Page 22 of Escaping my Dragon

“I thought it didn’t matter because he was probably dead. Not to mention, you said he took his computer and stuff with him.”

“His personal laptop, yes, but he would have also logged onto the mainframe computers in the seismology department.”

A chance to sleuth like my namesake? My lips split into a wide grin. “Lead the way, Captain.”

Alas, we didn’t get far in our investigation because it turned out the console Greenfield had been using wouldn’t boot up.

“I don’t get it,” said Ralph, the local tech guy, a balding man in his forties who pressed the power button a few times as if it would suddenly work.

I glanced behind the computer to confirm it remained plugged in. I then knelt and tugged on the casing, sliding it off to reveal the guts.

“Hey,” exclaimed Ralph. “Be careful. The motherboards are sensitive and these older models are hard to replace.”

“I know what I’m doing. I built my own gaming computer back before it was trendy,” I muttered, frowning as I eyed the setup. Video card. Ram. The green motherboard that had Ralph in a panic. System fan. Network card. But… “Where’s the hard drive?”

“What do you mean? It’s right… Oh, that’s weird.” Ralph frowned at the empty spot. “Someone removed it.”

I glanced at Noah, who stood behind me with arms crossed, scowling.

“Guess there was something he didn’t want us to see,” I murmured as I rose from my crouch.

“Ralph, I want any backups you have of this machine asap,” Noak barked.

“Yessir. I’ll see what I can do.”

Which turned out to be nothing because someone had disabled the nightly backup for Greenfield’s computer. Likely Greenfield himself.

Noah got the news while we scoured the missing doctor’s room, which, like mine, contained only the basic necessities and one strange item of note. A hunk of rock, slightly curved and jagged, the appearance of which reminded me of a cracked eggshell if the egg were the size of someone’s head.

“No backup available,” Noah groused. “The man didn’t leave a trace of his actions behind.”

“Still so sure he wasn’t here acting as a spy?” I asked, sitting on the stripped mattress.

“Could be he was mentally imbalanced before arrival.”

“The little voices in his head told him to disable the backup, remove his hard drive, pack up his room, steal a chopper, and fly it into a volcano? Seems a bit intricate for a suicide. Why not simply plunge into the water? He’d freeze in minutes.”

“Seconds,” Noah absently corrected before sitting heavily beside me. “I have to admit, his actions don’t make sense.”

“Is this the wrong time to mention I ignored you earlier and have someone digging into Greenfield?”

He glanced at me and chuckled. “Of course you do. And?”

“Nothing, yet. I mean, my guy is good, but even he needs more than an hour to do a deep dive.”

“Greenfield wouldn’t have been allowed here if anything showed up in his background check.”

“Assuming it wasn’t fudged.”

His lips pursed. “Are you always this suspicious?”

“Yes. In my line of work, you discover people like to lie, and many do so intentionally.”

“Why?”

“Attention, mostly. The grifters posting conspiracy videos don’t do it to spread the truth, they do it for the clicks. For the payout. Because the more their videos are watched and commented on, the bigger their payout.”

“Meaning there’s no incentive for honesty.”