Chapter 30
30
M ason drove a little faster than he should have, but he was eager to get to the Sandbar and see what was on that thumb drive. Something important was on it or it wouldn't have garnered Carley's, or anyone's kidnapping. Mitch DeMario was behind him.
As soon as Mason threw his truck in park, he hopped out and winced when he tightened his thigh muscle where he'd been shot. He'd forgotten about that. All that was important right now was finding Carley.
He limped slightly toward the Sandbar.
DeMario caught up to him. "What's going on with the limp?"
"I got shot today."
"What?"
"Yeah, an officer's bullet ricocheted off a rock and hit me. It didn't go deep. It was actually not in far at all, and EMTs were able to pull it out."
"Holy shit, you're leading an exciting life here."
"To be honest with you, it's more exciting than I would like right now. I just want to get my girlfriend back, spend time with her, do my job, and have a nice life with her."
"Okay, well let's see what we can do."
They hustled in the back door. Jace had pulled the thumb drive from the safe. Margo sat at her desk wiping her eyes. The second she saw him, she jumped up and hugged him.
"Oh, Mason, I can't believe this. I can't believe this. I just can't believe this."
"I know, Margo. We're going to get her back and we're going to do it as quickly as we can. I don't doubt the police are doing everything they can, but they're blocked by laws and rules. We aren't. Well, we are, but we're not."
Jace handed Mitch the thumb drive.
Mitch looked it over, turned it around in his hand, and nodded.
"Yeah, this is military grade for sure." He put it in Jace's computer then pulled his phone out and tapped a number.
"Hey, Ethan, it's Mitch. So I'm here in Blossom Springs, and we have a little bit of a snag. Carley Page, the woman who found the thumb drive, has been kidnapped. I'm here with Mason Thompson and friends. I want to see what's on the thumb drive to see if it can help us identify who has her. I need login information."
He listened, clicked on the logo, and the password and username screen popped up.
"Okay, go ahead. I have that screen open now."
He was given information to unlock the thumb drive and as soon as he clicked enter, the screen filled with information. He read it over, as Mason watched over his shoulder.
Mitch whistled a low, slow whistle. "This is information on Russia. It looks like secrets were being passed between the US and Russia regarding government equipment, including weapon diagrams.
He kept clicking back and forth between screens.
"Somebody's passing military secrets," Mitch said. "Hang on. I'm going to put you on speaker." He tapped the speaker icon on his phone.
"Mason Thompson, Jace Marriott, Quinn Kurtz, and Jace Marriott's wife, Margo are here with me."
He set his phone on the desk. "All right, folks, I have Ethan Dougherty here on the line."
"Hi, folks. I'm sorry about all that's happened there, but I'll help in any way I can." He took a deep breath. "All right, Mitch, click on the upper left corner. There's an icon there. Click on that."
Mitch did as he was told. "Done."
"All right, there's a number in there. Give me that number."
Mitch read off the number. In the background, you could hear the typing of keys.
Ethan then said. "That thumb drive has been missing for about a year."
Mitch stood up. "Well, what do you make of that?"
Ethan replied, "Where did you find it?"
Mitch looked over at Mason. "Hey, Ethan, it's Mason. Carley was speaking to landscapers outside the Barracks Condos last night. I told you about the condos yesterday. That's where I live. Landscapers are planting shrubbery around the building. As they were scraping the dirt into a hole, she saw the shine of the thumb drive and picked it up. She asked the landscapers if they'd dropped it, and they said no. I asked the landscaper if anything else had been uncovered. And he showed me a box that had been with it. I gave that box to Jace also."
Jace turned around and grabbed the box from the safe and handed it to Mitch. "I have the box here. Ethan, hang on. Let me look it over."
He turned the box all around. "It just seems to be a plain box with no writing or information on it of any sort. The drive was likely put into the box to protect it if someone buried it. Or to camouflage what was inside. Nothing denoting anything on it. I'll send pictures."
Mitch snapped pictures with his phone of the box and the drive, just for evidence sake. He tapped the photos and set his phone down.
"I've just sent them to you."
"Thanks," Ethan replied. "Okay, what I have here on my system is that along with that thumb drive, we are missing two others. The serial numbers are similar, and they went missing at the same time. But what I can also tell you is the information that you have on that thumb drive is needed for the other two thumb drives to mean anything. It's a newer system we have in place. These thumb drives were stolen from a secured storage locker. It'll take me a while to know if the information on them was overwritten or altered. They could have been stolen for the encryption. Or..." He took a deep breath. "Or this is an inside job, and we have a spy in our midst stealing information. I'll know more once I can match up the initial information uploaded to the drives and what you've found on it now."
Mitch took a deep breath and stood up. He looked over at Mason and shook his head.
Ethan asked, "Do you have any leads on the victim?"
Mitch cleared his throat, "Yeah, we have one. We're going to work on that right now. Do you have anyone listed as having checked those drives out?"
"Negative. They were stored by the locker commander and not checked out. That was fifteen months ago."
"Okay. Thanks." Mitch turned to Mason. "Anything?"
Ethan began talking before Mason could respond. "Also, I might also tell you that we have been following some individuals who are suspected of stealing military secrets. Two of them were caught about three months ago. Two of them remain at large."
Mason leaned forward, "Do you have the names of those two individuals at large?"
"Hang on, let me see." More keys were clacking.
Ethan came back with, "Affirmative. The two are Terry Bryan and Dustin Carter."
That didn't mean anything to him. He'd never heard of those people. He looked at Jace and Quinn. They both shook their heads.
Mitch said, "Thank you, Ethan. I'll be in touch. You do the same, please."
"Ten-four."