Hell To Pay

Chapter 12: Operation White Shark

Aixa Gomez tapped away at the keys of her keyboard so hard that she was surprised she didn't pound them right off their foundation. She was biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed, but what she'd just found was more than enough to have everyone up in arms. She just needed a little more proof, a little more certainty.

She had a team of the best techsperts in the system on her headset, all working on the same damn thing, but still... "Are you guys seeing this?"

"Great work finding those hidden files," one of them replied, "we see it crystal clear."

It wasn't even that hard, but it was difficult to imagine such sensitive information being passed around so easily. Why had a team of analysts had it and how had the terrorists known about it? They'd been on a school campus, they didn't need these kinds of files on their computers and monitoring equipment.

"Why was this there?" One of the analyst's asked the same thing burning in her mind.

"I don't know. Either their mission was a little more top secret than we were told or someone did this on purpose." She murmured, clicking a few more things. CIA, Special Forces, FBI, all of them were good at hiding files within their files to protect sensitive information, it'd only taken her an hour and a half to find it, and that was mostly because it simply because it took time to search and scan for the clues. "Don't tell anyone about this, this is for our superiors only."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm taking this straight to Colonel Tannen." Aka, Lyle. Most of the military were a last name basis, but she'd found Special Forces X to be a unique division in and of itself. They rarely used their rank when referring to each other, they weren't always by the book, and almost all of their missions weren't even in the books. They were really like a big family here, even if that family seemed a little dysfunctional right now with Flint returning and Harper missing.

They operated on their own in a way other divisions of the Army did not. Most people didn't even know this specific division existed until they got high enough in rank. In the general public they were usually referred to as the Special Forces. No one needed to know they were a more important division than that. No one had to know how many times they'd personally stopped major terrorist attacks or prevented global war.

She signed off and lifted her two in one computer off the table. It was the perfect mobile device, passing for a tablet when on the go, working as a computer, and acting as a laptop. She left the conference room behind and hoped she could catch Lyle before he left. He was supposed to be checking back in with Harper soon.

She wandered through the halls, checking his office and the kitchenette before stopping in Zane's room, "Hey,"

"Hey." He turned to face her. He was another fine man, and if Flint was done with her she'd take a ride with him if he wanted. She wasn't so certain Zane would be open to it, though. Hell, her fantasy at this place was every single one of them and her in a bed. When Harper healed up she didn't care if she joined them, they could all have some fun.

"Did Lyle already go?"

"Yeah, I was about to head to the hospital if you want to ride with me? We're rotating shifts now to keep an eye on her. He's got a group keeping an eye on her, I'm a little late so we can't make any stops."

"That's fine. I have to see Lyle."

"Any reason?"

"I found some sensitive information on the flash drive I need to go over with him." She explained and he cocked an eyebrow but she shook her head. She couldn't share it with him. He took the hint and finished sliding on his boot that she'd barely noticed in his hand.

"Archie rode with Lyle and Flint, I'm sure that was an awkward ride for him, and Rancher should be there by now. We'll be the last two." He explained and grabbed his keys from a small night stand. They all had living quarters, but here they had their own rooms for whenever they were on the job. "Ready?"

"Yes," she nodded but as she fell into step beside him, she opened her computer and started skimming some things. "Did they tell you we've successfully copied the flash drive? We were able to send a few copies to some of our best analysts."

"And you still worked on it." He commented, "You're a hard worker, Gomez."

"That's why I'm here." She smiled, "Not to sound crude, but her being out of commission for the moment will be good for my career. I hope to do more operations with X in the future."

He laughed and cast her a glance, "Are you hoping for more X or more Flint?"

"Aha, you didn't strike me as the judgmental type, Zane."

"Not a chance," he gave her a reassuring smile, "but as the medic around here, just make sure you-"

"Oh God, Zane, no!" She started laughing. "Please don't give me the medical 'get yourself checked out' speech."

He smirked and pulled open the main door for her. "Okay, I won't." She appreciated his laughter on the subject and she cast him a smile.

"You know, Flint might not like you but I think you're an alright guy."

"Just alright? Come on, I deserve more credit than that."

They reached his vehicle and climbed in and were down the road immediately, Zane flipping through the stations while she continued to study her computer, but they were only a few minutes down the road when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket and she slipped it out, "Gomez."

"Gomez," he acknowledged her, it was one of her analysts, "So I did some digging,"

She closed her eyes and pressed her free hand against them. "Tell me you didn't go looking for any of the classified shit we just found."

He laughed and cleared his throat, almost awkwardly, "Those classified names we found on the flash drive..."

"Portier!" She hissed, "That's classified! You can't-"

"But I did. And I already have the information. The names seemed to be linked to something called White Shark."

"I don't know what that means and you better not." She threatened.

"I don't know what it means. I just wanted to do some light digging, I just found the files that went with it-but I didn't open them!" He cut her off as she started yelling. Her heart was pounding, he was going to get fired if anyone caught him snooping in classified files! He could get her fired for talking about it.

"Don't touch anything else!" She hissed, she didn't care how good of a hacker he was, this wasn't part of his job. "I didn't trust you or any other analyst with this flash drive for you to abuse the power I just gave you." She caught the sharp movement of Zane's head as he glanced at her and tried to calm herself.

"Okay, okay, I just thought you might like to know that Operation White Shark is also highly classified, almost the entire file is blacked out. I'm starting to think that operation Red Shark is somehow related. Wouldn't you say?" He took a breath. "Those terrorist names are somehow connected to this file, and both operations."

"It's above your pay grade, drop it. Now."

"Sorry."

"I can't accept that. Leave it alone until I speak to Tannen."

"Yes, ma'am."

She hung up and felt Zane's eyes on her again. She sighed and sank back into the seat, "I really need to speak to Lyle."

"Okay." He murmured, accepting her quiet refusal to speak more on the topic. His foot got heavier on the gas, speeding up their trip.