Chapter 6 - The Drive in the Closet
Rourke arrived at Nora's office with a laptop that had never touched our company network and an expression I hadn't seen since our last deployment.
He locked the conference-room door behind him.
“Where is the drive?”
“In my house.”
The color drained from his face.
“Then we may already be late.”
He told me the drive contained copies of shipment records he'd collected when our team supported an investigation in Iraq.
Most of the material was mundane.
Vehicle maintenance.
Freight manifests.
Contractor billing.
A few files showed equipment billed as delivered despite never reaching its destination.
“Why give it to me?”
“Because you were the witness who noticed the discrepancy.”
He rubbed his jaw.
“The official investigation stalled, and I thought the backup should be with someone outside the contracting chain.”
I remembered his warning when he handed me the envelope.
Keep this safe, just in case.
I'd put it away because I wanted my war to stay in the past.
Now someone wanted access to the thing I'd forgotten.
Nora sat back.
“Does this involve classified material?”
“Nothing we've identified as classified,” Rourke said.
“But we're not opening or distributing it casually.”
He suggested we seek an appropriate secure review through counsel and relevant authorities.
Evelyn asked what the documents might be worth.
“To somebody trying to hide a crime?” Rourke said.
“Plenty.”
My phone rang.
Claire.
I let it go to voicemail.
Her message arrived seconds later.
“Cole, I know you hate me, but please come alone and get your boxes.”
A rustling sound followed.
Then her voice dropped to a whisper.
“Don't bring the lawyer.”
I played it for the others.
Nora shook her head.
“Absolutely not.”
Evelyn agreed to seek a supervised retrieval, with a clear inventory and witnesses.
Before she could make the arrangements, Maya called.
Her words tumbled over one another.
“Derek found out I copied the camera footage.”
“Are you safe?”
“I'm at my sister's.”
“Stay there.”
“He fired me, but that's not the worst part.”
I heard a child crying in the background, then a door closing.
“Derek came to my apartment with two men,” she said.
“They asked whether I'd seen a small black USB drive.”
My skin went cold.
“They weren't looking for the fight footage, Cole.”
May you like
“They asked whether Claire had already taken it from your closet.”
