Chapter 30

                Benson arrived first and was busy at his desk, the one he’d picked for himself in a corner of the Emergency Command Bunker.  He was hard at it organizing all his thoughts on paper, wanting to make sure he was as ready as he could be when Kenfer and Melman arrived for the meeting.  The analytical data program he and his friends had been using for the last few days was churning out the last of the information needed to track the source of the original Probe OIA code.  The actual message that was responsible for this whole mess.  When he talked to Melman last, he and Kenfer were due soon and that had been at least a half hour ago.  As Benson rummaged through a huge pile of notes and data he was startled by a voice behind him.

                “Hey Benson,” Karl said with satisfaction. “We have the conference room ready.  All the Center’s files either on site or remotely stored are at our disposal.  We also have whatever audio and video feeds there are available to us on the servers also linked for search and replay.”

                Benson sighed, “You guys have done a great job.  Melman should have the boss down here any time now and we can see what our efforts have yielded.  I need one more thing though, tell Dean to have the program I designed and gave you both wiped from your personal Comps.  The only traces of our investigation must stay here in this room until Mr. Kenfer orders otherwise.  Got it?”

                Karl was turning to follow Benson’s last request as he answered over his shoulder, “Ok but Dean doesn’t like all this cloak and dagger stuff.  Who exactly are we hiding from anyway?”

                “When we get to the bottom of this we’ll know the answer to that question, just be ready and try to relax.  We’re earning a lot of brownie points and I for one intend to collect.” Benson smiled at the thought of having a little juice with the boss the next time he needed a favor.

                Melman arrived at the Center’s Medical offices just a bit latter than he’d planned.  He expected Mr. Kenfer to be waiting for him in the reception room, possibly getting the last bit of advice about his treatment but no one, not even staff, greeted his arrival.  Taking the initiative he headed down the hall to the nurses station to find Kenfer.  The duty nurse stepped out of her office about half way down the hallway and they both bumped into each other with a thump, neither expecting the other to materialize in this fashion.

                “Ok chief, what’s the hurry?  Only medical personnel are allowed back here….Oh, you’re the guy that dropped off that nice Mr. Kenfer a few hours ago.”  She stared intently at Melman as she spoke, not liking the invasion of her space.

                “Sorry about that miss…?” Melman drew a blank.

                “That would be Nurse Burns.” She said evenly, tapping her foot softly on the floor.

                “Right, there wasn’t much time for introductions when I brought Mr. Kenfer in.  My name’s Melman.  I’m Mr. Kenfer’s personal assistant and I have returned to gather him up.  We have business this afternoon that requires his presence.” Melman could tell Miss Burns was a little miffed, maybe from the sudden surprise in the hall.

                “Sorry Sport,” She said with a flourish.  “Mr. Kenfer left here right after his treatment was completed.  He said something about needing to get to his office and his something something phone.  I couldn’t hear him all that well.  He was talking softly as he walked away toward the door.  He seemed to be in quite the hurry.”

                Melman said nothing for a moment as he tried to process what the something something phone might mean and realized the only thing his office phone had over his personal hand com was a secure access line.  Spinning on his heels he thanked Nurse Burns for her excellent work and was out the door before the nurse could say another word.

                The upper floors of the Center were still accessible by freight elevator, one of the only things that still worked in Kenfer’s section of the building.  Melman didn’t bother to knock before he turned the door knob and walked in.  Kenfer was just putting his phone back in its cradle as Melman entered the office.

                “I know we are a bit ruffled around here but we still need to maintain simple courtesy before entering the private space of others.” Kenfer was smiling as he spoke.

                “Sorry about that Mr. Kenfer but I was worried about you not being down at the medical station and wasn’t thinking.  Luckily the nurse heard you mumbling as you left, giving me a clue where you might be.” Melman was calming down now as he spoke. “I take it that you needed secure communications or you could have waited for me and made your call from Medical.”

                “Yep, needed to give Jordan Keller a heads up and this is as good a time and place as any to let you in on what I intend to do.”

                Melman sat down in one of the two plush chairs directly in front of Kenfer’s desk as he talked.

                “I let Keller know that if I say or do anything that is contrary to the information in the files of our investigation that I sent to him, it will be just to try and smoke out any possible internal operatives working as spies in the Center.  I didn’t want him critiquing me or accidentally letting the cat out of the bag on the “Op” I may have to run.  A couple of false statements by me might show up elsewhere letting us know who to keep an eye on.  Get my drift?” Kenfer leaned back in his chair as he finished his spiel.

                “Let me get this straight….you plan to falsify some information in the meeting down in the Command Center.  You can’t suspect Benson or his staff mates.” Melman said slowly, “I’ve known Benson for years, he would never get involved in anything like this and his friends Karl and Dean have the same relationship with Benson as Benson and I do.”

                Kenfer leaned forward again, “No, this has nothing to do with them.  I plan to make a couple of contacts inside the Center during our meeting.  When I do, I’ll leak specific information only known to be incorrect by our close knit group.  When the information resurfaces I’ll know who the candidates for our ‘Mole’, happen to be, a standard investigation tactic but a proven one.  It has occurred to Keller too that there might be an agent inside the Center.  Our two independent investigations give us twice the chance at smoking him or her out. ”

                “It’s your show down there,” Melman said, “and I appreciate being let in on the plan.  Benson has everything ready to go so if you don’t have any other stops to make, let’s get going.”

                Melman stood up and followed, Kenfer was already out the door.  Nurse Burns was right, Kenfer was in quite the hurry……