“Breakfast comes around eight, I was told,” she said.
“It’ll be close,” he said, “but we still have twenty minutes.”
She nodded. “And you’re still evading the issue.”
“You can’t say anything to anybody,” he said.
She stared at him, perplexed. “That’s fine,” she said. “I don’t exactly have anybody to say anything to, in case you haven’t noticed.” He walked over, held up his phone, swiped the screen to get to something, and showed her a small video clip. The angle was wrong for her to see very clearly, so she brought his hand closer and twisted it, so she could get a better look at the video playing.
He said, “It’s dark at the time of the video too, so keep that in mind.”
She watched as the shadowy figure answered a phone call and then walked down the approach to the sub. He got in without any trouble. “There’s security on that sub,” she murmured.
“Keep watching,” he said.
She watched as the video sped up, and finally she could see herself and the others approach, and then the sub took off. She handed the phone back, wondering what she was supposed to see. Then she got it. “He didn’t get off, did he?”
Axel shook his head. “No,” he said, “not that I could find.”
“So I was right,” she said softly. She looked at him and took another sip of coffee. “Have you told anybody?”
“Mason,” he said with a nod. “I left it with him.”
“Are you anticipating a problem?”
“Well, it’s possible,” he said. “I’m not sure. I think it’s nice and tidy for the navy to keep it the way it currently appears.”
“Meaning?”
“Hostettler shot everyone and then himself.”
“Unless he didn’t, in which case hard questions need to be asked. Yet it’s all wrapped up, but for the ramblings of some woman with a head injury.”
“Except for that video,” he said.
“You found it, so, if anybody’s looking, they should find it too, right?”
“And that, of course, is another question. Whether they look and find it or not, I don’t know. But Mason will take it to them, and hopefully that will force an investigation.”
“I hope so,” she said. She paused, looked at him, and said, “So, the guy. Who is he?”
“Don’t know yet,” he said cheerfully, “but I’ll find out.”
She leaned back in the bed, studied his face, and gave a quick nod. “Do. I want to know who that bastard is.”
*
It was one thing to want to catch this guy, but it was another thing entirely to figure out who it was. They had absolutely no evidence or anything else other than the stark figure moving in the darkness. Black on black was never good for identification. But it had to be somebody with access, somebody who had security credentials, with a level of clearance to get in, and somebody who knew the timing of this mission and when the sub was going down. Those parameters should reduce the numbers of suspects to something manageable. As he walked out of the hospital, he called Mason. “Any update?”
“Of course not,” Mason said, a note of humor in his voice. “You know how this works.”
“I know,” he said. “I was just hoping.”
“Did she recognize him?”
“No, but I think she feels vindicated. At least the presence of that one shadow gave credence to her account.”
“Here’s the problem,” Mason said. “I’m getting the impression from someone above that, because she’s still alive, she was likely to be the person in partnership with Hostettler.”
Axel froze, stared at the parking lot, as if suddenly seeing it for the first time. “Seriously?” He tried to think back to everything he’d learned about her, which was damn little. How she had conducted herself, where she’d been hidden, and what she was like now that she was awake. And none of it jived with that theory. “I don’t believe it,” he said.
“The question is, do you believe her?”
“Yes,” he said instinctively. And then he frowned. “But I don’t know why.”
“Sometimes our gut is all we have to go by,” Mason said.
“I know. She feels honest.” And he stopped. “You’re right. It’s just gut. It’s instinct. I trust her.”
“Well, the brass wants a full investigation into her history, background, connections, because they think that, through her, they’ll find him.”
“That’s possible,” he said, grasping at straws, “but that doesn’t mean she’s aware of the connection or that she played a role in this somehow.”
“You mean, somebody was doing this to get back at her?”
“Or used her somehow as a way to get in to where he needed to go.”
“It’s possible,” he said thoughtfully. “We do tend to see only what’s in front of us. And people are looking at her as the sole survivor and potentially the only one who can tell them anything. The problem with that is, they won’t be looking at anyone else.”
“Sure,” Axel said, “but that doesn’t mean she can tell the investigators anything useful.”
“Anyway, I suggest you stick close to her and see what you can find out.”
“The navy is doing their investigation already as well?”
“An investigation is going on right now, yes,” he said, “but it’ll be at a different level. You know that.”
“So, I’m to do this on an unofficial level?”
“Yes,” Mason said. “It’s kind of half-cleared, let’s say.” He chuckled, adding a note of humor. “So it may take a bit of your free time.”
“I don’t give a damn about that,” he said. “Besides, now you’ve got me going, I’ll be pissed if she’s involved.”
“Ah, she’s gotten to you, has she?”
He frowned at that. “I don’t know that I would say that,” he said cautiously.
“I would,” Mason said cheerfully. “Get to know her. See what’s behind this thing.”
“She won’t like that I’m buddying up with her to investigate her.”
“You’ll have to figure out the best way to handle it,” he said quietly. “If she is found to have played a part, you know what’ll happen to her.”
Axel winced because being a traitor to your own country, sabotaging millions of dollars of equipment, and causing the deaths or being directly involved in the murders of a eleven countrymen and fellow military personnel would never be a good end. “I still don’t think she could have anything to do with this,” he said.
“Then prove it,” Mason said and hung up.
The question was how, why, and where to even begin. Did he tell her about it? She’d be more open if she thought she was helping him clear her. But she also might get her back up and not want to contribute anything. That wouldn’t be to her benefit, but people weren’t always reasonable about things like this. He wanted her cooperation. It was by far the easiest way to get what he needed to find out.