Page 34 of Unknown

Would there be another way in? With this crisis playing out, some of the internal offices might be unoccupied. All she needed was a spare computer and a way into the system.

She walked around the back of the building, looking for any windows that might be open, any way to slip inside unnoticed.

That's when she spotted it. A weathered door at the back of the building. Maybe it was a maintenance entrance. Cora hesitated for a moment, then made up her mind. She walked over to the door and tried the handle, feeling as if she was making her own luck here.

It was locked.

She lowered her hand, discouraged. Did she think it would have been so easy? People liked to lock doors. Windows, not so much. That would be a better option. She continued walking around the admin building, keeping her demeanor innocent, looking for any possible way in.

There was a window that was open a few inches.

She sidled over to it, glancing inside.

The office was unoccupied, but it seemed as if the person might come back at any moment. The chair was at an angle, as if they'd just gotten up from it and headed out. And the computer screen was still lit up. It hadn't even locked itself yet.

It was too much for Cora to resist. Damn the consequences. This was her chance for answers.

She looked around. Nobody was in sight outside. The grassy strip she was walking on was flanked by a low wall, and beyond that was a parking lot for delivery vehicles. No watching eyes.

Without hesitation, Cora pushed the window wider, and then hoisted herself through the open gap, making as little noise as possible.

The office was still and quiet, but a sense of expectancy swirled in the air, the sense that might accompany someone who'd just slipped out to go to the bathroom or check something with a colleague.

For now, she needed to delay them coming back. Having anyone walk in on her at this point would be disastrous.

So, step one, close the door. She did that.

Step two, lock the door. That was going to cause a panic when the person did come back, but it would buy her the time she needed to get away.

So she did that too.

Now, with some time to spare, she sat down at the desk. She looked at the screen. It opened on a long list of supplies and orders. That wasn't what she wanted. She wanted recent personnel reports. Would it be possible to access that from here?

Perched on the edge of the chair, Cora went navigating. She hoped that all the systems would be accessible.

But she wasn't getting lucky. She could access the logistics of the base, but she couldn't see any of the records of the soldiers.

She tapped the desk in frustration. There had to be a way in to what she wanted. She couldn't give up now. She had to find some means of accessing those records.

She looked through the main menu again, scanning all the entries.

But the records themselves were not accessible from this computer. She could thank the Army’s tendency to compartmentalize things for that.

What about messages? Notifications? That would be another way of finding what she needed. A notification to everyone on the system could give her a clue. Maybe there was some kind of online notification system that this unknown user was tapped into.

Was this a message board? Navigating through the menu, Cora followed her hunch and clicked on it.

It was a message board. She'd stumbled upon a web version of some of the base's messaging and chit-chat. This chat board seemed reserved for the admin workers at the base, rather than the soldiers.

Cora scrolled through the messages, her eyes scanning for any information that could be useful to her.There was a whole lot of white noise. Innumerable people moaning about everything from protocols to working hours, to the weather, to the latest baseball results. Long chats about food. Political rants that caused fights and were shut down.

But here was something. One of the names caught her eye. This was a chat from a few days ago, and it mentioned an earlier victim.

"Janice Hullman was found dead??? Was that anything to do with the disciplinary?"the message asked.

It caused a storm of other messages.

"She was in a disciplinary yesterday. Just like the other one, the day before. I also want to know. This is terrible!"

---