Page 138 of False Flag

She turned and headed up the front walk, reminding herself of all the things she didn’t know. She didn’t know Casper was on Whidbey Island. She didn’t know a Fire Team of SEALs would be arriving on Whidbey in a few hours. She didn’t know that the governor of Washington and the British Columbian premier were likely meeting on that island for a signing event that would force Casper Osborne to pay millions to the tribes in Washington and, if Staci could prove his family was part of the genocide in British Columbia, when the same bill was signed in Canada, Casper would lose Letora Island.

Nope. She didn’t know any of this.

She was here to talk to Dahlia about the things she did know and then meet with Gerard.

She entered the house and descended the basement stairs. The door to the recording booth was open. She leaned in to see Dahlia at her desk with her head in her hands.

“Hey. You okay?”

Dahlia startled. “Motherfucker!”

“Sorry. The door was open.”

“Yeah, after I locked it yesterday, Gerard has forbidden me from closing the door when we’re not recording.”

“That’s shitty. Can he really do that?”

She shrugged. “It’s not the kind of detail a contract covers. Not my house. Not my door. So yeah. I think so.”

“Did you...?” She let her voice trail off.

Dahlia knew what she was referring to and shook her head. “I need this job too much to do something like that. Frankly, I suspect you. I left you alone in here with an unlocked computer.”

“Beau also thinks it was me, but Gerard just told Casper that he did it.”

“Well, he’d have to say that, wouldn’t he? Better than letting Casper know there’s a Trojan Horse in his super cyber-secure compound.”

Staci’s brain spun at the Machiavellian tangle. If her audio recording had been released, it would have been obvious she was the guilty party, but the full video podcast interview had been published to all of Gerard’s Lost Civilizations channels two hours before Staci’s audio recording would have gone live on the anti-pseudoarch channels. Once that happened, Vicki had been quick to get everyone to unschedule their posts. Instead, each YouTuber and podcaster recorded their own individual harsh responses to Casper’s claim of finding evidence of a prehistoric bioweapon and his embracing Nazi crimes against humanity.

But Staci wasn’t supposed to know this. All she was supposed to know was what Beau had told her: the full, original interview had been published in Gerard’s accounts.

Staci was innocent of this particular trespass, but only the person who had actually uploaded the interview knew the truth. And he would almost certainly treat Staci as the guilty party.

Just another fun day in pseudoscienceland.

Staci entered Gerard’s office only a few minutes late for their scheduled meeting. “You promised me fieldwork would start today, but no one is ready.”

He leaned back in his chair and gave her a bland stare. “That podcast segment never aired.”

“So? The start of fieldwork doesn’t have to sync with podcast episodes.” She sighed. “I’m tired of this, Gerard. I want to do something. If you don’t have work for me, let me take the boat to Victoria. You know my phone doesn’t work here, and I need to check in with my cat.”

He shifted forward, giving the slightest of shrugs. “Turn off your firewall and use your private email, enable Wi-Fi calling, and use your private phone.”

“Right. Let you into my computer and phone. I know what Casper’s tech is capable of. I refuse to let you or Casper’s minions listen in on or read my private communication or have access to the data on my personal computer.”

“What are you hiding?” His bland demeanor disappeared. The real Gerard had entered the chat.

“I’m not hiding a damn thing that you have a right to access. My dissertation notes are none of your damn business.” She nodded to his computer. “How would you like it if I accessed your computer?”

“Me? I’m an open book.”

She rolled her eyes. “Right. So you’re going to tell me what your game is with Osborne?” She placed her hands on his desk and leaned toward him, lowering her voice even though the door was closed. “We both know I’m not the one who uploaded the podcast.”

“Do we? Both know?”

She held his gaze. His body language gave away nothing, but his eyes held a hint of...victory? “Have you heard from Jake Burns?”

“Considering you have access to my emails and know my phone doesn’t work, you tell me.”