“Wow,” Galen said. “You didn’t tell me that part.”
“It just came by email as we walked in.”
“So, what happened to that person?”
“Her name’s Chelsea. I don’t know yet. We’re looking into it,” Johan said in a solemn voice.
“Maybe Joy is on to something then,” Galen said. “I had wondered if Ice had assigned us this project as busywork to keep us around town.”
“I figured we’d check this out, and, if nothing was here, we’d go make ourselves useful helping the others on the African art thefts.”
“I didn’t realize when she said the two cases were close together in town that she really meant side by side. Or back to back is more accurate here.”
“I know,” Johan said, wandering around the small space that was their office for a week or so. “We’ve got this massive research facility down the block, and at the end of the block is the back end of the museum. The front of the museum opens onto one of the main city streets and has a huge cultural district area set before it. But the back end of it sure isn’t very far away from us here.”
“Connection?” Galen mused.
“Well, it’s hard not to see the potential for a connection,” Johan replied. “But that doesn’t mean it’s the one we’re thinking of. It could be anything. And it could be nothing.”
“Well, let’s get to work here and see if we can come up with anything useful.”
Just then came a knock on the door, and a tall skinny kid with wire frame glasses poked his head in. He wore Casual Friday attire, even on Mondays, it seemed. Johan noted his security pass affixed to his T-shirt pocket, yet the outer flap on his pocket protector hid most of his photo and his name. Not good security measures, Johan thought.
“Hey, I’m from IT. I heard I’m supposed to hook you two up.”
“Who did that come from?” Johan was testing the kid, just to be sure.
He laughed. “I got three requests, but all were the same. Edward sent me an email. James just tagged me in the hallway, and Joy called me.”
“Sounds good,” Johan said. “We need access to all the inventory management systems.”
He looked at him in surprise. “Is that all you need?”
“Not necessarily. What did Edward say to give us access to?”
The young man took a deep breath. “He said basically everything.”
“Good enough,” Johan said. “That’s what we need then.”
“Where are your laptops?” They pulled them out, and the IT guy quickly sat them down side by side and set them both up for access to the network. “Now you guys realize an awful lot of very sensitive information is here, correct?”
“Got it,” both men said smoothly.
The IT guy hesitated, and they just looked at him with blank faces. He sighed. “I get that an investigation is going on, but I want to make sure that everything stays secure. That’s my job, and, if things go off the rails, I’m the one who’ll get blamed for it.”
“Good point,” Johan said. “A very good point.”
“So what’s the deal then?”
“No deal,” Johan said. “If we run into any trouble, we’ll give you a shout.”
After that obvious dismissal, the young man hesitated, then nodded and left.
“Did you catch his name?” Galen asked.
“I don’t know for sure,” Johan said, “but, when he entered into the admin system, he used the name Pedro.”
“Good enough,” Galen said. Sitting down, he looked at the inventory management area on the screen and said, “You got any clue how to proceed?”
“Hell no,” Johan said. “But I guess it’s like the way we do our inventory. We go into the room and count.”
“Yeah, but that’s just an excuse for us to play, because our inventory is guns, ammo, grenades, and anything else in the line of toys that we might have stockpiled. Hell, we all want to do inventory back home.”
“I wonder if they do it the same way at Ice’s compound.”
“I wonder,” Galen said. “Because, man, this sucks. Paperwork is a pain in the ass.”
At that, Johan burst out laughing. “Well, we need to get a handle on it. Otherwise we’ll let Ice down. And we can’t do that.”
“Nope,” Galen replied. “It’s a hell of a deal between her and Bullard, isn’t it? I like traveling back and forth and switching out companies for a bit.”
“Don’t we all love that?” he said. “Don’t we all.”
They both fell to searching through the database.
“Johan, doesn’t everything look a little too clean and neat?” Galen asked after a few minutes.
“We haven’t had much time to check it over yet,” he said. “First thing I’m doing though is setting up bugs on these laptops to make sure nobody is tracking our progress through the databases.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Galen said.
“I’ve already worked my way through the internet and into the network, putting little trackers on her boss James. And Joy.”
“Interesting. Why Joy?”
“As the lowest on the totem pole, she’s the easiest to get blamed. She’s a new hire, sitting here, with access to everything. She’s pretty vulnerable.”
“Good point,” he said. “So are you sweet on her?”
“I’m not sweet on anybody,” Johan said.
“Too bad,” Galen said with a laugh. “Because, if you are sweet on her, then you should know that she’s interested.”
“And if I’m not sweet on her?”
“Well, then maybe I’ll get sweet on her,” Galen said.
Johan just stared at him.
Galen looked up, a big smile rippling across his face. “So you are interested?”
“No, I’m not,” Johan said in exasperation. “She put out a cry for help, and we’ve responded. That’s it.”
“So you haven’t noticed that she’s like five feet ten inches, maybe 125 pounds, with curves in all the best places? And that long blond hair? She dresses simply but with that classy attitude, and she’s got legs that never quit. What’s not to like?” Galen asked.
Caught off guard, Johan said, “Absolutely nothing.”
Galen laughed. “See? I figured you hadn’t missed out on seeing the important parts.”
“Doesn’t mean I’ll do anything about it though,” Johan said begrudgingly.
“If you aren’t, I am,” Galen said. “So let me know, huh?”
Chapter 3
It was almost impossible for Joy to stay focused on her work. Not just because the two men were here—due to her call to Kai—but also because everybody appeared to be looking at her. Or maybe it was her imagination. It didn’t matter because it still felt like eyes were on her all day long. She kept glancing around the room.
Finally one of the other women, Phyllis, called her out. “What is your problem today?” she asked. “You’re so antsy.”