The Betrayal Chapter 34 Snippet

Rickard leaned back in her desk chair as she working on her report. Staring at the computerized tablet in her hand, she sighed at the length of paperwork involved. Who would have thought a simple arrest for theft would have lead to such a royal headache? If this were what she had to do for theft, she mused, then she would hate to see
about a treason charge!

“Sir,”

Oh Dear God, she told herself as she looked up at the ensign who had started all this. If he had another issue that was going to give her more paperwork, she was going to kill him! Wasn’t he satisfied with accomplishing one major event for the day? Two in one day, and she wondered if she would be able to survive the paperwork necessary!

“What is it this time?” She asked, irritation showing in her voice.

“Sir,” he said. “One of our operatives has accessed a black book file of ours.”

Rickard set the table down and placed her head in her hands. This couldn’t possibly be happening, she told herself, twice in one day? Did someone in heaven have it out for her? Jesus, this was going to be one day that she would never forget!

If this keeps up, she shuddered at the consequences of two different security breeches during her watch. I’ll spend the rest of my life in a prison camp!

“What projects were being hacked this time?” She asked, her stomach falling through the floor.

“No projects, Commander,” he said. “Personnel files.”

“Whose file?”

“Captain Kate Almir’s sir,”

What’s so strange about that, Rickard asked herself as she rubbed her chin in thought. Agents were in the field all the time, and it was possible that the team sent to eliminate Almir needed information. It was more then likely they were the ones accessing the information, but she had to be cautious if only for her sake!

“Who accessed the file?”

“It was accessed by a pocket computer registered to Richard Kosloski, sir,”

“Damn,” she cursed, knowing her hopes for a quiet event were now over.

“He was very careful to cover his tracks,” he said. “But not good enough.”

“What did he access?”

“A set of codes that no one has noticed before,” he said.

“What kind of codes?”

“They appear to be shut-down codes for Captain Almir’s bionics, sir.” He shrugged. “They were buried so deep in the file by Reyes that no one noticed them.”

Rickard felt her eyebrows rise up nearly to the level of her hair. Shut down codes for Almir’s bionics, she told herself with a whistle. That was definitely something that Rear Admiral Johansson would want to know about right away! Reaching across to activate her holovid, she took a deep breath.

“I need to speak to Admiral Johansson,” she told his adjunct.

“He’s interrogating a prisoner,” his adjunct said.

“I have information for him then,” she said as she took a deep breath. “It appears a security breech occurred but it allowed us to find…”