After the weekend, the compound residents had tamped down their frustrations, but she thought it only a matter of time before things heated up again. For now though, relative calm had descended. And it gave her time to exercise and a chance to keep Ben and Hope out of harm’s way.
Tony had changed the policy now that he’d promoted several new officers. Every patrol required a pair of officers and at least one of the recruits along for the experience, though Kat thought their presence more a hindrance than a help. By taking both Ben and Hope along with her, she could keep a close eye on Ben and prevent anyone else being saddled with Hope.
There was nothing wrong with Hope, who was quite nice. She wasn’t cut out to be an officer, however, and continuing to take her on patrol wouldn’t change that. The girl was better suited to the role of safety aide that student volunteers used to play, and there was still need for that kind of help—despite how much life in the community had changed.
They should be separating the volunteers into support roles and officer trainees rather than treating them all as potential officers. Then Hope could stay safe in the HQ taking care of the office routine. Kat ought to suggest something of the sort to Tony, and not just because she herself hated office work.
She saw the perimeter wall up in the distance, and the fence beyond. No use patrolling there with all the guards around. She signaled to Paul and ran faster as she rounded a corner onto one of the residential streets. Then she slowed her pace until he caught up with her.
She checked the time. “We’d better head back.” The two trainees went off shift at eleven, and Paul and Kat should take their breaks.
Kat wouldn’t have much of a break, though. She thought of Saturday night’s brouhaha and still had trouble believing good people could lose control like that. She’d come to suspect someone might’ve been pushing their buttons. And when she’d returned to the office exhausted in the wee hours, she’d immediately pulled the arrest records for the night of the twenty-seventh and read the details of the troublemakers she’d taken down. Then she’d started going back over the incident logs for the previous weeks.
Tony had discovered her with her head lying on the conference room table, sleeping, and he’d recognized right away what she’d been up to. He’d simply shaken his head and suggested she go home to bed and work on her ‘little project’ later.
Kat jogged around another corner to steer them back in the direction of headquarters. She was starting to tire now. It would be good to get off her feet for a little while—though it would be better still if she weren’t going to exercise her brain pouring over personnel records.
Tony had encouraged her to continue digging through the records, investigating. Which was unfortunate, since going through all those files hadn’t produced anything other than eyestrain.
Kat still suspected some agitator might be provoking tensions within the community, but with no progress to show for her efforts, she’d been prepared to leave off trying to find out who. Then Tony had recommended that she examine all the residents’ records—students and teachers and researchers. The administrative staff and technicians, laborers and tradesmen, even the guards and security staff themselves. The mere thought was enough to make Kat groan. But she hadn’t wanted to disappoint her boss, so she’d persevered.
She had been spending her breaks in a secure suite, combing through everyone’s files even though she didn’t know what she was looking for. Indeed, she had even less of an idea now what she was trying to find than when she’d started. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to her break.
Kat did eagerly anticipate her next patrol—after midnight, when she planned to take Susan with her and no trainees. At that time of night, she made the trainees stick to the office—Tony’s new policy notwithstanding. Despite the recent relative calm that had descended, in the darkest hours of night there would be malefactors making mischief somewhere out there, and Kat would find them. She was developing a nose for sniffing them out.
Susan made a good partner for dealing with the miscreants, too. She might not have Kat’s reflexes, but she didn’t need them with her level head, steady hand, and practical approach to taking care of business. They complemented each other quite well.
Kat rued not being able to skip ahead to the fun part, the patrol that promised at least the potential for danger and some much needed practice, but she needed to get Ben and Hope squared away first. And then spend an hour staring at a screen. She’d have to drink plenty of coffee to keep her awake—if Tony came by to check on her progress, she’d rather be found hard at work than drooling on the table.
With her mind drifting as she ran, Kat ended up back at headquarters in no time. She asked Paul to drop Ben and Hope off at the dorms before putting the cart away and taking his break. She could trust Paul to make the short trip back alone without getting into any trouble, but she didn’t want to take the chance with Ben and Hope walking that far on their own. She promised the pair she’d log them out and waved goodbye.
Kat watched the three of them trundle off across the grass in the buggy and sighed before walking her weary legs into the office. She nodded to the girl at the duty desk and let herself be buzzed through the gate. Tony’s office door was ajar with light spilling out, telling her the man was in and working when he should be resting. He tries to do too much.
Tony had been spending long hours training the new recruits so they’d have enough officers—not to mention going out at night to patrol on his own, in defiance of his own regulations. Men.
Kat didn’t feel up to remonstrating with Tony about that now. Instead she turned and trudged up the stairs to the second floor and down the hall to the innocuously named Resource Room, where all the classified information resided. Past that, at the end of the corridor were Tony’s private rooms. She knew of no one else who lived where they worked, unless she counted her father, but that was a different situation.
She stood at the door and stared at the security key in the palm of her hand. Part of the reason she couldn’t disappoint Tony was because he had placed so much trust in her. Kat plugged the key into her FURCS pad, then inserted the key into the lock and used her fingerprint to open the door and slip in.
