Damn it.
He considered his options.One was to ask others here for help, but assuming they would even bother, they would probably also become suspicious if he needed to borrow their username and password for the computers.
The other option was to give up and come back later after he got a username and password.The problem with that was that he had no idea how to do that.He assumed it wasn’t as simple as just creating one and hoping the system didn’t flag it.He didn’t know the first thing about computers beyond how to type and browse the internet.He had no idea what went into hacking into a security system.
The third option was… Well, that was it.Give up or don’t give up.
“Forget your password?”
David jumped and squeaked at the voice again, earning a chuckle from the ME who’d glared at him for cracking his knuckles a moment ago.
“Yeah, I had to call my supervisor to get mine.”
“Oh.Yeah, I might do that.”
“Here,” the man said.He closed out his terminal and typed info into David’s.“You can use mine.Just don’t look up any porn, okay?I don’t want that coming back to me.”
David assumed that was a joke, but the man didn’t laugh, so he only smiled and said, “Thank you.”
“Yep.”
The man got up and pulled a baseball cap down over his head.David frowned when he saw that.Something about the maneuver was familiar.He couldn’t place it, and the guy didn’t stick around long enough to ask why David was staring, so he put it from his mind and got to work.
He opened the records search app and typed in Richard Fenniman’s name.Sure enough, it popped up, third in a list of five Richard Fenniman’s who’d kicked the bucket in the State of Virginia within the past two years.
David pondered that fact for a moment.He had no idea that Fenniman was such a popular last name.
You’re stalling.Get moving.In and out, just like you discussed.
He blinked out of his funk and downloaded the report he needed.Greg and Jeff had impressed upon him the need to stay in that place as little as humanly possible.The longer he was there, the more likely someone would wonder who he was, why he was there, and who had given him permission to be there.
When the report was downloaded, he ejected the thumb drive and closed the computer.His heart still thudded, and he resisted the urge to jog out of the building, but it was elation that filled him now, not fear.
He had done it!He had sneaked into a government office undercover and stolen evidence without being caught!He felt like a real FBI agent!He wasn’t sure if Faith had ever stolen information from a government office, but she’d shared stories about times she’d bent some of the rules of evidence-gathering to find what she needed to bring a killer to justice.
He wondered if she’d be proud of him.She’d be scared, of course, but would she be proud too?
“Excuse me.”
The voice brought him up short.He kept moving, hoping it wasn’t meant for him.
“Excuse me!Dr.Allen!”
Shit.Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
He turned toward the voice, hoping he was wearing his aw, shucks grin and not his, damn it, you caught me grin.The voice belonged to the desk officer who had let him in earlier.She was frowning, and her eyes were narrowed in suspicion.
She stopped in front of him, arms crossed.“You never gave us your order number.”
He stared blankly at her.
“The Washington Medical Examiner’s office never provided our office with the request for the files on Richard Fenniman’s death.I need to put that number into the system in order to authorize release of that data.”Her eyes narrowed further.“Normally that’s done before they send you over here.”
“Oh.Um… I’m so sorry.”He thought quickly.“You know, that’s probably why my password didn’t work.”
She blinked.“Oh yeah?”
“No.Yeah, that’s why I came back down so quickly.I tried my username and password, but it didn’t go through.I even tried the forgot password thing, and it said my username wasn’t recognized.I tried calling my boss, but he’s off for the night.I was going to call him in the morning and get it worked out.I’ll ask him about the request then.”