Free The Alberta Connection by R. Clint Peters Page B

either.
    Tanya walked into Ryce’s office a little
after 11:00 AM. When she sat down, Ryce wondered if there was a
lock on the door. He immediately rejected that thought. Doug likely
had the key.
    Ryce noticed that Tanya had a slight smirk on
her face.
    She looked at him, and then said, “The three
teams are working wonderfully. They are all going to lunch at 11:30
AM. I just checked the thermometer. If you are serious about
getting me pregnant, right now would be an excellent time.”
    By the time she finished expressing her
thoughts, Tanya was a brilliant beet-colored red. Ryce got up from
his desk, walked to where she was sitting, pulled her out of her
seat, and gave her a long wet kiss. After the kiss, he took her
hand, and they walked out of the office.

Chapter 12
    Doug and Mark were
waiting in Ryce’s office when he and Tanya returned from lunch. As
Tanya walked to her office suite, Ryce thought she had a slightly
smug look on her face.
    Doug was studying a laptop positioned in
front of Mark.
    Ryce sat down at his desk and turned to them.
“What can I do for you?”
    Doug looked up. “John just got a report from
Homeland Security. The Pentagon has reported seven unauthorized
entries within the past 36 hours. The entries are not being called
break-ins until an audit is completed.”
    The laptop in front of Mark announced an
email had been received. Mark slid the laptop over to Doug, who
checked his email inbox. After reading the email, Doug looked over
at Ryce.
    “Pentagon security just confirmed four
laptops went missing from the building about twenty-eight hours
ago. They do not have an exact timeline, but twenty-eight hours ago
was the last time two of the laptops were actually seen. Only one
of the laptops has tracking software installed on it. It is a
version of LoJack. Unfortunately, the laptop has to be logged onto
the Internet, but the program has been activated.
    “Two of the laptops could have been missing
for as long as 48 hours.”
    Doug paused, typed for a minute on his
laptop, and then turned to Ryce.
    “I guess you have your first enormous
challenge. Welcome to the big leagues.”
    Mark laughed.
    “I wouldn’t change jobs with you right now,
even if I could have Lynette back.”
    Ryce walked into Suite 424, Tanya’s new
research center. Tanya was huddled over a laptop with three of her
group. Ryce chuckled. Did it take four people to look at one
laptop?
    As Ryce turned to walk back to his office,
his cell phone began to vibrate. He had a text from Doug. When Ryce
read the text, he burst out laughing. The Pentagon laptop with
LoJack had accessed the Internet to order pizza in Richmond, VA.
The laptop was located at the Double Tree Inn near the Richmond
International Airport.
    Also, according to Doug, John had sent an
email to someone he knew at the FBI asking that they contact the
pizza restaurant. Perhaps the FBI could obtain the room number
where the pizza was delivered and even the credit card that had
been used. The LoJack program was a wonderful breakthrough in
tracking a laptop, but it did not provide an answer to every
possible question.
    Ryce was sitting at his desk composing an
email to Doug when Tanya walked in. She leaned over his desk and
asked, “What were you just cackling about?”
    Ryce was still laughing so hard, he could
barely tell her about the pizza order. She walked around the desk
and sat in his lap.
    “They had pizza in the cafeteria for lunch,
but I didn’t see you eat any.”
    Tanya laughed, gave him a long kiss, stood,
and walked from the office.
    Ryce completed the email to Doug and then
loaded Google Maps on his laptop. They now had a location, although
twenty-four hours old, that they could use to start tracking the
laptops. How far could someone drive in twenty-four hours?
    Ryce started a quick mental calculation, but
stopped. Higher mathematics was just far too difficult for someone
who had seen what he had just seen when Tanya leaned over his desk.
Ryce smiled.