Seattle FBI Field Office
Seattle, Washington
Special Agent LaForge sipped on a pitiful cup of black coffee, courtesy the cafeteria at the Seattle FBI Field Office. The flavor may have been awful, but at least it contained the necessary caffeine to keep him going. His partner, though, seemed to be enjoying hers.
“Want another?” Alfredson tapped her empty glass.
LaForge eyed his still half-full one. “Nah, I’ll pass. I don’t think I could stand another cup of that shit.”
Alfredson shook her head as she rose from her seat. “I like it.”
“I’ve tasted that turpentine you call coffee, so no surprise there.”
Alfredson shot him a look. “You’ve never complained.”
“What would be the point?” He held up his cup. “You know, I used to think you couldn’t make coffee, but now I think maybe you actually make it that way on purpose.”
Alfredson’s eyes narrowed. “Oh?”
LaForge tilted his cup, regarding the putrid liquid. “Yeah, I think you actually like turpentine.”
Alfredson rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t know a good cup of coffee if it blew you.” She motioned toward the vending machines. “Want anything?”
“Something sweet. Let’s see if sugar can fuel the night.”
The doors to the cafeteria opened, and a confused security guard entered, her head on a pivot as she searched for someone in the nearly empty room. He had a feeling it wasn’t anyone in particular.
He rose and stepped toward her. “Problem?”
Her wide eyes fixated on him. “Are you an agent?”
“Special Agent LaForge.”
“Oh, thank God. There’s like nobody here! I just got a message.” She held up a piece of paper. “It says to immediately arrest all Croft Technologies employees on site, and uninstall any modifications they’ve made to our systems. It came from the President!”
LaForge glanced at his partner. “Told you I had a bad feeling about this.” He marched toward the doors, tossing an order over his shoulder. “Anybody armed, follow me!”
Several chairs scraped and he shoved through the swinging doors as he broke out into a sprint, footfalls hammering behind him as more joined the posse. He reached the control room where he had last seen the Croft employees, and opened the door, weapon in hand. He stepped inside and rounded the corner, the two employees still at the terminal.
“Stop what you’re doing, now!”
The first glanced over his shoulder, his jaw dropping as his hands slowly rose. The second kept typing away, staring at the screen. “Just a sec, I’m almost done.”
“Stop what you doing, now!”
The first rolled his chair away from his partner, his hands reaching for the sky. “Bill, he’s serious.”
Bill held a finger up as the other hand continued to type. “I’ve got like two more commands, then I’m done. Hold your horses!”
LaForge stepped closer. Whatever was going on had to be related to the national crisis. These people were here to install a security system that was supposed to protect against it, and if they were now to be arrested, they must be behind it.
And if this person were only two commands away from completing their task…
He fired two shots into Bill’s back. The Croft contractor’s body slumped on the keyboard, blood quickly spreading through his crisp white shirt.
LaForge motioned at the surviving contractor. “Take him into custody.” He turned to the FBI staff manning the room. “Get whoever you need in here and find out what they did to the system. These guys could be behind everything that’s been going on.”
The second employee’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you talking about? We’re trying to fix what’s going on!” He stared at his partner as he was dragged away, then glared at LaForge. “You didn’t have to shoot him! He was just installing security software!”
LaForge stared at him. “That’s what you say.” He pointed at the door. “Get him out of here.”
The room emptied of armed agents as Alfredson checked for a pulse. She shook her head slightly at LaForge.
No surprise there.
“Do you think he knew what he was doing?”
LaForge frowned. “No idea.” He sighed. “If he had just stopped typing, he’d be alive.” He dropped into a chair as a medical team entered the room, Alfredson directing them toward the body.
“Maybe the fact he didn’t stop means he knew.”
LaForge shook his head. “If this system is being installed across the country, I find it hard to believe they’re all involved. That would be thousands of people. Tens of thousands.”
Alfredson nodded. “All it takes is one.”
“I have a funny feeling he wasn’t the one.”
The tech they had been dealing with earlier cleared his throat as he joined them. “He might not have been the one, but someone is.”
LaForge looked up at him, his eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”
“I just heard back from my NSA buddy. He traced that number for me, the one that our Utopian guy, Bixby, was communicating with.”
LaForge sat up a little straighter. “And?”
“And besides messaging with him, it was also in contact with several numbers at Croft Technologies.”
LaForge glanced at his partner, both smiling, a sense of relief washing over him for a moment. Croft Technologies was definitely involved. Now the question was whether the man he had shot was aware of it. He still doubted it.
And he had a feeling this one shooting, the first of his career, would haunt him for the rest of his days.