She passed through the tiny office itself and into the kitchenette. She started a pot of coffee brewing right away, and not simply to help her stay awake. This place felt colder than the rest of the building. Cold and isolated.
She returned to the office with a full, steaming mug, wondering why the FURC didn’t use security cameras. Though if they’d had them, she’d have found herself spending hours staring at video footage instead of, or in addition to, all these snarled computer files.
Either way would be the same tortuous tedium. She set her coffee down and then settled herself in the comfy chair, grabbing the workpad that held all the residents’ information in thoroughly compiled digital files. Kat had begun by attempting to read through every single record in a methodical fashion. Though with thousands of people’s history to sift through, she’d become bored fast.
Then she had decided to look for connections. She’d started with Councilman Radley and his son Brandon, then moved on to Brandon’s friends and their friends, their teachers, and their colleagues. She’d studied the files on Radley’s employees who lived or worked in the community, mostly researchers and technicians. Finding nothing of note, she’d given up on that entire line of inquiry.
Kat had found herself reading through Ben Laskey’s slim but interesting record and proceeded to skim through the rest of her coworkers. She felt a bit guilty about that. But she justified her curiosity by telling herself anyone working in Security ought to be thoroughly vetted.
Though Tony must’ve gone through these same files himself before accepting any of them—still he’d given them all to her and suggested a close examination. Kat wondered if there existed any reason for that assignment, apart from the whole thing being a bizarre form of punishment.
Tonight she’d take
a different tack entirely. She tried to think who in the community would be most unsuspected. She decided to treat those people to some extra scrutiny, but as she was looking around for such unlikely prospects, Kat came to a startling realization. And quickly filed it away for later.
She opened up contractor Ken Cameron’s file and started reading, and at least it was entertaining. The man had certainly led an interesting life. Two tours in the army and he’d only made sergeant, but he’d served in both the Egyptian War and Second Korean Conflict, short as those were. He’d left the military to start his own contracting business. And occasionally he taught marksmanship seminars at Quantico, which was quite startling. The man must be quite the expert.
Kat caught her thoughts short again. Cameron had taught at Quantico during the same period her father and Tony had been there, when the two men had become fast friends. Tony had been FBI at the time. Kat had never been told why her father had been there, only that she wasn’t supposed to know about it and had better not breathe a word of it.
She had no reason to think either Tony or her dad had met Ken Cameron, simply because they’d been there at the same time. As far as she knew, the contractor was only a casual acquaintance of either man, yet her mind leapt to the notion of the three men as a secret cabal—no doubt engaged in some kind of complicated conspiracy.
Kat mentally pinched herself and reached for more coffee. Wading through these files looking for suspicious connections had to be warping her brain. She’d start seeing conspiracies everywhere unless she stopped. She did have legitimate questions to ask, but she would take those to Tony later.
She skimmed over some more files. Lt. Henson in the Guards had gone over to the British Isles to serve in the SAS during the Difficulties. No details of what he did there, but hardly any of that had been documented. Alice Kittner had been quite the radical before entering academia. Somehow the woman had avoided jail. Jeffrey Minchin had earned three unrelated degrees in college and now worked as a landscaper.
Kat discarded the notion of reading through her mother’s records, since she was already developing quite the headache. She flipped through a few random records, which might be as helpful as anything. She stretched in the chair and thought about taking a short nap—maybe it was time to approach Tony.
She downed the rest of her coffee and firmly pushed herself out of the chair. A deep breath and she clutched the pad to her chest, marching out of the room and down the stairs. The resolve did more to stimulate her than the coffee.
She marched straight into Tony’s office without knocking, but the man only lifted an eyebrow at her.
“Boss,” Kat started, trying to control her tone, “this is a huge waste of time.”
Tony straightened in his chair. “Shut the door.”
She turned and closed the door behind her and returned her glare to Tony.
The man smiled. “Okay, Kat, now rant all you want. The room’s soundproofed.”
She clenched her jaw and took another deep breath before starting again. “How am I meant to find anything in here?” She gestured with the large pad. “Anything that might give an inkling of who would be deliberately stirring the pot, or why?”
“Kat, that’s sensitive information. That pad is supposed to stay locked up in the Resource Room.”
She ignored his chiding. “What did you think I would find? That Councilman Radley is a commercial fishing magnate? Maybe he’s rubbed shoulders with Governor Roberts, or greased the man’s palms to help his business, but even if that kind of information was in here—” Kat paused to glare, “which it’s not—how would that prove anything?”
Tony sighed. “How would I know what in the world you should be looking for? It was your idea in the first place.”
She ignored that. “What is a commercial fisherman doing here anyway? We’re as far from either coast as you could get. Maybe that’s suspicious, but I just don’t know.” She set the pad down on his desk and leaned forward on her fists. “I’ve examined the connections until I’m seeing potential conspiracies behind every corner, but I’ve not found one solid hint. There are plenty of red herrings, though. All these people categorized under ‘no particular function’—do you know how long it was before I figured out that was the classification for the family members of FURC employees.”
