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She’d taken that mentality to college and then the Marines. She never used her rank unless required for her job, she never treated the enlisted as inferior just because they didn’t have a college degree. Here in the FBI, she was surprised by how some agents treated civilian staff as borderline servants. Polite, sure, but few agents cared to make personal connections with the people who supported them.
Sloane knew every civilian who worked in or with her squad. She knew the guards at the front desk by name. It was a skill her mother had instilled in her and it served her well.
Especially this morning.
She went to the IT department and asked to see Vikram Mehta. Vik had helped her with a computer problem she had the first week she was on staff, and she’d come to him multiple times to learn more about the FBI system. He was smart and knowledgeable, and had worked in the IT department for years.
“Hey, Agent Wagner, what can I help you with?”
“Is there a private office where we can talk?”
“Sure, is there a problem?”
“No, but I need some help, and it’s confidential.”
They took a small office and Sloane said, “Do you know how the LAPD/FBI portal works?”
She knew he did. He’d helped develop it years ago.
“Sure, what do you need?”
“Is there a log of who accesses the portal on either end? For example, if I were to review cases in the portal, does it generate a log of my access, badge number, time, date?”
“Yes, but it’s not used for anything. It’s just a log file.”
“But you have it.”
“I can run a log under any parameters.”
“Is it possible to access the portal and not have the visit logged?”
“No. I mean, it’s technically possible to be unknown—use a 999 code instead of your employee number. But the computer IP, time, date, request is all logged. Now I’m curious. Especially since the portal is rarely used except in joint investigations.”
“I need to see the log for February 17 and 18 of this year. Every access into the portal—who, where, when. Is that possible?”
He hesitated.
“If I need permission, I’ll get it.” She could have Granderson approve it, but she hadn’t wanted to reveal she had a direct line to the SAC.
“No, of course not. You said confidential, right?”
She nodded.
He motioned for her to follow him. Without talking, he logged into his extensive system and typed rapidly. Screens flew by, then he typed in the dates she’d given him and hit Print. A second later his printer spat out a page. He handed it to her.
It was a log of one access to the portal on February 17, at 2215 hours. And it was indeed a 999 code, so the individual didn’t put in their badge number or their ID.
“Whose IP address?”
“ASAC Rebecca Chavez. It’s her computer.”
Sloane didn’t know for certain that this was the Chen raid, but the time and days matched.
“Thank you, Vik. I appreciate this.”
“Anytime, Agent Wagner.”
“Call me Sloane,” she said.
