Chapter 11 - The Witness Who Vanished
Nina's hands shook so badly she almost dropped the drive. Maya put an evidence bag beneath it before Nina let go.
"Where have you been?" I asked.
"Places where they couldn't find me."
She looked twenty years older than the technician who used to fix our radios while singing off-key country songs. There was a healing cut along her jaw.
"After the ambush, I reported the transmitter failure," Nina said. "A week later, a Cinderline lawyer showed up with men who knew my parents' address. He said my statement had been corrected. If I complained, my father would lose his medical coverage."
"Who corrected it?" Maya asked.
"Sloane signed the revision. Voss delivered it."
"Will you give that testimony under oath?"
Nina looked at me, then at Atlas. "Yes. But we have to hurry. They know I took the core."
Rourke sent two agents to secure the tunnel entrance. Nina described how she had learned the mirror was scheduled for destruction and returned to recover it before the contractors arrived.
"The token opens the maintenance partition," she told us. "Eli copied the number because he was afraid somebody would change the master passwords."
An agent called from the stairwell. A truck had stopped above the access road. The driver claimed he was there to service the water pump, but the work order had no company seal.
Maya ordered us into a service passage while the officers checked him. Atlas braced himself against my leg, refusing to move until June's token was safely packed in Maya's case. I almost laughed at the stubbornness. We emerged beside the river channel and reached the vehicles without being seen. As we drove away, I watched the tower shrink in the rear window.
"Does the drive show who changed the route?" I asked Nina.
"Yes. But that's not the worst part."
May you like
She stared down at her hands.
"The system logged the ambush before your convoy reached the pass. Somebody at headquarters received the warning and marked it 'no action required.'"
