by Dale Mayer
“Mason, she needs to be home and sort this out. All the materials she had in the tent are totally unsalvageable. I don’t know if you heard what happened at the meeting today.” Devlin nodded. “Yeah, word travels fast, doesn’t it? Then you understand she has to get back home and get to work, otherwise she loses everything. And that’s probably what the motive behind this is. Somebody sabotaged her entire life in one swoop. But she needs to do what she can to pull forward.” Devlin listened to something else Mason said, then nodded. “Yes. Is there any chance she can pull out of here tonight? Like within the next couple hours would be great. She needs to get stateside and regroup.”
He ended the call and turned to face her. “Mason is minutes away. Give him a chance to see what he can do, and he’ll get back to us.”
She nodded, her smile bright. “Thank God.”
*
Devlin watched as she lifted a shaky hand to brush the hair off her forehead. It was short and blonde. Efficient. Businesslike, just as she was. But he could see she was still trembling. She’d been put through an ordeal. He didn’t think she should go home alone, much less remain that way. “Do you have family you can stay with? I’m not sure you should be alone.”
“I’ll be in my lab full-time for the next ten days,” she said. “Even then, I have no hope in hell of meeting the requirements of my contract.”
“What if you had help?”
“Only somebody who knew how to handle hardware could help me. I don’t have time to train anybody. And I’ll be completely whacked out just doing the software changes, dependent upon whether I can get all the supplies. But I did order an extra load, just in case. We had problems with some of the plastics cracking before.”
“If I could line up a couple people, would you see if they’d work for you?”
She raised her gaze and stared at him wide-eyed. “You know any IT people?”
“We all know some.” He smiled. “It’s a matter of finding the right ones.”
“The other thing would be the security issue.”
“What if they were former SEALs?”
She frowned at him. “Who do you have in mind?”
He grinned. “Harrison and Rhodes are both damn good with hardware. Harrison’s a whiz, and Rhodes isn’t far behind. They’re also damn good with software.”
She shook her head. “Those names mean nothing to me.”
“No, but they might in the future. They were SEALs and currently work for another SEAL friend of ours at Legendary Security. They deal with a lot of hardware.”
“I’m not in any position to say no,” she said slowly. “Certainly if they’re in a security company, they’d be bondable. It depends what skills they have, if they’re available, and if I can afford them,” she confessed.
He nodded. “I know most of the guys who work there,” Devlin said. “We might make something happen here.” He stopped and looked at her. “How many men would you actually need?”
“As many capable hands as I could possibly get.”
He pursed his lips and thought about that. “Well then, I’ll see what we can do.”
He strode over to the tent to take a look outside. He didn’t want anybody else listening in on this conversation. He didn’t trust her boss, at the very least. The last thing he wanted anybody in the company to understand was that there was any hope in hell of her pulling off her contract. And, on that note, he realized her tent could’ve been bugged. “Shit.”
“Shit? What do you mean by that?” she asked in alarm.
He shook his head. “I just realized I assumed this was a safe place to talk, and that’s not a good thing to do.”
He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Ryder.
Do you have a bug detector to check Bristol’s quarters?
Ryder replied,
I’ll grab one and be there in a few minutes.
Devlin put away his phone and said, “My buddy’s coming. We’ll check it out to make sure.”
She just sat here with her mouth open, then said, “Oh, my God.”
He nodded and held his finger up to his lips. “We may have already blown this. But let’s check it out. We’ll be as safe as we can from here on out.”
Ryder walked in only minutes later. He took one look at Bristol sitting cross-legged on the bed and smiled. “Ma’am.” He tipped his fingers to his head on the imaginary hat he always wore when he was off duty.
She smiled up at him. But it was tremulous and shaky.
Ryder handed the tester to Devlin. “Do you want to do the honors, or shall I?”
“Just push the Down button.”
Ryder turned it on. But the button was green, and it didn’t flash. Ryder slowly searched the room. “It’s clear.”
Devlin nodded. “Good. I wish we could get into the work tent to see if one had been there. But it’s likely to have been burned to a crisp too. If it had been functioning, it certainly isn’t now.”
“And the problem with that is, we don’t know if someone gleaned any information before the fire took place.” Ryder turned to look at Bristol. “Ma’am, any idea if you were discussing anything important prior to the fire?”
She stared at him with a glazed look. “Honestly? I don’t remember very much from before the fire at all. It’s like there’s now my life before and after.” She shook her head. “We were talking about the drones. We’ve had an odd problem with them, but I didn’t have time to dig into it to. I was forced to come here.”
Bristol waved her hand around the base. “Earlier Colleen said something about it being possessed. That was her word.”
She slowly got to her feet. “That’s it. One or two of the drones might still be in the training areas. I have to go see. Sandra was supposed to clean up and take everything back to the tent, but maybe she didn’t get that far.” Bristol rushed out of the tent.
Devlin pointed to the tester in Ryder’s hands. “Keep that handy.” And Devlin bolted after her.
