Читать книгу The Double Eagle - James Twining - Страница 12

FBI Laboratory, FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia

18th July – 11:10pm

‘You still here?’

Dr Sarah Lucas paused in the doorway to the laboratory as she pulled her jacket on, lifting her blonde hair out from under the collar. The room was dark apart from the pool of light around the computer at the far end, the outline of the person hunched in front of it silhouetted against the flickering screen.

‘Yeah,’ the outline grunted back. ‘I promised some cop in New York I’d run something through the system before I left tonight. Kinda wishing I hadn’t.’

Sarah smiled. David Mahoney was a rookie fresh out of Quantico, full of zesty enthusiasm and uncomplicated ambition. He still had a lot to learn; knowing when to say no was right up there. But that would come with time and experience. Then again, she mused, it was past eleven and she was still there. Maybe some people just never learned to say no. She put her briefcase down and stepped into the room.

‘What have you got?’

Mahoney was tapping furiously into the keyboard, his stubby fingers complementing his round, fleshy face, greasy brown hair parted on the left hand side and scooped behind his ears. He barely looked up when she peered over his shoulder, adjusting her tortoiseshell glasses on her face.

‘Get this. Some guy abseiled down to the 17th floor of a Park Avenue apartment block, stole a nine million dollar Easter egg and then vanished. NYPD forensics found an eyelash on the floor next to the safe. They figure it’s probably unrelated but wanted us to run it through just in case something showed up. It’ll only be another few seconds.’ He looked up at her, the spots on his shiny forehead glowing purple in the flickering blue light. ‘What about you? What are you still doing here?’

‘Keeping my promises, like you.’ She smiled back. ‘Here you go.’

The screen flickered red, a boxed message flashing intermittently.

‘Restricted Access – Security Clearance must be sought before viewing this file.’

Beneath it, a name and a phone number.

‘Shit.’ She swore as she read the message and stood up straight.

‘What just happened?’ Mahoney was clicking furiously on his mouse as he tried to get the previous page back. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means you forget you ever saw this.’ Her voice was grim, her jaw set firm. ‘You call up the NYPD tomorrow and tell them that you didn’t get a match. This never happened, understand?’

Mahoney nodded dumbly, his eyes wide and bewildered. She reached past him for the phone and dialled the number at the bottom of the message on the screen.

‘Yes – hello, sir,’ she said when the phone was answered. ‘This is Dr Lucas over at the FBI Lab in Quantico. I’m sorry for calling you so late. It’s just that NYPD sent across a sample taken from a crime scene two days ago. When we put it into the computer the system locked us out and said to call you … yes, sir … no, sir, just me and a new recruit … yes, sir, I’ve told him the drill.’ She fixed Mahoney with a cold stare. ‘I think he knows the consequences … thank you, sir. You too, sir.’

She put the phone down and turned to a confused-looking Mahoney with a tight smile.

‘Welcome to the FBI.’