Page 32 of Yankee in the Wind

“You sure?” Fox asked.

“Type it in.”

Fox typed the password, and an instant later, a file folder opened and revealed a video file. He clicked on it.

The video began to play. It was instantly clear that whoever had recorded the video had done so clandestinely and through a dirty glass pane. Despite that fact, Jack recognized that the large space was a warehouse of some sort. The floor was concrete, and there were large vents and lights lining the exposed unpainted ceiling. On one side of the warehouse were crates, on the other side, various machines were in different states of assembly—as if somebody was building a factory.

“That looks like an MRI machine,” Ace said and pointed to the large circular equipment.

“Yeah, it looks similar, but I’ve never seen one that big,” Lilly said. “Besides, nobody would put medical equipment in a place that’s clearly not sterile. It looks dirty.”

The camera panned to the left. There were shelves with amber colored glass bottles as well as IV bags, boxes with hypodermic needles and lines used for infusions. Next to the shelves there was a piece of furniture, still partially wrapped in a tarp.

“Looks like a treatment table for a clinic,” Lilly commented. Then she moved her head closer to the screen. “Oh my God.”

“What is it?” Jack asked.

She pointed to a spot. “I think these are restraints, as if this treatment table is meant to have somebody strapped onto it. The only time I’ve ever seen something like that is when I did my psych rotation.”

Ace turned to Lilly. “What did they use it for?”

“Violent patients. Sometimes the orderlies had a hard time keeping patients calm when they needed to get treatment, so they would strap the patient onto the table with these leather belts, you know, like you might have seen in movies when they show an electric chair.”

Jack exchanged a look with Ace and Fox. Both looked concerned. The video ended.

“Do you think this is what got Thomas killed?” Jack asked.

Ace took a breath. “We must assume that he made the recording and that it meant something to him. Enough to hide it for Lilly to find.” He put his hand on Fox’s shoulder. “Can you find out where the video was recorded?”

Fox nodded. “It should have the geo data embedded somewhere. If River meant for us to find this, he wouldn’t have stripped the data.”

It took Fox only a few keystrokes before he found the data he was looking for. “There it is, the GPS coordinates of the location.” He opened a different window and pasted in the GPS data. A map opened up. In its center, a red flag pointed to the requested location.

“That’s near Great Falls in Virginia, about halfway from here to Dulles International Airport,” Jack said. “I think we should check it out.”

“Agreed,” Ace said. “You and I will go there tonight.”

“I can have your back from here,” Fox said.

“How?” Jack asked.

“Michelle and I can hack into a satellite and reposition it to get a visual of the area and make sure you’re not running into a trap. It’ll take a while, but we should get it done by tonight. There’s no point in going in before it’s dark and quiet anyway.”

“I’m coming with you too,” Lilly said and looked at Jack.

“Not a chance,” Jack said. “You’re safest here.”

She shook her head. “You need me.” She pointed to the monitor. “That’s medical equipment. I’m a doctor. I’ll recognize what I’m looking at. I’ll be able to tell you what we’re dealing with. There are clearly medications on those shelves. I need to see them close-up to figure out what they’re for. It might be important.”

Jack stared at her, torn between wanting to keep Lilly safe and allowing her to accompany them so she could lend her expertise.

“Damn it, Jack, Thomas was my cousin. I need to find out what he was doing there. And I can be of help.”

“Fine.”

He hoped he wouldn’t regret this decision.

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