Chapter 6
She raced outside, back to the drone training area. With any luck a lot of parts and pieces were still out here that she could use. What she really needed were the drones. The laptops were incidental, but if she didn’t have to replace them, that would be great. Devlin ran behind her. She said, “Check over on the far side, where you were training earlier.”
Sandra appeared to have cleaned up the training area. If that was the case, where were those laptops? And the drones? Had she taken them back to the tent, and they burned too? Sandra was notoriously bad about putting equipment away. She would just dump everything on her bed and leave it until later. Only there’d been no sign of them in their quarters. Bristol pulled out her phone and called her. “Sandra, did you put away all the equipment used this afternoon?”
“It’s all in the truck. I figured we probably wouldn’t be packing them up until tomorrow morning.”
“Truck?” she asked. She spun around. “What truck?”
“Brent parked one close by so we wouldn’t have to haul the stuff back and forth.”
Devlin raced to her, shaking his head. “No sign of anything.”
She hung up on Sandra and shared the information about the truck.
“Was that to help or hinder?” Devlin frowned at her shrug. “Sounds like this guy has been working against you for a long time.”
She glanced around. “I need the drones and anything else available. It’s all my property.”
He nodded. “Then let’s go find it.” He pulled out his phone and called Mason. His message was short and sweet. “I need everyone we can trust.”
She watched him, wondering if he knew just what was at stake. He’d been here for her since this started. And always seemed to have a way forward. So, yes, maybe he did.
Within ten minutes they had a dozen men standing around them. And when they realized what was going on, completely disappeared—all in different directions. They worked from some sort of foundational organization, but she didn’t understand it. She f
elt certain though that everybody was out looking for the truck holding the balance of her equipment.
If anything was left to find.
She had to get home to her lab. If this was sabotage here, then there was a bigger chance somebody was heading to destroy her base lab too. And that was deadly to her and those she employed. If her lab had been hit, in no way could she fulfill her end of the contract, and she would lose everything. She’d been beside herself over signing this contract in the first place. But it was just too damn big a deal not to try. However, from the back end, facing opponents like this, what was she supposed to do about it? She didn’t have the manpower or the know-how to stop the sabotage from happening again. She might still complete the contract at this point, … maybe, … but this was all bad news.
She turned to Devlin. “What are we to do while they search?”
“First we’ll talk to Mason.” He nodded behind her.
She spun around to see Mason walking toward them.
Mason had a smile on his face. “Flights have been changed. You leave in two hours.”
She threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “Oh, thank God. If we could only find the damn equipment, it can go home with me.”
“We’ll find it. Don’t worry. Did you make sure nothing was usable in the work tent?”
She shook her head. “Honestly I haven’t. Is that an option?”
“It should be. Let’s go see.”
Flanked between the two big men, Bristol walked back to the burned tent. She hated to see the charred remnant of her friend’s body again, even in her mind, as she knew Colleen’s body had been removed. Inside, tension curled tightly around her back and shoulders again as she stepped into the work tent. She needed to be realistic about the whole scenario. If something could be salvaged, she needed to find it. She’d lost so much already.
She swept away the tears threatening to take over and strode forward. Even a screwdriver was one less thing to replace.
Looking around, she realized there wasn’t even that much. This was probably her only opportunity to actually take a closer look, so she moved forward, resolutely walking past where she’d seen Colleen lying on the floor. Her computer chip components had been on the side. She’d had plastic parts and pieces as she tried to build more of the small motherboard for the drone control panels. The plastic melted around the blackened skeletal metal pieces were still connected to the cables. It was all garbage. She continued to search, but nothing was really here.
Finally, when she couldn’t find anything, she had to accept the truth. She turned back to the others. “There’s nothing I can salvage from here.”
Devlin looked down at his watch. “It’s been half an hour. Let’s get you packed and ready for the flight. You need anything to eat before you leave?”
She shook her head. “My stomach feels queasy.”
“Which is usually when you should make sure you eat,” Mason said quietly. “At times of major stress and loss, your body still needs fuel.”
“I think I have a few granola bars in my bag. That will sustain me until I get home.” With one final glance around, she turned and left the tent. “When can I have Colleen’s body released?”
“Not for a while. The next of kin has to be called, and it will be their choice.”
She nodded. “I’ll talk to her mom when I get home.”
“Good idea.” Devlin led the way back to her quarters. “What about Sandra?”
“She was here earlier. She’s found a group she’s been hanging out with. She’s very social. I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to track her down. She flew with Brent and the rest of the company personnel.” She spun back to Mason and said, “Still no news on the truck?”
He held up his phone. “They’ll contact me when there is.”
Inside her quarters, she sagged down on her bed once again, unable to think clearly. She glanced around the small space, then reached under the bed, pulling out her single bag. This was to be a short trip, so she hadn’t brought much. She grabbed her sweater she had left at the foot of the bed—needed at nighttime or on planes—put it on, threw her backpack over her shoulder, and then brought out her laptop bag from underneath the bed. She rose and turned to face the men. “I’m ready.”
