“Six years ago.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Mara's expression changed.
“I don't know.”
Vance looked at her.
“That isn't true.”
She looked at him.
“You knew I wouldn't remember everything.”
“I knew you remembered enough.”
Mara stared at the screen.
Then she opened the file.
A list of names appeared.
Some were federal.
Some military.
Some private contractors.
One name was marked in red.
Mara read it.
Her breath caught.
“That's impossible.”
Vance said nothing.
Colter looked over her shoulder.
“Who is it?”
Mara turned the screen toward him.
At the bottom of the list was a name that explained why someone had spent six years hiding information.
RAYMOND COLTER.
The sheriff stared.
“What?”
Mara looked at him.
“Your name is in the file.”
“I've never seen this.”
“I believe you.”
“What does it mean?”
Mara scrolled.
There was another name.
HAROLD BENTON.
Then another.
SERGEANT NOLAN.
Then dozens more.
People from Bell County.
People who had never been federal agents.
People whose names had been used in an operation they had never known existed.
Colter stared at the screen.
“This can't be real.”
Mara looked at Vance.
“What is this?”
Vance's face was grim.
“An infiltration list.”
“From Baltimore?”
“Yes.”
“Why is Bell County on it?”
“Because someone moved here.”
Mara looked at him.
“Who?”
Vance didn't answer immediately.
Then he said, “The man who designed the system.”
Mara's eyes narrowed.
“Where is he?”
Vance looked toward the door.
“Dead.”
“Since when?”
“Six years.”
Mara stared at the screen.
“No.”
“What?”
She pointed.
“If he died six years ago, he couldn't have accessed this file yesterday.”
Vance looked at the timestamp.
His expression changed.
The file had been modified three hours earlier.
While Mara was being arrested.
Vance whispered, “Someone is still using his credentials.”
Mara stepped back.
Then she noticed something else.
A second window had opened.
A live camera feed.
It showed the Bell County Sheriff's Office.
Specifically, the booking room.
Mara stared.
The image showed her standing where she had been earlier.
But the timestamp was current.
Someone was watching them.
Vance immediately reached for his radio.
“Cut the connection.”
The screen went black.
Then a message appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE ASKED WHO SHE WAS BEFORE YOU TOUCHED HER.
Colter stared.
Mara's face went cold.
The words were hers.
Someone had been listening.
Someone had been watching.
Someone had copied the exact sentence she had spoken in the booking room.
Vance looked at her.
“They're still inside.”
Mara shook her head.
“No.”
“Then where?”
She looked at the screen.
“They're everywhere.”
The investigation continued for weeks.
The arrests became federal cases.
Bell County's records were frozen.