The sound of footsteps drawing close to the door caused her to bring a sudden end to her searches. When the unfamiliar soldier arrived, followed by two more heavily laden with boxes, she was playing a game of solitaire on the computer, appearing suitably bored out her mind.
"Specialist Steele," the one in the lead called to her.
Seeing the Lieutenant's bar on his collar for the first time, she stood and saluted. "Sir."
He turned to the two men following him, "Place the files on Spec. Steele's desk and return to your duties."
"Yes sir."
"Specialist Steele, since you seem to have so much time on your hands," he gestured towards the solitaire game still displayed on her monitor, "I've got some extra work for you. These are hard copies of all the communications we've received both from internal and external units since setting up operations here. Destroy them."
"Excuse me sir?" She was intrigued, what could be so important that these assholes wanted them erased.
"Destroy them, command doesn't want any unnecessary records. Do you understand Specialist?"
Without hesitation she answered, "Affirmative sir." This time she hoped she would find the jackpot she'd been looking for.
He nodded and proceeded to leave the office. She started lugging a few of the files over to the paper shredder that was housed in the adjoining copy machine room. Opening the first file, she began perusing through the first page, seeing nothing but supply requisitions. Flipping through the rest of the stack in her hand she saw they were all the same, supply requisitions in triplicate. The next couple of stacks revealed similar information, the only interesting one being about the requisition of materials for what had become their fuel depot and the barricades outside of this facility.
Sighing she headed back for more files. The next batch contained a little more information, communications regarding the five search and rescue teams. Reports on the areas they'd covered, the number of civilians that had been spotted and retrieved. She was almost to the end of the reports before she realized there was something wrong. Flipping through the stack again, it appeared over and over again, Team Five. But there had only been four teams.
The rest of the reports she had shredded shed the light. They were being lied to from the start. The number of soldiers at this facility that Cowboy had given them when they arrived had been grossly exaggerated. The number of researchers appeared to have been underrated. But it hadn't been Cowboy's fault that the figures he'd provided were wrong, that was the "official" number given to everyone. As for Brigadier General Timmons, he was only a figure head, someone to make the military presence sound more official. The researchers were actually calling the shots around here, the inmates running the asylum, she couldn't help but think.
The more she read, the more she felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. It all fit though, right down to the truth about the mysterious Team Five, it wasn't an individual search and rescue team, they were moles, all assigned to the real teams. One name caught her attention, "Sonuvabitch."
She glanced at her watch, it was still several hours before the scheduled meeting with Briggs and the others. But if what she had just read about the moles was true, she wasn't sure if they could afford to have that meeting. Making a decision she stood up, intending to seek out one of the others. She was almost to the door when the same Lieutenant from before appeared, this time carrying a box of files by himself.
"Going somewhere Specialist?"
"Yes sir, the bathroom sir," she quickly said, before remembered to salute him. "Then I thought I'd grab another cup of coffee from the chow hall, sir."
He nodded, "I've got some more communications that need to be destroyed."
"Yes sir, if you'd like to leave them on my desk, I'll take care of them when I get back. If that's okay sir." Damn, playing the obedient soldier was starting to get old real fast she thought.
"Very well. Use the head, but I want this taken care of before you take any coffee breaks. Understood?
"Affirmative...sir."
What about the rest of it from earlier?"
"Already taken care of sir."
He just nodded and left. Taking a deep breath, Steele hurried into the hallway, still planning on seeking out one of the others. The Lieutenant was standing down the hall, only a few yards from the door. She quickly saluted him before turning the opposite direction and heading towards the nearest bathroom.
"Shit," she uttered as soon as the door safely closed behind her. After waiting a few minutes, trying to think of the best way to proceed, she left the bathroom. The lieutenant was no where to be seen. Deciding to play it safe, in case someone was watching, she returned to her desk and grabbed the files. Once again she began scanning through them before putting them into the shredder. This batch was as informative as the others had proved to be, now if only she could come up with a way of letting the others know about the mole before it was too late.