After the Tide: Inferno by Anthony J. Melchiorri

Author:Anthony J. Melchiorri [Melchiorri, Anthony J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Firehawk Press LLC
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

-23-

Meredith appreciated the crisp air conditioning in the electronics workshop. Sure, the place wasn’t as cool as she’d like it. The thrumming supercomputers in the back of the room made sure of that, even though they were supercooled. But it was a marked contrast to the humid heat suffocating Key West.

It also felt strangely more like home on the Bethany than the uncannily charming streets of the city. Dom was definitely right. Even when they’d been stationed in New England, being at the front lines of the struggle for survival felt more real. The slowly rebuilding, half-destroyed cities and their laboring, hungry citizens were more in line with what the general populace was dealing with. Not this magic-bubble dreamworld of a place where suspected criminals filtered in and out without anyone asking questions.

She didn’t like knowing this was part of the America she helped to defend. The sooner they weeded out people like the obscenely rich guy they’d discovered commanding the cartel, the better off they’d be.

While Chao was in one corner of the workshop, toiling away on a project the science team had given him, Meredith joined Dom and Natalie at Samantha’s workstation. The computer specialist still had the USB they’d recovered from the goons outside the trap house, sitting by one of her laptops.

“You said you’ve got something new for us, Samantha?” Dom asked.

Samantha licked her lips. “Something big. You want to ID your perp first, or you want me to show you what I found on the USB?”

“Well, if you know you got good news, let’s save it for last,” Dom said. “The pictures I got might not be worth crap. I’d rather end our meeting on a high note.”

“Roger that. What have you got for me, then?” Samantha asked.

Dom reached into a pocket and took out the SD card in its plastic case. “I took these of our guy. Hopefully, they’re good enough.”

Samantha inserted it into an SD card reader attached to her main workstation. She pulled up the folder with the images Dom had taken and opened them.

“Not too bad at all.” She scanned through the photos of the gray-haired man. “Guy’s not even wearing sunglasses. If we got him in a database somewhere, I bet we can get a hit. Mere, are your clearance credentials still active?”

Meredith shook her head. “Thornfield only restored partial access for our mission in the PNW. We can see if it’s enough.”

Samantha pulled up an encrypted connection to Langley’s servers. “What about you, Natalie?”

“Last I checked, I still worked for ’em.” Natalie squeezed past Samantha and typed in her keycode. She accessed a secondary secure database. “If we got data on this guy, you’ll find him.”

“How long is this going to take?” Dom asked.

Natalie squinted at the screen under her bony brow. “Everything’s slower nowadays. Could be an hour or more.”

“We can sit here twiddling our thumbs,” Samantha said, “or I can tell you what I got.”

“All right.” Dom twirled a finger. “Go ahead.”

Samantha pulled open one of her laptops.

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