before he and I headed for the IS supervisors office.
As we entered, she looked up at me, and asked what was happening.
Agent Hernandez showed his ID again, and told her what we were doing there. That done, he stepped back a bit, and let me deal with her first. I explained to her what I'd really been there for, and what I'd found – and not found. As I was talking, I could see understanding on her face, and when I'd finished, she said 'Well, that explains a lot.'
'How so?' I asked.
'Why someone with your credentials and education would be pulling security checks.'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean, when I was told you were coming in here, I got on the Internet, and did a search on your name. Found out the masters thesis you did, and couldn't believe that the same person that wrote
'So will you be able to help us?' Agent Hernandez asked her.
'I think so. I knew something was going on, but couldn't quite figure out what it was, or how it was happening. I mean, I'm good, I'm just not in*his* league.' she told him, gesturing at me.
He grinned, and answered 'Ma'am, believe me, you're not the only one not in his league!'
She looked a little confused, then turned back to look at me when I asked her 'You said that you knew something was up, but not the how or what?'
'Yes'
'What made you suspicious?'
'When the Finance VP comes in here and tells one of my techs to change out a hard drive, I'm going to figure something is up.'
'What happened, exactly?'
'That ass McKinley came in here one night, and told my tech to change out one of the hard drives. Even told him which one. All of our stuff is hot-swappable, so the guy did it. McKinley then tells him to format it, then toss the drive, and leaves. The tech checked the records, just I've taught them, and sees that it's still under warranty. He leaves it for me, with a note about what happened.'
'And?'
'And I had a look at it. None of the stuff on it made any sense to me, but it still seemed good, so I hung on to it, and replaced it with a new one. A few days later McKinley calls to see if I've tossed the drive yet. I tell him I did, and he's happy.'
'So you've still got the old one?'
'Sure. It's the bottom one of that stack in the corner, there.'
I dug it out, and told Agent Hernandez 'I knew there were some missing files. I couldn't find them*anyplace*. The records showed that they'd been archived to a drive, but not which one. I'll bet money that this drive has what you need to not only nail their coffin shut, but wrap it in chains and bury it in cement.'
The IS supervisor looked at me, and said 'But it's been FORMATTED.
Surely, you don't think you can get anything off it now, do you?'
I just smiled, and said 'Oh, there's ways. I know a guy that can pull a surprising amount of stuff off here.' Then I turned to Agent Hernandez, and asked 'Can you get one of your computer people up here?' He nodded, and spoke into a small radio. A couple minutes later, an agent came in and identified himself as Special Agent Carson of the Technical Division. I quickly filled him in on the details of the drive's history, and he nodded his understanding. I asked him if the FBI had anybody in particular to retrieve the data, and he said that the only person he was aware of would take several weeks to do the job. I told him to send the drive to the person I knew, saying 'I'll give him a call, and he'll put it on the front burner. You'll have the data in a week, tops. Just a couple of things. First, the agent that delivers it is NOT to ask questions of ANY kind; Lacy will tell them when it'll be done. Second, the agent is to ignore any comments or other remarks that Lacy makes.'
Agent Hernandez couldn't help asking 'Why?'
'Because Mark 'Spacey' Lacy is a guy I went to M.I.T. with. Hardware weenie. He thinks software is only useful when it makes his hardware do something. He's pretty eccentric; if the agent asks him for anything more than the time of day, Lacy's likely to figure the FBI is after HIM, and get real uncooperative. Second, he's REALLY eccentric, and may voice a few less than flattering comments about the government, or suggest some pretty improbable conspiracies. The scary part is, the way he explains them, they sound almost reasonable. As long as the agent just delivers the drive and collects it when Lacy says it'll be ready, everything will be cool. He's one of those rare people that's so good at what he does that you'll forgive him anything short of being an axe murderer when you need him.' I answered.
Hernandez nodded his understanding, as did the other agent, who assured me that my instructions WOULD be followed. That done, he took the drive, put it in the padded aluminum briefcase he had with him, and left to get it back to the office for transport.
The next few hours went by pretty easily. With the suddenness of what had happened, the FBI agents didn't have any problems with the staff.
Their technical people ran into a couple of problems, but the IS supervisor was able to help them with all but one that needed my attention. Knowing that her suspicions had been correct, the IS supervisor was a more than willing participant in helping the FBI techs ferret out the information they were after. Agent Hernandez had to take the lead on questioning some of the staff, and asked me for info on a couple of them. I told him what I knew, and what I suspected, and he was finally able to convince them to cooperate fully. By five o'clock, Hernandez agreed that my presence wasn't necessary any longer, and had one of the agents take me back to their office – with another car full of agents for company.
When I got back to FBI headquarters, Clara showed me back to where Lucy and the girls were getting some basic education in firearms. I stayed back out of the way, so they couldn't see me, as I watched them take their first, tentative, shots with a single-fire.22 pistol. After a few shots, they got comfortable with the weapons, and weren't as hesitant to try a.38, then a 9mm. Lucy went on to try a ..357 magnum; the youngsters weren't up to trying something that powerful. Finally, the instructor got all of them to try just one shot with a.45; all three put it down with relief after they'd pulled the trigger. All of them were still willing to have a try with a 9mm machine gun, though – putting it down with a combination of relief and regret when they'd emptied the magazine. Finally, he let them go through a magazine of ammo with an M-16; all were reasonably comfortable with it when they'd finished. When he saw me standing back, the instructor gestured for me to go ahead and join them – all three quickly hugged me and started telling me about what they'd been up to. I congratulated them, and expressed my satisfaction with how they'd shot.
After we left their firing range – and the instructor had congratulated me on setting a new combat range record – Robyn and Sandra were insistent on holding onto my waist as they told me about all they'd done that afternoon. They were even enthusiastic about the self-defense training they'd gotten the instructor to give them.
Talking to them about it, I realized that they understood that they weren't ready to walk down dark alleys yet, but were at least past the point of just standing like a deer in the headlights if there was any trouble. As we were going down the hall, Agent Jones met us, and told me that Clara would like to have a word with me before I left, and that our detail was ready whenever we were ready to leave. I thanked her, and asked her when she wanted to join us for dinner. She smiled, and asked if seven o'clock would be acceptable. I assured her that it would, and she headed on her way.
In Clara's office, I found out that the drive we'd gotten from the IS supervisor was on it's way to Lacy; with Clara's permission, I gave him a call to let him know that it was coming, and who would be bringing it. A brief conversation followed before he got around to telling me that he'd be done with it three or four days after he got it. I thanked him, and that ended the call. Clara thanked me for speeding things up, and told us that we were pretty much free to do as we pleased; that if they needed anything else, they'd let us know.
Lucy asked if that meant we could go home, and Clara thought it over for a moment before saying 'If you'd stay here in town for a couple more days, I'd appreciate it; but if you want to go back home right away, I'll understand that, too.'
Lucy and the girls shared a look before Lucy looked at me. I gave her a small shrug, letting her know that
