Faith had, of course, no idea who put the laptop in the “magic locker” and made it appear out of thin air. Faith himself had checked the locker, and Chief Rollins claimed she had, as well. Another NCO and a Soldier both said that was the first place they checked, and it wasn’t in there. So someone put it there. And it had to have been very, very recently, because it wasn’t’ there when Faith came down to the SCIF not 30 minutes ago.
But who would have done it, and why? The obvious perpetrator would have been… who? Surely not SGT Bradley. Faith had come to trust the man, and did not think he would do something like this. Why would he? If not him, who? Someone who had access to the SCIF, whose presence wouldn’t arouse suspicion, and who would have known that the internal entry control point was unmanned. That left out MAJ Roberts, who was every bit dirty enough to plan something like this, and every bit devious enough to pull it off. Unless…
“Hey! Listen up!” Faith said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “I need everyone up front in the ECP for a second!” Not everyone was able to crowd into the tight confines of the ECP, but everyone got into a position where they could listen.
“Is there anyone here right now, who is not in the MID?” he questioned. Other than a few low, scattered “no, sirs,” there was no answer.
“OK, got it. Listen guys, we have a situation here. Someone took control of a classified laptop, hid it from us to get us all panicky, and then put it back inside the SCIF to make us all look bad. I want to find out who it was.” There was angry, scattered muttering in the crowd of Soldiers. They were probably at least as pissed off as Faith was.
“Now, I have some ideas about what happened, but I need some more information before I do anything about it. First,” he continued, “Did Major Roberts come through the SCIF at all, in the last 30 minutes or so?” No one seemed to think so.
“Sir, I don’t even know who that is,” said SGT Bradley.
OK fine, Faith thought, it was most likely not Roberts. He wasn’t assigned to the unit, so he definitely didn’t have a SCIF badge. He would have had to have had someone else’s badge and someone else’s code, AND not be seen coming or going from the SCIF. So most likely, it wasn’t Roberts.
“Did anyone see anybody from the S2 shop down here today?” There were many positive responses to this question.
“Sir, I think pretty much all of them were through here at some point, helping us look for that laptop,” Chief Rollins explained.
“Even Major Dudley?” Faith inquired.
Rollins nodded. “But that was like… an hour ago, well before you came down.”
Faith considered what she said for a moment. It still would have been possible for The Dud to come down while SGT Bradley was away from the desk, enter the SCIF, toss in the laptop, and get out without anyone noticing. The Dud had to be the guy.
“OK, this is important and I should have asked this at the very beginning, but I’m asking it now,” he said, raising his voice so everyone could hear. “Does anyone have any idea how the classified laptop we’ve all been looking for so frantically got into this wall locker,” he pointed at the locker in question, “after it was cleared?” No one responded. Faith looked directly at SGT Bradley.
“Sergeant Bradley, do you know anything about how this laptop,” Faith said, pointing at the laptop, “got into that locker?” he pointed at the locker.
“Sir, I have NO idea,” Bradley responded, looking distressed. “You’ve got to believe me!”
Faith believed him.
“OK, I think we’re done here,” Faith said. “First Sergeant, take charge of the company and dismiss them for the day. 0600 PT tomorrow. Thanks everyone for all of your hard work on this.” Faith exited the SCIF before anyone could respond.
“Sir- sir!” Chief Rollins exclaimed, almost running to catch up to Faith. “We should talk about th-“
“Talking time is over, Chief,” Faith said evenly. “We all know what happened.”
“Do we, sir?” she inquired. “All we know is that someone put that laptop in locker.”
“We all know who did it, Chief,” Faith said.
“Do we, sir?” she asked again.
“Chief, this ‘do we sir’ shit is starting to get old,” Faith said irritably.
“Well, what are you going to do now?” she asked anxiously.
“I’m going to go find Major Dudley and punch him in the fucking face,” Faith explained.
“Two times,” he added, holding up two fingers.