Page 56 of Centurion

“There was a mistake. There’s a misspelling in the holographic film,” Brando said as if it were nothing.

“How did you think to check that?” Con asked.

“I didn’t. Fury did,” Brando said. “He’s damn good with passports.” There was a bit of admiration in Brando’s voice Con wasn’t glad to hear.

“The UK government is heading out to round up Abrasha’s crew. They’ve been under surveillance since Centurion found Abrasha’s hiding space on that plane. The plane was also seized by the British authorities when it landed.”

“But no one knows where Abrasha is?” Jewell asked.

“Darren Kowalski is positive he can get us a location,” Archangel said.

Con stared at the screen. “The bank accounts. Are they personal or business?” he asked Jewell.

“I haven’t received permission to break into the financial systems.” She looked up. “The request is in your inbox, Jace.”

“Do it. I’ll sign it later.”

“On it.”

“Do you need help?”

“Nah,” Jewell said as she started to work.

Con stared at the USB drive. “Brando, if you were trying to hide something from someone, would you put a second-party password on the device?”

Brando’s head popped up, and he blinked as he looked at the camera. “No, and I wouldn’t put anything on a USB drive,I’d cubby it somewhere in the nether regions of the internet and then erase all indications of where I put it.”

“However, we know Eisenberger wasn’t into computers.” Con moved his head back and forth and narrowed his eyes. “Still.” Fuck it, he took a chance and searched the operating system of the USB device. CD-ROM popped up. “Bingo. I should’ve looked sooner. He has a partition installed that keeps the information unerasable/non-formattable—basically an ancient read-only shovelware partition.”

Both Jewell and Brando looked into the camera. “That’s ancient,” Jewell said.

“But it is here,” Con said and continued to work. “Look, a video and two folders.”

“How did you get the Vendor ID and Product ID to find it?” Brando asked.

“A tool I’ve had forever. I’ll send it to you.”

“Can we get to the video and stop all this bullshit?” Fury demanded.

Con frowned at Fury, but he pushed the video to start it.

A grainy film began to roll. “Tropical,” Jacob King said. “Maybe a desert. Those shrubs could be either.”

Fury leaned forward. “What is that? Can you clear it up or make it bigger?”

“It’s a building,” Jewell said. “We can’t do anything with it while we’re watching.”

“Whoever is filming this is in a vehicle. The road sucks,” Jacob continued, ignoring Fury. The bouncing stopped, and whoever was taking the film jumped down to the ground. “It has to be in his pocket.” Both he and Gabby had their noses inches from the screen. The resolution was horrific, but you could tell what was going on. They watched as whoever was taking the film and another man unfastened the back tailgate of an old militarytruck. The tailgate flopped down, exposing a large box. “Is that a pelican box?” Archangel asked.

“Looks like one,” Fury responded. They watched as the two men inched it out of the back of the truck and then held it between them.

“Stop!” Jewell yelled, but Con had seen it already. He hit the stop button and inched the video backward ever so slightly.

“What is that?” Con stared at the contraption inside the box.

“Fuck me standing,” Fury whispered.

“Not even with lube,” Con answered before he could stop himself.

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