Chapter 26: Chapter twenty-five

Present day

 

Alesha was planning to do something ill-advised. Mike had warned her not to do anything that would put herself in danger but being in danger was part of what being a cop was about. You risked yourself to protect others and see justice done. That was the job, and that was that Alesha did.

The FBI kept records of who had been assigned what leads in both digital and hardcopy, and she needed a look at those files. They would tell her if it actually was an FBI agent who had looked into the laboratory equipment and if so, which one it was.

She could request them officially of course, but Mike had been right that doing so would show her hand. In someone was dirty, that could put a target on her back faster than if she painted one herself. She needed to find a way to see them without anyone knowing.

So, she kept an eye on the team from the FBI during taskforce briefings. The taskforce was set up in a temporary FBI field-office—really just an office space that the Bureau had rented—so she had more opportunity to observe them the other agencies. The taskforce had five FBI members: Special Agent Harris, a short man with thick arms and a serious disposition;  Special Agent Branson, a tall man who was good-looking but all too aware of it; Special Agent Henderson, a forgettable fellow who seemed to fade into the background of every meeting; Supervisory Special Agent Marks, a short, Asian woman with a strong air of command to her; and Agent Brooks, a youngish man who seemed to have been brought along mostly to do paperwork and fetch the other agents their coffee.

Her first thought was just to sneak a look at the files through sheer proximity. Taskforce meetings could be interminably long, and people often excused themselves to get coffee or go to the bathroom partway through. She had been thought she might be able get a glimpse of their files while that was happening, but reality quashed that idea almost as soon as she thought of it. It might have worked with the DEA, who only had one permanent member on the taskforce, but the FBI had five people all sitting together and never had more than two out of the room at any one time. There was no way they wouldn’t notice her wandering over and trying to peek at their files. And, that was assuming they even brought a hardcopy of the right file to meetings. If what she wanted was behind a password, she would have no chance.

Of the five FBI agents, both Branson and Brooks seemed to be attracted to Alesha. This didn’t surprise her. She was aware she was beautiful, especially since it was pointed out to her like it was an interesting fact by a half-dozen men every time she went to a bar. So, she figured maybe there was something in that she could use. Not seducing the information out of them of course. As far as she knew, that sort of thing only worked in the movies. But if she could get close to them, she could do some digging without being noticed.

Of the two, Brooks was the obvious target. Branson was too experienced to let much slip past him, and Brooks did far more of the filing anyway. She felt bad about using the man’s attraction to her that way, but it was that or do nothing about a dirty Fed obstructing her case. She knew which she preferred.

So, after one of their daily briefings, Alesha asked Agent Brooks if he would like to have lunch with her on the pretence that ‘us newbies have to stick together’. It was friendly enough to intrigue him without being overtly flirtatious enough to make him suspicious when she didn’t progress things further. Which she wouldn’t be doing just to get a look at his files. She wasn’t that sort of girl, thank you very much.

 

Simon Brooks couldn’t believe his luck. Alesha, the pretty Latina detective on the taskforce with Simon, had asked him out for lunch. Special Agent Branson had been eyeing her since the taskforce began, and Simon hadn’t thought he had much chance of competing against him.

He said yes of course, and next thing they were having their lunch together every day while they talked about their jobs and what foods they liked. He had lots of work to do, of course, and often had to finish up some paperwork on his laptop while they ate. That was technically against protocol, as people, even other cops, weren’t to see those files without proper authorization, but Simon figured it wasn’t a big deal. Alesha always sat opposite him and couldn’t see the screen. And, he thought, she couldn’t tell what his login and password were from where she was sitting. So, when he excused himself to go to the bathroom during one of their lunches, all he had to do was log out and there would be no security risk.

Or so he thought.

You are reading story Oblivion at novel35.com

You can find story with these keywords: Oblivion, Read Oblivion, Oblivion novel, Oblivion book, Oblivion story, Oblivion full, Oblivion Latest Chapter