The Complete Mackenzies Collection Read online

  “We’ve gone out together a few times.” They’d done a hell of a lot more than that, he thought savagely. She had given herself to him with a completeness that had shattered his memories of other women, reduced them to nothingness. And after they had returned from Vegas Sunday night she had slipped out to the work area and…done what? Secretly activated the laser on Bowie’s aircraft? Had the laser on the bird he’d been flying been activated, too? Could he just as easily have been the one who shot down a friend?

  Captain Hodge looked uncomfortable. “While you were with her, did she say anything? Ask any questions pertaining to Night Wing?”

  “No.” He was certain of that. Work had been mentioned in only the most general way. But then again, why should she have to ask him anything? “She has the clearance to find out anything about the project that she wants without having to ask anyone else.”

  “That’s true. But did she say anything that, in retrospect, you could construe as being a reason for wanting the lasers to fail? Or for wanting to scuttle the Night Wing project?”

  “No.” But she wouldn’t; Caroline was too smart for that. Caroline was brilliant. Caroline was perfectly capable of activating the lasers; she was not only an expert, she had access to the codes. “She has the knowledge and she had the opportunity,” he heard himself saying. “Do you have anything else? Motive, anything suspicious in her past, any current money problems?”

  “Her background is clean as a whistle,” the captain admitted. “We’re going to do a total recheck to make certain it’s correct and none of it has been fabricated, but that’s only a precaution. Everyone connected with this project has been verified down to the fillings in their teeth.”

  “Clarify this for me,” Major General Tuell said. “She could activate the lasers from the work area, without actually being in contact with the lasers themselves? The birds are under twenty-four-hour guard.”

  “Yes, sir,” Captain Hodge said. “By computer command. And Ms. Evans carried a double major in college. She got her doctorate in physics, but she also has a master’s in computer sciences. She knows her way around computers.”

  “I see.” The general sighed. “What are your recommendations?”

  “We won’t file formal charges, sir. We can prove opportunity, and the timing is very suspicious, but we haven’t as yet proven that the computers have actually been reprogrammed to arm and fire the lasers. There’s still a possibility that it’s a mechanical snafu.”

  “But you don’t think so?”

  “No sir. The problems began when she arrived, and in both instances they occurred after she had made midnight visits to the work area. She’s a civilian. I recommend that the FBI be notified and that she be restricted to base, but not yet taken into custody. As a precaution, I would also restrict the entire laser team from the work area until this is settled.”

  “Why is that, Captain?”

  “As I said, sir, as a precaution. She may not be the only one involved.”

  “The logs don’t show anyone else entering the work area at suspicious times.”

  “That doesn’t mean they didn’t know about it. I think Colonel Mackenzie will agree with me that it’s less expensive to halt testing for a few days than to lose another F-22, or maybe even one of the prototypes.”

  “Yes.” Joe’s voice was hard. “Are you going to question Ms. Evans?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “I’d like to be there.”

  “Of course, sir.” Captain Hodge thought wryly that Colonel Mackenzie didn’t have to have permission; he had supreme authority on this base with anything concerning the Night Wing project. He would defer to Major General Tuell, but it would be by choice.

  “When?”

  “I can have my people escort her here now, if you’d like.”

  “Then do it.”

  Major General Tuell stood. “Gentlemen, I’m leaving this in your hands. I trust you’ll both make certain of our position before charges are filed. However, do whatever has to be done to solve this. The project is too important.”

  They both saluted, and he returned it. As he left, Captain Hodge gestured to Joe’s telephone and said, “With your permission, sir.”

  Joe nodded curtly. Captain Hodge lifted the receiver and pressed a code. “Have Ms. Caroline Evans, C12X114, escorted to Colonel Mackenzie’s office. Verify.”

  Whoever had answered the phone repeated the code number. Captain Hodge said, “Correct. Thank you.”

  He hung up the phone and turned to Joe. “Ten minutes,” he said.

  Chapter 10

  Caroline had never felt so small and exposed and terrified. She sat in a chair in Joe’s office and tried to catch his eye, to silently plead with him to believe her, but he wouldn’t look at her. Or rather, he was looking at her all right, but it was with a cold, totally impersonal gaze, as if he were observing a bug. He wasn’t seeing her, Caroline. It was the look on his face more than anything else that frightened her. It was as hard as stone.

  “No, I did not reenter the work area on those occasions,” she repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time.

  “The sensors logged both your entrance and exit times, Ms. Evans.” Captain Hodge, the head of base security, was also good at repeating himself.

  “Then the sensors are wrong.”

  “No, the sensors are extremely accurate. State-of-the-art.”

  “The sensors are wrong.” She drew a deep breath, trying to calm herself. She felt almost sick with fear. “I dislodged my ID card somehow during the day Thursday. I discovered it was missing Friday morning when I dressed.”

  “So you keep saying. We have no record of you filing a report on this so-called missing card, and you realize, of course, how important this would be on a top-security project. Perhaps you would like to explain your reasoning again.”

  “I remembered snagging it on a file folder Thursday and thought it must have come loose then. I didn’t notify security because it seemed like a lot of bother when I was fairly certain it wasn’t lost but was still in the office.”

  “But the sensors record you leaving the building that afternoon with the other members of your team. You had to have had your tag on for that to be possible, and believe me, Ms. Evans, the security works on both entering and exiting. If anyone crosses that threshold from any direction without the proper identification, it triggers an alarm.”

  “And that’s why I’m telling you that the sensors have to be malfunctioning. When I discovered that I’d misplaced my tag, I called Cal Gilchrist and got him to check the office for me. He found my tag lying on the floor under my desk. He brought it back out to me and returned to his quarters while I began work. All you have to do is ask him.”

  “Mr. Gilchrist will be asked the appropriate questions. However, what the logs show is that both you and Mr. Gilchrist entered the building together and left together two minutes later. Then you reentered alone, and it was over an hour before Mr. Gilchrist returned.”

  “That’s impossible. I did not go into the building until Mr. Gilchrist returned with my tag. What do your precious sensors tell you when two tags but only one body leave a building?”

  The captain ignored her question and instead made a quick notation on the clipboard he carried. “Did you also misplace your tag on Sunday night?”

  “No. I didn’t enter the building on Sunday night.” She couldn’t prevent herself from giving Joe another quick, imploring glance. What was he thinking? Surely he didn’t suspect her of sabotaging the lasers.

  “The sensors say you did. And by your own testimony, your ID tag was with you.”

  “The tag was exactly where I had left it Friday afternoon when I put it on again this morning.”

  “You didn’t move it at all during the weekend?”

  “I spent the weekend in Vegas.”

  “And left your tag behind.”

  “Do you wear your ID tag off-base, Captain?” she shot back.

  He said mildly, “I’d like t