Broken Trust (21 page)

Mac reached out and squeezed
Bernice’s shoulder, his voice soft and comforting. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Hamilton,
we’ll get her back safe and sound. We still have time.”

Bernice nodded and showed a
trembling smile. Her eyes were filled with trust. “I know you’ll do your best,
Mac.”

“We should hear from the kidnappers
soon,” Toni said.

“Yes, it’s almost time. Agent
Miller should be here with his team soon. What do you want to tell the
kidnapper when they call?”

Toni bit her bottom lip, thinking.
“I’ll bluff, of course. I’ve got to buy us some more time.”

Mac whipped a CD out of his shirt
pocket. “Let’s give them this and keep the flash drive hidden safe.”

She took the disc, raising her
eyebrows at him. “What is this?”

“A military CD filled with obsolete
maps and diagrams. Nothing on that disc will get anyone killed.”

Except possibly Cara.

“It’s a daring ploy, but it just
might work,” Toni said. “But what about Lieutenant Andrus? Has the Colonel
heard anything from NCIS as to who killed him?”

“No, they have no leads. The
Colonel’s coming over right now to speak with us and he asked that we wait
until he gets here.”

Toni hesitated, thinking this a bit
odd. “Okay, whatever you say.”

He took a deep inhale, then let it
go. “I can’t explain why, but I feel strongly that I should take another look
at Eric’s flash drive.”

“But there’s nothing on it.”

He hesitated. “We must have missed
something.”

“Like what?”

Mac tilted his head. “If I knew
that, I’d be able to offer Cara’s kidnappers what they’re after.”

If only it were that easy.

“But I don’t have a computer
anymore.”

“That’s okay. I brought my laptop.
It’s out in my truck. I’ll go get it.”

While Mac went outside, Toni
retrieved Eric’s flash drive from her room. In the den, Mac booted up his
computer. Bernice went into the kitchen to prepare something for breakfast.

As Mac sat at the desk, he couldn’t
help feeling grateful he’d been here. He couldn’t sleep last night. A pressing
feeling had weighed heavily on his mind, urging him to go and watch over Toni’s
house. He’d called Aunt Holly and discovered that Toni and her grandmother had
gone home. Now, he believed the Spirit had warned him of the danger and sent
him here to protect Toni and Bernice.

As long as he lived, Mac would be
grateful he hadn’t resisted.

Looking at Toni, he caught her
studying him. “Are you okay, Toni?”

“Yes, just a bit shaken up. This
has all been very difficult.”

She sat next to him in front of the
computer. He gave her an encouraging smile as he leaned his cane against the
side of the desk close by in case he needed it. “You’ve handled everything
pretty well. I want to thank you, too.”

“For what?”

“For listening to me. For letting
me tell you everything. I’ve carried the weight of guilt on my heart so long
and it helped to talk about it.”

Silence filled the room, deep and
unsettling. They gazed into one another’s eyes, drawing nearer.

She blinked and drew away. “Let’s
just look at the pictures Eric sent me.”

His heart wrenched. What a dope.
She didn’t want him. Not after what he’d told her. Not after what he might have
done to Eric. A familiar feeling crept over him.

Despair.

He fought it off, determined to
have faith. All things were possible with God and Mac wouldn’t allow fear to
take over his heart again. He needed the Lord now more than ever.

He turned back to the computer and
logged on, trying to ignore the heavy ache weighting his chest. He longed to
tell Toni he still loved her and wanted to be together, but didn’t think now
was the time. Maybe later.

Maybe never.

The doorbell rang and Toni went to
answer it. She returned with the Colonel. As they entered the den, Mac turned
from the computer and nodded a greeting. The Colonel stood behind Mac, staring
at the screen.

“Any luck, yet?” Wilkinson asked.

“No…maybe. Look at the file size of
these photos.” Conscious of Toni standing beside him, Mac ran the cursor over
several individual pictures and pointed to where it listed the dimension, type
and size of the individual files.

“They all look about the same to
me,” Toni said.

“All except for this one.” He moved
the cursor over the photo of him posing with Eric and Lieutenant Andrus.

Toni gasped. “That file is
enormous!”

“Yes, almost ten meg. All the other
files are small in comparison. Large or small, the photos print and look
completely normal. It’d be easy to overlook. But they’re definitely different.”

