The flash went off in his face, a sickeningly familiar purplish blast of light that overwhelmed his brain circuits even as he recognized it. As he reeled back, his brain paralyzed, he thought he heard an ominously familiar inhalation sound.
“Let him go,” Carpenter said after the yeoman brought in the pieces of the ID card. “He’s just mad right now. He’ll come around.”
Kensington dismissed the yeoman and waited for him to the door. “Are you completely sure those archives are an?”
Carpenter wasn’t sure of anything. He had been truly unsettled when Karen Lawrence turned on him like that. And God only knew what that von Rensel guy was doing. “Yes, sir, but I’m going to keep a security trap. in place until we have Sherman’s papers.”
“You said it was clean.”
“It is, but I don’t trust computers, or the weird bastards who can get into their brains and manipulate them. Like that guy those people sent over.”
Kensington nodded thoughtfully. “Do you realize how bad that whole business would look in today’s climate?”
“I don’t want to even think about it. Leaving a guy behind was one thing. Not trying to get him back was something else again. In today’s climate, the Navy’d be tom apart over this little story.”
They were interrupted by the EA. “Admiral Carpenter, your office has patched down a call from a Mr. Mcnair?
Says it’s urgent.
As they walked quickly away from Kensington’s office, Karen’s mind was spinning. Why was Carpenter doing this?
As a woman, she could understand Sherman’s decision to throw in the towel. But not why Kensington and Carpenter were doing this. Unless, of course, Sherman wasn’t the scandal they were really afraid of. She stopped short in the corridor, thinking about that locked file.
“Admiral, there has to be something more behind all this than just fear of a public-relations problem. And I think I know where we might find it.”
Sherman gave her a weary look. “Do we have time for theories, Karen?”
“I think We ought to make time for this one,” she said.
“I’d like to divert to my office before we leave the building, and hopefully before Admiral Carpenter gets back to his office. I need to get to my. computer.”
“Will the office be open? And what are we looking for?” He asked as she turned dawn the sixth corridor, heading toward the Investigations Review offices. Their voices echoed in the empty hallway.
Stem portraits of CNOS past frowned down on them.
“This whole thing began in Vietnam,” she said. “A week ago, I asked for the archive file of the original JAG investigation, when Galantz was lost. But when I tried to pull it up, there was a security block.
Admiral Carpenter, told Train that he had read it, and that it corroborated your version of what happened out there in Vietnam. But I’m wondering if there isn’t something else in that file.”
“Did von Rensel see it?”
“No, sir,” she said, turning into the D-ring corridor and quickening her pace. “He obtained the NIS file on Jack. But he thinks Carpenter is behind the security block.”
They arrived at the IR office door, whose translucent glass window was dark. She punched in the code and opened the door. Sherman followed her in and closed the door behind them as she turned on some lights. “Why would NIS have a file on Jack?” he asked.
She hurried over to her cubicle, debited with herself about turning off the lights, and decided against it. She went over to the yeoman’s desk and booted up the network server, and then she went to her desk to bring up her own system.
“I’m not sure they had a file on him, per se. They apparently have access to multiple databases, and they can do what the telemarketers and the credit checkers can do, only with some federal muscle.”
“What a concept,” he muttered.
“Okay, system’s up ” She sat down at her desk and put through a request from’the IR system to the JAG local-area network. Sherman paced around the empty office while Karen’s fingers flew over the keyboard.
“Any luck?” Sherman asked from across the room.
“Almost,” she replied, opening the’access screen and keying in her original request number. The screen asked for her personal identifier.
She keyed that in. A red banner exploded across the screen. It told her that her access was invalid and that the restricting authority was being notified.
“Uh-oh,” Sherman said from across the room.
“Uh-oh is right,” she said. “Access denied. And I’ll bet Carpenter’s office is getting an alert right now telling them I’m trying to get into this file.”
“Maybe we should shut down and get out of here, then,” he said. “Before the rent-a-cops show up. Or worse, some of the CNO’s Marines from Opnav security.”
“I can’t imagine anything like that,” she said. “It’s not as if I was doing something illegal. This is a system I use all the time.”
“See if you can log into your division’s LAN E-mail system,” he suggested. “See if this denial is file -specific, or user-specific.”
She frowned but then exited the archive system and opened E-mail.
Another red banner. “It’s me, she whispered.
“I was afraid of that,” he said. “Let’s go. Now.”
“I have to shut the system down. If I don’t, the server will-“
“Screw the server,” he said, reaching down to hit the computer’s power key. “We need to get out of this building and down to Aquia as quickly as possible.”
Karen got up hurriedly and turned off the office lights.
They opened the door and looked out into the empty corridor.
“No sounds of approaching jackboots,” Sherman said.
“Follow me.”
“Where are we going?” she asked, hurrying to keep up in her skirt and heels.
“Don’t think we ought just to waltz out the South Parking entrance,” he said over his shoulder. If that was a network trap, there’ll be a security alert. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but somebqdy’s locked you ‘out of the system, and recently. We’ll take these stairs right here.’ He ducked sideways into a small stairway in the middle of the corridor. Karen followed, her heels clattering on the concrete steps.
“Where does this go? I’ve never used this one. “
“Spend enough years in this building, you learn some shortcuts. This’ll get us down to the first floor, and then we’ll go around the B-ring to corridor four. Stay out of the A-ring in case security vehicles are on their way. Damn, I wish it weren’t Saturday. The building’s empty as a tomb.
We’re going to be conspicuous.”
“Where will that take us?” she asked.
“And I may have to take these shoes off.”
He turned around to look and then apologized. “Sorry. I forgot about heels. I guess there’s no need to run.” But even as he said that, as they were about to cross the sixth corridor through the B-ring, they heard the urgent beeping sound of an approaching electric security vehicle coming down the A-ring to their left. They stopped and ducked back into the B-ring, flattening themselves against an office door.
There were two large glass doors across the sixth corridor, where they could see the reflection of the security vehicle, a large electric golf cart with a rotating amber beacon, go humming by. There were four armed men riding in the vehicle.