Iris immediately pulled her into her arms. “She meanswell and is trying to keep you from getting worse. I’ll hold your hand if that will help.”
Bec patted her back before ending the hug. “That was a joke, Iris. I very much appreciate Selina. I was teasing.”
“Oh. Sorry, I’m not good at picking out sarcasm or teasing. I take things quite literally.”
“No need to apologize. I should have thought of that. I’ll tell you the next time I’m teasing, okay?” Iris nodded as Bec returned to the cabinet to pull out the file she’d been looking for, holding it up in victory. “Got it!”
“Let’s go to the lab and wait for Cal,” Iris said, motioning for Bec to go first. They were barely out of the office when Iris’s tablet started ringing. She grabbed it from the desk and hit the answer button. “Secure Watch, Whiskey.”
“Secure Watch, India,” Iris said, and Mina joined them on the screen.
“Is Bec there?” Mina asked, and Iris nodded. She walked over to a high lab table and propped the tablet so she could see them both.
“Good morning, Mina.”
“Hey, Bec. I know Cal and Selina are on the way, but I discovered some information about one of the employees I wanted to run past you.”
“Sure, whatever I can do to help. I haven’t personally worked with many of them, though.”
“This one you have,” Mina said. “Zafar Zimmer.”
“Yes, our lab tech. He’s been here as long as Dr. Hoerman, so close to six years. I’ve only been here five months. What about him?”
“I don’t think he exists.”
“What now?” Bec asked, glancing at Iris before turning back to Mina. “I work with him every day.”
“What I mean is, I don’t think his real name is Zafar Zimmer. The few people in the world with that name don’t live in the United States, nor have they bought plane tickets to Poland from the United States.”
“Maybe he used a different last name, or someone else bought the ticket for him?” Bec suggested, but Mina shook her head.
“Even if someone else bought it, the ticket must be in his name. There were no passengers on any flight to Poland over the last year with the name Zafar. There were only ten males in the age range you gave me for your lab tech who flew to Poland on or around the dates you gave me. None of them were named Zafar, and none of them were your lab tech.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Bec admitted. “Should I try calling him?”
“We already did,” Mina said. “We got the message the number was disconnected, changed or no longer in service.”
“What is going on?” Bec asked just as the door to the stairs opened.
“Secure One, Charlie,” Cal said as he walked in with Selina.
“Hi,” Iris said, turning to them. “We’re talking to Mina.”
Mina took a moment to catch Cal and Selina up on their discussion.
“Right before she called, we were in Walter’s office,” Iris said. “We were looking for the file with the information for the IT company the research center uses to see if they would know who had written the code.”
“Did you find it?” Cal asked. Bec nodded, tapping the file on the table.
“But in the process, Bec said she wished she could see the security footage from the day of the kidnapping.”
“Why?” Selina asked. “You said the person was dressed head to toe in black.”
“They were,” Bec agreed. “But they seemed familiar to me. I can’t explain it more than that. I caught a glimpse of them after my vision cleared from the flash-bang, but not enough to put my finger on it.”
“I’m afraid there’s no way to look at the camera footage,” Cal said.
“We know,” Iris agreed. “The footage can only be watched on Walter’s computer.”