“Hmm, you think there’s something
hidden inside the large file?” Colonel Wilkinson asked.

“I sure do.” Mac focused on the
computer. “I think Eric digitally included Andrus in this photo so I would
notice it. He hid data in the pixels for me to find.”

Toni leaned closer. “But how do we
find out what’s hidden there?”

“I remember Eric teaching me a
technique called steganography.”

“Ah, yes.” The Colonel nodded,
seeming to understand immediately. “The military uses it all the time.”

“Would you mind explaining the
process to a mere civilian?” Toni asked.

“Sure.” Mac looked at her.
“Pictures are made up of individual pixels, which define color for the photo.
Some of the pixels are empty and tiny pieces of data can be implanted there, a
technique for transferring hidden files.”

“Both Andrus and Hamilton were
intelligence officers and would have known about the process,” the Colonel
pointed out as he sat on the small sofa against the wall.

Toni sank into an easy chair,
looking bewildered. “Mac, you told me Eric didn’t get along well with
Lieutenant Andrus. What if Eric found out Andrus was selling secret information
to the Taliban? Could Andrus have been the traitor? And would he have been able
to cause the ambush in order to get Eric killed?”

Mac frowned. The thought had
occurred to him, but he still didn’t think that was what had gotten Eric
killed. “Yes, it’s very possible.”

“But who murdered Andrus?” the
Colonel asked.

Toni shook her head. “Maybe the
ponytail man did it, though I have no idea how he figures into all of this.”

At the Colonel’s quizzical
expression, Mac explained that the man with long, dark hair had attacked
Bernice earlier that morning. “Agent Miller and his NCIS team should be here soon
and we’ll tell them what happened.”

“He could be working with any
number of people,” Wilkinson said. “Right now, do you think you can reveal the
encrypted data on that flash drive?”

“Give me a few more minutes. I need
to log onto the Internet and see if I can download a trial copy of Password
Cracker.” Mac clicked the icon on the computer to open up the Internet.

Toni’s forehead crinkled. “Password
Cracker? How exactly does it work?”

Her curious mind was just one thing
Mac loved about her and he took great pleasure in explaining. “There are
numerous programs used to reveal the slack space in a file, including Password
Cracker. It’s easy for anyone to download trial programs. It’ll take me just
awhile to make it work.”

With a deep sigh, she settled back
against the sofa. Mac went to work. Within twenty minutes, he downloaded the
program and ran it.

“Yes!” Mac whooped with victory,
his gaze scanning the data he’d revealed.

Both Toni and Colonel Wilkinson
jumped up, then leaned over Mac, perusing the computer screen with anxiousness.
Over their excited exclamations, the doorbell rang, but Toni paid it no heed.
Probably just agent Miller. Grams was out in the kitchen and would answer the
door.

“What is it? What have you found?”
Wilkinson asked with eagerness.

“Wow!” Mac breathed as he traced
the data. “This includes a number of top secret files and an encryption key. No
wonder the kidnappers want it so bad.”

“What’s that?” Toni gestured to an
email file.

Mac opened it, then sat back,
stunned.

The Colonel stared wide eyed, his
mouth hanging slack. Then, he gave a low whistle. “I think you just solved a
big piece of the puzzle.”

“Yes,” Mac agreed. “We just
confirmed the identity of the traitor and his accomplice. And it’s not what I
ever expected.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Toni stared at the information on
the computer screen, not fully understanding what she was looking at. She
waited for Mac and the Colonel to explain.

Mac spoke slowly, as if he couldn’t
believe what he saw. “This is correspondence between the Taliban and one of our
own men. We now have proof.”

“Thank you for finding the
encryption key for me.”

Toni whirled around. CIA Agent
Derek Hooper stood in the open doorway holding a gun pressed against Cara’s
side. The girl whimpered.

At first sight of her sister, Toni
blinked, unable to believe her eyes.

The doorbell! Hooper was gutsy
enough to come in through the front door.

“Cara.” Toni took a step toward her
sister. If she could just….

“Uh-uh,” Hooper threw Toni a
warning glare. “Stay right where you are, or I’ll kill her.”