Devlin’s eyebrows went up. “That’s it? You travel light?”
“It all went up in flames.” She hefted her laptop bag and said, “This is the other half of my life.”
“Let me check that it’s all secure.”
She frowned. “It rarely leaves my side, though it has been here through this whole mess.” She sat down again, unzipped her bag, pulled out her laptop, and quickly opened and booted it up. Once it turned on, she took a few minutes to check if anybody had accessed it. But her login had come up as normal. When she ran a history of the last twenty-four hours, it didn’t show any signs of anyone having hacked into it. With a sense of ease, she closed it down, put it back into her bag and said, “It looks to be fine.”
“Good.”
Just then Mason’s phone went off. He took a few steps away and answered it. When he spun around, he was still talking. “That’s great news. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
A grin flashed on his face. “They found the truck. It’s parked only a few tents over, beside your company’s tent.”
“You mean, Brent’s company, not mine. Which way?” she asked, already turning to the left.
Mason called to her, “This way. Follow me.”
He took her around several tents until he came to a truck, guarded by four men. As she approached, Brent came dashing out, yelling, “You can’t touch any of that.”
She shot him a look. “All this is mine.”
“I still own you for another ten days as per the contract. This is mine. Our lawyers will be talking to you,” he roared.
“Send them. I’ll be waiting.” She turned to the men guarding the truck. “I need all of it loaded on the plane that is leaving with me in the next hour.”
As Brent fumed, totally without any rights in the issue, the men quickly packed up the drones, laptops, and remote controls.
She looked at the few boxes and shook her head. “This is pittance compared to what I brought. It’s completely worthless in value as to all I lost today.” As she walked away, she turned back to see Brent. “If I find out you had anything to do with the sabotage …”
“Then you’ll do what?” he snapped. “You’re just a fraud. You don’t know what the hell you’re even doing,” he said. “I saw that drone drop from the sky. Without Colleen, you won’t be able to control it. You don’t have anything to hand over. Nothing but shit.”
She smiled at him. “But it’s my shit, not yours.” And she turned and walked off.
*
Devlin took note of the confrontation. He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on because he didn’t expect this type of behavior from somebody with a contract for really high-tech drones designed by Bristol that Brent could easily sell to the Department of Defense for a bundle. Something was going on here, and Devlin didn’t like it one bit. Brent had to have something at stake for things to be going down this way.
As far as Devlin understood, Brent was not at the top of the company. ENFAQ Ltd. was huge, so this made little sense to Devlin. He caught up with Bristol as she stormed down the road. “Brent doesn’t own the company, correct?”
She shook her head. “No, but he’s the one responsible for swaying the others to give me the contract. I was an employee first, before I set up my own company. When the opportunity came, I put in a bid. They already knew my work.”
“Oh, his ass is on the line.” At her nod he added, “It does make his behavior a little more understandable.”
“Understandable, yes. Justifiable, no.” She stormed ahead and was about to go in the wrong direction again.
“Ease up. We could have just stayed with the truck and been driven over to the airport, you know.”
She came to an abrupt halt a
nd closed her eyes, swaying in place. “I’m sorry. I’m just so angry.”
“We can’t do anything about that right now. Let’s just get you home safe and sound.” At the sound of a Jeep, he turned to see Mason behind the steering wheel. “Here’s our ride. Mason’s got all the boxes. Let’s get you and your laptop out of here.”
Within twenty minutes, they drove up to the plane. The gear was locked and loaded in the back. She made it through all the paperwork to get on. Almost before she had a chance to realize it, Devlin made sure she was seated and locked in.
He walked back outside and spoke with Mason. “I hate to see her traveling alone.”
Mason nodded, and pointed to a duffel bag in the back of the Jeep. “That’s why we packed your gear. You have four days’ leave coming. This just became it.”
Devlin smiled. “I was wondering about asking for that.”
“You don’t need to ask. If you find any evidence, or something else goes screwy, call me. We’ll make it as official as we can. Then you won’t lose your days.”
“Thank you. I would rather not lose them,” Devlin said. “But what’s going on here is a travesty. She’s about to get a major shaft.”
“I agree,” Mason said. “I’ll get a handle on this end while I’m here as long as you stay in touch. I put a call into both Levi and Tesla to see if anybody can help Bristol.” He held out his hand and shook Devlin’s, staring at him intently.
As he was about to board, a second Jeep flew toward them. He stopped and took a look. Ryder, Easton, and Corey hopped from the vehicle. “Hey, guys, I’m taking four days’ leave. This kind of changes things a little.”
The men nodded. Each grabbed a big bag, shouldering them, and Ryder said, “The commander just changed the entire shift. With the murder and all, everybody’s backtracking. We were due to leave tomorrow anyway, so they cut it short. We’re on the way home too.”
They stared at Devlin, the same way Mason had.