Chapter 10 Kodiak #2
“Go on.”
“Security has flagged irregularities in the access records—yours in particular.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“Mainly database queries using your credentials but running at odd hours. As I said, I wanted to bring it to your attention before I filed anything,” he said. “It could be a system issue, which we’re checking on our end.”
Her eyes met mine through the open door, then she stood. “Thanks, Derek. I’ll look into it.”
“If you need my team to run a diagnostic, say the word.”
She thanked him again and showed him out. On his way to the elevator, he glanced my way but didn’t make eye contact.
I filed the exchange. While the chief of building security coming to Emma about access anomalies could be out of genuine concern, it was equally possible there was more to it.
Alice and Tex had been running countermeasures on Emma’s network activity.
If Derek’s team was picking up irregularities, there was a good chance they were picking up the ones they’d placed intentionally.
The rest of the afternoon was quiet. I made two passes of the floor and checked in with Luke, then with Alice by text. Emma was on a call with Naomi about a subcommittee deadline when I stepped out to use the men’s room.
On my way, I rounded the corner by the break area and stopped.
Brad and Astrid were in the hallway near the stairwell.
They were arguing. Their voices were too low for me to hear, but Brad’s hand was flat on the wall beside her.
Astrid took a step away and crossed her arms. I was poised to intervene if necessary when Brad spotted me.
He dropped his hand and walked toward the elevator.
Astrid looked my way too and went in the opposite direction. Neither acknowledged me.
I filed it next to Derek’s visit and returned to my office.
An hour later, Emma took a call. “I’ll check with Coleman and let you know,” she said loudly enough for me to hear.
A few minutes after that, she appeared in my doorway.
“Brenna wants us to come for dinner tonight,” she said in a quiet tone after glancing over her shoulder when Darla returned to her desk.
“Team update. She said Atticus is grilling.”
“Works for me.”
We left Treasury at five thirty. On the way, I ran through the day in my head while Emma read reports on her tablet.
First, Derek requesting the meeting, then showing up early, followed by Brad and Astrid arguing in the hallway.
Neither added up to anything, but I’d still keep both in the back of my mind.
Luke’s car was already out front when we pulled up to the brownstone.
Atticus was on the rear patio, with a pair of tongs and a beer. He raised the bottle when we walked through the gate. “Grab a drink. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.”
Brenna was in the kitchen with Luke, who had his laptop open on the counter. She hugged Emma and handed her a glass of wine.
“How was your first full day in the office?” she asked.
Emma sighed. “Long.”
I grabbed a beer from the fridge and was leaning with my back against the counter when Atticus brought in a platter of chicken and vegetables. Brenna set out plates, and we ate at the dining table. Thankfully, nobody talked about the case until we’d finished eating.
We moved into the living room, and Atticus suggested Luke start.
“I’ve been pulling incorporation records on the shell NGOs that received the diverted funds,” he said. “Tax-exempt filings, registered agents, the law firms that set them up. This is expert-level work.”
He spread three printouts on the table. “The shell companies are registered in Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming. Standard jurisdictions for corporate anonymity. The offshore accounts run through the Caymans and Cyprus.”
“Same jurisdictions we saw during the Morrison investigation,” Atticus said.
“Yeah. It’s common, but here’s what else caught my attention.” Luke tapped the center printout. “The level of sophistication on the external side requires a specific skill set. The legal structures, compliance filings, and layering suggest this was built by someone who does this for a living.”
“Interesting,” murmured Brenna.
Luke looked around the table. “I think we’re looking at two people. Someone inside Treasury, routing the money out, and someone on the outside, building the infrastructure to receive it. The inside person has the access. The outside person has the expertise.”
“That’ll be our working theory,” said Atticus. “Until we find a reason to think otherwise.”
“I also have a report from Steel on Emma’s car. As we suspected, the brake lines were scored, not cut,” he said. “Whoever did it wanted the failure to happen at speed, not in a parking lot. They used a blade. It was clean and deliberate. This person knew where to cut and how deep.”
Alice had joined us via videoconference from K19 Sentinel Cyber’s headquarters.
“I’ve been stripping layers off the access monitoring we found inside Treasury’s network,” she began.
“It predates Emma’s investigation, and it definitely wasn’t built to track her.
It’s embedded deep in Treasury’s network infrastructure, built to monitor access to sensitive internal files.
Whoever set this up has been watching for months, long before Emma started pulling disbursement records. ”
“Which supports my theory that what I stumbled on is worth pursuing,” said Emma.
“That’s what the data indicates. Monitoring spiked when you started your queries, but the architecture was already in place.”
Brenna had been quiet for most of the briefing, but once Alice signed off, she turned to me.
“Atticus and I were discussing what Emma would do for transportation in the event you’re unavailable.”
“I won’t be.”
She leaned forward. “How about as backup?”
“What do you have in mind?” I asked.
“It would make the most sense for K19 to provide a vehicle. It’ll be tracked with the standard GPS setup,” said Atticus.
Emma rested against the sofa cushion and cringed. “I completely forgot to notify my insurance company of the accident.”
“Technically, you have thirty days,” I said.
She set down her wine. “Right, but I need to remember to do it tomorrow.”
“I’ll remind you.”
“Anyone have more they want to review tonight?” Atticus asked. When no one spoke up, Luke gathered his printouts and Atticus walked him out.
When Emma and Brenna went into the kitchen, I exited through the rear door and stood in the backyard, making notes on my cell. A few minutes later, Atticus joined me.
“How’s Emma doing?”
“She’s taking on too much too soon, in my opinion.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Brenna is too, and that may become an issue.”
Since he didn’t offer, I didn’t ask what he meant.
We returned inside, thanked them for dinner, then left.
On the drive home, Emma was quiet until we were close to halfway to the house.
“Brenna’s pregnant,” she blurted. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but…”
“But what?”
“Her blood pressure is elevated, and her doctor told her she needs to manage her stress levels better.”
Atticus’ comment made sense now.
“And?” I pressed.
“She told her she’d scale back, but you know she won’t.”
“Like someone else I know.”
When Emma turned to me, her expression wasn’t one I expected.
“This isn’t funny, Kodiak. She could lose the baby.”
I reached over and put my hand on hers. “First, ouch. Second, I wasn’t making light of her situation. Third, she isn’t the only one who needs to slow down and isn’t.”
Her eyes scrunched. “Ouch? What does that mean?”
“It’s the first time in days you called me Kodiak when we’re alone.”
She folded her arms. “You made me mad.”
“Noted,” I said with a wink. She didn’t smile.