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“Yes, and you are?” Nayome asked.
“Agent Crawford,” He said, smiling kindly. “I believe I made your acquaintance briefly yesterday evening on the phone.”
“Ah, oh my gosh I’m so sorry about that,” Nayome stuttered.
Agent Crawford chuckled, and it appeared to be in genuine good humor. “You would be surprised how often that happens these days. Especially with New Yorkers.”
“Well, I apologize. It just never occurred to me that it could be anything but a prank.” Nayome felt her face heat up. She hoped the blush would come across as just plain embarrassment. The reality was she was struggling to put on this act, her head spinning chaotically.
“Not at all Miss Miller, please have a seat” He said, motioning for her to sit in her own chair behind the desk.
Nayome made her way around the L-shaped desk, taking a seat in the high backed office chair. Swivelling around to face Agent Crawford, Nayome attempted a hesitant smile across at him. “So, Mr.—um, I mean Agent, Crawford—”
“I think we can drop the formalities if it’s alright with you,” he said, eyes crinkling in a smile. “Please, just call me Jack. May I call you Nayome?”
“Oh, yes of course,” Nayome said. “Jack. I’m dying to know, what is all this about?” Nayome raised her hand, gesturing so that her motion encompassed everything, including the agent posted just outside her office door.
“Well, it seems some of your recent research may have overlapped with a potential investigation our Agency has been looking into for some time. We got a ping on some lab results you recently ran. I’m here to ask you a few questions and go through the next steps with you.”
Nayome shot her eyebrows up in what she hoped looked like surprise.
“That’s strange, I had been ready to write off my most recent research project as a bust. Can you tell me what specifically piqued your interest?”
“Unfortunately not. We have retrieved the samples you had in the lab. They will be transported to our own facilities for further investigation.”
“Oh, so…you’re just here to take my research from me?”
“I am here to request your discretion, Nayome. The matter of which we believe your research may assist us is highly classified. We had to move everything to a secure location. I ask that you turn over any notes or records as a matter of good faith.”
“Oh, I see…”
“I know this must all come as a shock, but it’s a matter of due course. We already have copies of the lab reports your technicians ran, but any other analysis you have done will need to be retrieved as well.”
Nayome shuffled around in one of her desk drawers, wondering what to do. Her notes didn’t reveal anything that the lab results wouldn’t have. She had just made a quick conclusion that there was nothing out of the ordinary, and no further work was to be done.
That mushroom had thrown her for a loop, but she hadn’t had a chance to do any write up on that yet. Fingers crossed, she hoped they hadn’t discovered the extra test she had run last night and just grabbed her original set of samples with lab tech results.
“Here you go.” Nayome passed a draft report across the table. “It’s still in draft, I haven’t had a chance to finalize it yet. It doesn’t say much more than the lab results. Everything appeared so ordinary, you will see that I had decided not to pursue anything further. I guess I was wrong about that conclusion, then?” Nayome asked, probing for information.Nayome pre-Scotland would be curious, not threatened.
Agent Crawford smiled tightly in thanks as he tucked her report into his briefcase, but didn’t volunteer any more information. “Is this the only copy?”
Nayome hesitated. “Well, I typed it up on my computer. But that’s the only printed copy, yeah.”
“If you would be willing to do a permanent delete in front of me now, I won’t have to confiscate the entire computer. I do have a warrant for that though, so it’s up to you. Since you are cooperating, I don’t think it’s necessary to disrupt any more of your work.”
Nayome blinked. “Oh, well sure. I guess that’s fair.” Nayome felt a bead of sweat working its way down her spine as she booted up her computer, and waited what seemed like an eternity for the operating system to load, all while under the shrewd gaze of Agent Jack Crawford.
“There” Nayome said, tilting her monitor so he could see her pulling up the file in question before deleting it.
“I appreciate your cooperation, Nayome.”
“Of course,” Nayome said, shooting him a tentative smile. “You really can’t tell me anything more? Maybe I could be of some help with your investigation? I did find the samples after all.”
“Unfortunately, the clearance level is too high to bring in a civilian consultant on this. It’s best that you forget about this once I’ve left. Before I leave, I have a few questions for you.”
Nayome squirmed slightly, adjusting her position in the chair, nodding at him to continue.
“I understand you were in Taynish for about a week.”
