she should just go in on Monday and tell someone she’d found the computer. That would be the most sane thing to do. She could let someone else figure out how to proceed.

Once home, she gathered the shopping bags and made sure she had the two thumb drives before getting out of her car. She was halfway up the walk to her front door when she noticed two military police officers standing at her door. She froze, unsure if she should run or keep going.

“Excuse me. Are you Captain Holmes?” one of the men asked.

They’d seen her, and there was no way out. She nodded, then found her voice. “Yes, sir. I’m Captain Holmes.”

“Your neighbor was walking past and noticed that your place had been broken into. Were you aware?”

She shook her head. “No. I had no idea.” Real fear filled her. The day she’d copied information from the laptop at work, someone broke into her house. What were the odds?

“Do you know why someone would break into your place?”

She shook her head, lying to the man. She knew exactly why someone had broken into her place. They wanted the files she’d copied. She had to get rid of them.

“Okay, well….” The officer looked around. “You should get a room at the hotel on base. I’ll call and see if they have any openings.”

She was about to tell the man she could handle it, but he already had his phone out. “Did they take anything?” she asked the other guy .

He looked confused, and she lifted one hand, realizing the guy could see that she’d bought paper and the stencils that were obviously visible in the store bag. That meant her plans had to change yet again.

“Of course, you don’t know. You don’t live there. Gosh, this is so weird.”

“Yes, sir—ma’am. It doesn’t happen often.”

She wanted to go in and see what they’d taken. They hadn’t found what they’d been looking for because she had it. She knew questions would follow, and now she had a spotlight shining on her. This couldn’t be good at all.