"Hey there girlie."
"What in the hell are you doing here Shelly? I could have killed you!" Samine snapped looking at her friend as she put her gun back on safety before glaring at her friend.
"Well I
very well couldn't let you go through this alone. I mean what kind of friend
would I be then? So I booked a flight and followed you over to merry ole
Samine watched her friend pass and slowly shook her head with her hands on her hips in defeat. Shelly carried everything into the small kitchen and lifted them up to the counter and was immediately digging into them. Bringing her head back out, she held two Smirnoff bottles and handed one to Samine as she walked past her into the main room.
"And besides you'll need some help with working through the videos and hacking into Gibbons's shit. We work well together Samine and you know it," she said turning and looking to Samine as she tossed the bottle cap into the trashcan.
"We work almost too well together Shell. We've made a lot of enemies in our business girl and every one of them would love to make us disappear," Samine said as she walked towards Shelly and stood in front of her.
"So why we're on a roll, let's make a few more enemies. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer remember," she said calmly and smiled when Samine laughed.
"Even if I really don't show it I'm happy you're here girl. Thanks for coming," Samine said and pulled Shelly into a tight hug.
"Hey hey now watch the drink. You almost committed alcohol abuse there," Shelly said when the motion almost made her spill her drink.
"Let's get to work," Samine said releasing her friend.
Several hours later the two of them were scattered around the room and the room was in different stages of disarray. Shelly was at her laptop working on the videotape of Gibbons's office and Samine was on her laptop trying to hack her way into Gibbons's files. A few bottles of Smirnoff bottles were scattered around the computers as well as several cups of coffee at different temperatures. Samine propped her elbows up on the table and rubbed her eyes tiredly before releasing a soft groan to no one particular.
"This is getting us no where. I'm actually starting to think that I did do it and I just blocked it out of my memory," Samine mumbled and sat back in the chair and looked over to Shelly who was sitting on the couch with wires connecting to every available outlet on her laptop.
"No not actually. We are making slight head way with the video. Come here and watch this," Shelly said and punched a few keys on her laptop as Samine stood up and walked towards her.
The small television hooked to her laptop flickered to life and the scene started to play out of Samine walking through the door and shooting Gibbons. Shelly remained silent as Samine watched it again before looking over at Shelly with an exhausted look.
"What about it? I've already seen it plenty of times."
"Doesn't something strike you as odd?"
"Yeah the whole thing strikes me as odd. What the hell is your point Shell?"
"What gets you about the video? Tell me exactly," she urged and Samine sighed before turning back to the video that started to play again.
Watching it for a bit realization started to dawn on her as she watched and her eyes slowly grew in size.
"The timing. Something is off about when the person pulls the trigger and when Gibbons jerks back from the impact. Is that what you're talking about?" she asked looking at Shelly.
"Yeah I barely caught that too until I slowed the tape down. There is about half of a second between when you see the person pull the trigger and Gibbons jerk back. That is way too long between the two for a Sig Sauer. So I dug a little more and did a full in depth scan of this portion of the tape. Seems part of it was erased and something was put over it. Turns out the two has to different bandwidths on it which needless to say never happens with one single tape that is recorded straight through. So the two different bandwidths mean that one part is of the original tape and the other came from another tape," she said as Samine slowly started to pace.
"Can you separate the two to find out what was on the tape before it was altered?"
"I can but I really don't want to do that. It is a very delicate progress and right now my computer is recording everything that I do so if I altered the tape it could mean that I'm going in and replacing you as the shooter with someone totally different. So I can't for your safety because they'll check that first believe me. The only altering done to this tape is the original altering by the person framing you," she said pointing to her laptop. "Now look at yourself in the tape, what's wrong with it. Think back to the day that all this happened."
Samine moved closer to the television and looked closely at herself.
"My clothes are wrong. On that day I was wearing a pair of low heeled boots because we had a flight and I wanted to be comfortable walking around the airport. In this I'm wearing high heeled boots; I only wear those when I'm working in the building and have to make a special appearance or special demonstration. And…wait a minute…am I wearing a set of ear plugs?"
"What?"
Shelly set her laptop on the couch and moved closer to Samine who was pointing to the screen.
"Can you zoom in any?"
"Yeah hold on a bit," Shelly moved back to her laptop and punched a few keys and moved her fingers across the touch pad.
The little square settled over Samine's head and zoomed in and the screen turned fuzzy for a moment before it could clear up. The image did and both could plainly see a slightly thick cord running from her ear to behind her back and under her hair.
"You are and when do you only wear a set of ear plugs?" Shelly asked as they both stood up and looked at each other.
"When I'm shooting in the shooting gallery because the echo is so bad. And my stance can prove it see look. I'm standing to the side and bit and looking down my gun arm with my feet slightly apart. If I did go in to shoot someone then I wouldn't take the time to align myself properly, I'd shoot from the hip in essence. If I took the time then the person would have the chance to yell for help or hit an alarm button," Samine said thinking out loud as she started to pace a bit more and get excited.
"Okay so we know that the tape has been altered to show something else totally different. Who do we know that can do that this well? Because I barely caught it and I'm known for catching odd little things," Shelly said as she slowly walked into the kitchen as she talked over her shoulder.
Pausing for a moment Samine reached for her cell phone and turned it on to dial a number. Waiting a few moments someone finally picked up and Samine's face brightened a bit as Shelly walked back into the room eating an apple.
"What ever you do don't say my name," she said first off and Shelly could hear the other person's shock at her call.
"I need some information from you Shavers. Has anyone talked to you and asked questions about police procedures or how to alter tapes?" she asked and listened to his reply. "Okay thanks a lot."
She ended the call and tossed the phone onto the couch as she stared at it in thought. Shelly could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she watched her slowly walk towards her laptop still in the process of hacking into Gibbons's files. Sitting down in the chair she canceled the action and looked at the dialog box asking for the password. Her fingers slowly moved across the keyboard and typed something in before hitting 'Enter'. The computer hummed softly as Shelly walked up behind Samine slowly and looked over her shoulder. The two scanned the files that they now had access to and filed all the information away in their memory for future use.
"Well I'll be god damned," Samine muttered after reading one report and slowly looked up at Shelly.
"There's a mole in the NSA headquarters," Shelly said in monotone as everything started to fall into place in Samine's mind.
"And I know exactly who it is."
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Well what does everyone think???????? I'm starting to realize that this story might be a good bit shorter than the other ones unless I can come up with a really good twist to throw in there to keep it going for a good bit. But so anyway I hope everyone likes the story and what I'm doing with it. Please please R/R I'm begging you here. I love reading all of the reviews that I get about the stories. So everyone sit tight and keep an eye open for the new chappy and I'll be working hard on it. Peace.