Toni froze. Cara released a low
moan, her eyes filled with fear. Trails of tears streaked the girl’s grimy
face, her clothing torn and covered with filth. Hooper held her in front of
him, one of his arms pulling her back against his chest. She gripped his arm
with both hands as he leaned his face over her right shoulder and pressed the
side of his cheek against hers. The girl shuddered, appearing cold and shaken.

Terrified.

“Don’t you dare hurt my
granddaughter.” Grams stood beside Hooper, her lips pressed tight, her eyes
filled with indignance.

“Shut up, you old hag, and sit down
over there.” Hooper jutted his chin toward the sofa.

Toni sucked in a breath of outrage.

Bernice’s mouth dropped open. “Why,
I’ve never.”

“I said sit down.”

The CIA agent’s eyes glittered with
malice. His low tone raised the hair on the back of Toni’s neck. Bernice took
the warning. She clamped her mouth shut and settled on the couch with a
disgruntled “harrumph.”

Mac came to his feet, staggering on
his injured leg as he stood beside Toni and the Colonel. He reached for his
cane to steady himself, gripping it with whitened knuckles. “What do you want,
Hooper?”

The agent shook his head, his thin
mouth curved in a cruel smile. “Stay where you are, Mac. You don’t want to get
Miss Hamilton killed, do you?”

Mac stood still, his jaw locked.

Hooper nudged Cara’s temple with
the barrel of his gun. He wore his standard blue suit, his tie loose around his
collar, his white shirt rumpled as if he’d spent the night in his clothes.

“You’ll never get away with this.”
The Colonel warned.

Hooper tightened his grip on Cara.
The teenager’s sharp intake of breath caused them all to hold very still. “I
have gotten away with it, Colonel. Now, I’m just tying up loose ends.”

“What do you want?” Toni asked,
unable to contain an edge of desperation in her voice.

Hooper’s gaze rested on her, filled
with such hatred that she almost flinched. “I want the file your brother sent
you, and I want it now.”

“What good is it to you?” Mac took
a hobbling step, as if shifting his weight on his bad leg. “It won’t work,
unless you already have the data it opens.”

An evil smile curved Hooper’s
hawkish face. “I have it. Six weeks ago, I intercepted a briefcase of top
secret files, which I sold to the Taliban. They need the encryption key to
unlock the data before our military changes it. Lots of important names, maps,
technology and strategies. And you just found the key that will open it for
me.”

The Colonel snorted. “The
encryption key won’t do you any good.”

“Oh? And why’s that?” Hooper’s
brows lifted in an evil slant.

“The data you intercepted was a
plant. For some time, we’ve suspected a traitor on the inside was selling
top-secret military intelligence to the Taliban. We allowed fake data to be
stolen, to draw out the traitor. After the ambush, we figured the spy had to be
either Lieutenant Andrus or Sergeant MacKenzie. They were the only two
survivors.”

Mac’s eyes widened at this
revelation. “You suspected me?”

“Sorry, Mac.” The Colonel didn’t
smile. “I would have told you, but we had to make sure you weren’t guilty. When
both you and Andrus survived the ambush, we didn’t know who to trust.”

“That’s right,” Hooper sneered at
Mac. “You should have died with those other men, but you lived.”

Toni felt the blood drain from her
face. Now, she realized God had been with Mac that night, guarding and
protecting him. Bringing him home so he could help her.

We need You now, Lord. Surely You
didn’t bring Mac home just to let Hooper kill us and get away with treason.

“So, the traitor was Andrus,” Mac
growled.

Hooper nodded, a low chuckle
trembling in his throat. “We had a partnership of sorts. He stole the intel and
gave it to me, and I passed it on to a Taliban operative. I was the middle man,
but Andrus proved worthless in the end.”

“Did Andrus kidnap Cara?”

“Yes, he was holding her in the
basement of his house until you found the encryption key for us.”

“You murdered him, didn’t you?” Mac
said.

“That’s right. He got cold feet.”
Hooper tightened his grip on Cara. “He said killing a man in battle was one
thing, but he wasn’t about to kill a girl. He wanted to set her free and forget
about finding the encryption key. He left me no choice but to end his miserable
life.”

Toni glared at Hooper. “And what
about the man with the ponytail? He shot at me when I went to find Mac on
Thorne Mountain? Is he working with you, too?”