Tony leaned back in his chair. “You were the one, Kat, who thought someone might be intentionally agitating residents, making trouble. I was just trying to help, giving you access to those files.”
Kat straightened with a smile and crossed her arms. “Help?” She stared Tony straight in the eye. “Then tell me why two particular files are missing from what you gave me. Neither Chief Gray’s nor the deputy director’s records are in there.”
Neither her father’s nor Tony’s were as well, but that hadn’t surprised her. That the other two individual’s files should also have been removed did.
Tony shrugged. “Miles vouched for Ms. Belue. Without reservation.”
Kat’s gaze didn’t shift an inch. “That was only half an answer.” She continued to wait.
After a few moments, Tony relented. “Lock the doors, Kat.”
She grinned in triumph as she crossed the room and turned both deadbolts. She returned to stand before her boss, expectant. Tony took a long swig of water and made her wait, but Kat was prepared to be patient.
Tony scratched the stubble on his chin. “You might as well sit down.”
She pulled one of the chairs up close and sat down on the edge of the seat. “Now, what is it you didn’t want me to see?”
Tony worked his jaw for a long moment, and she knew she had him on the defensive. “Okay, but this is strictly between us. Highly confidential.”
Kat lifted an eyebrow and wondered if he really thought she might need that warning. How careless does he think I am? “Chief Gray?”
“Gray was a colonel in the Florida Army National Guard before he was forced to retire. Before that he was thick with Governor Roberts.”
Kat sat back in her chair. “Then he’s an enemy agent?” Her mind raced as she imagined the possible ramifications.
“Don’t jump to conclusions.” Tony shook his finger at her. “Despite current conditions, we’re not dealing with embittered enemies. It’s politics.”
Kat snorted at that. “There’s a difference?”
Tony frowned back at her. “Yes, and you need to appreciate the subtleties. The FURC construction was a huge project with lots of money flowing into the state and plenty of opportunities, but Governor Roberts was shut out of the process. On purpose. But powerful men like him don’t take that kind of thing lying down, and the governor somehow managed to foist the recently retired Gray on us. In spite of the man’s record.”
“Which you don’t want me to read.”
Tony shook his head. “I do now.” He grabbed the large workpad she had dropped on his desk and began fiddling.
Kat watched for a minute, unwilling to leave the topic there. “And? The man’s a mole.”
“We know Gray was placed here to be the governor’s eyes and ears, but that doesn’t mean he must be some kind of enemy agent.”
Kat goggled. “The man could be up to anything. And he’s got command of the Guards, all of the external security. Aren’t you doing anything?”
“Certainly. I’ve been trying to surveil the man’s activities as much as I can. And I have a little help there. But we don’t want to spook Chief Gray into taking any precipitate action.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“With what we can glean of the man’s character, we don’t think Gray will make a move without instructions from Roberts, which he can’t get because of the communications blackout. But if Chief Gray starts thinking that we’re coming after him? Read his record, Kat, and tell me what you think.”
Kat found she had leaned forward again to the edge of her seat as she was listening. She started tapping her foot against the desk, thinking fast.
“
It’s been almost three weeks, Tony. In that time the governor could have found a way to get a message in to Gray, or the man could have hatched some plan of his own, if he’s concerned about his position here.”
“It’s possible.”
“Does Gray know he was foisted on my father against my dad’s will? He should be worried. I’ve not read his record yet, I know, but the man must have considered the situation he’s in with the compound being sealed. Started to make some kind of calculations. We need to know more.”
Tony nodded. “Sure. We want all the intelligence on Gray we can get. We’ve got to be careful how we go about gathering that information is all.”
Kat moistened her lips. “Do you have any other suspects? If the governor managed to plant one of his people here, there could be more. Working with Chief Gray. Have you considered that?”
Tony nodded again. “I’ve got my doubts about a number of people. One is a Sgt. Rossiter. Gray uses him all the time as an errand boy, but we’ve other grounds for suspicion. I’ve got my intuition about some others, but no evidence. There’s still a lot we don’t know, as you said.”
Kat frowned. “Then we need to find out.”
Tony scratched the stubble on his chin, looking at Kat for a long moment. “Would you be interested in a dangerous new assignment?”
Kat grinned. “What do you think?”
Tony frowned. “I mean making yourself into a target. I’d be making you an obvious spy. It’s something only you could do.”
Kat was intrigued. “But I thought you wanted to avoid provoking him? Leave him complacent.”
Tony smiled. “As you said, he’s probably worried about his position already. You’ll be something he’ll think he can handle, so he’ll not be paying attention to what he should. It means being a decoy, as well as a target.”
Kat would rather take down Chief Gray herself, but she’d settle for this. “It’ll still be more interesting than trawling through those blasted files.”
Tony handed over the secured workpad. “Why do you imagine you can get away from them? Study Gray. Learn about the rest of the guards. Take this seriously.”
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