PART 2
Nobody moved. Lieutenant Bradley Knox stood twenty feet away, shoulders square, eyes traveling from Renee’s federal jacket to the terminal behind Hannah. “Open the doors,” Renee ordered. Knox gave a thin smile. “System malfunction.” “Interesting timing.” I shifted slightly between Hannah and the hallway. Knox noticed. “Dorsey, don’t make this worse.” “You sent that message eighteen minutes before I arrived.” “You don’t know what you’re looking at.” Travis suddenly spoke from behind us. “Lieutenant, you told me he was coming to compromise an internal investigation.” Knox’s eyes flashed. Travis stopped talking. Renee caught it immediately. “So you did warn Officer Morrow.” “That’s not what he said.” “It’s exactly what he said.” Knox stepped toward the terminal. Renee blocked him. “Stay where you are.” He kept coming. “That computer contains protected police records.” “And now it may contain evidence of federal obstruction.”
Knox lunged past her. I intercepted him before he reached Hannah. His shoulder crashed into my chest, driving me into the desk. He grabbed for the keyboard. I caught his forearm. “Let go!” he barked. “Back off!” He swung his elbow into my ribs and tore free. Renee seized his other arm, but Knox twisted violently, knocking a monitor sideways. Hannah screamed and jumped back. One of Renee’s investigators grabbed Knox around the shoulders. For several seconds, bodies slammed against the counter, chairs scraping across the floor. Then Travis stepped forward. Everyone tensed. Knox shouted, “Morrow, help me!” Travis stared at him. “You told me the warrant was fake.” “Do your job!” “You told me federal people were coming to steal command files.” “Shut up!” That was the moment Travis finally understood he had been used.
Instead of helping Knox, Travis grabbed his wrist and helped force it behind his back. Renee snapped on restraints. Knox roared, “You idiot! You think this saves you?” “No,” Travis said shakily. “But maybe telling the truth does.” One of Renee’s agents found the emergency release and unlocked the lobby. Backup federal investigators entered moments later. Renee ordered the terminal isolated from the department network. Hannah raised a hand. “There’s something else.” She explained that thirty seconds after the command message appeared that morning, an administrator had remotely disabled the lobby camera and scheduled deletion of files from the department’s evidence-finance directory. “Can you recover them?” Renee asked. Hannah hesitated. “Maybe. The deletion job hasn’t finished.” Knox’s confidence vanished. “That directory has nothing to do with your warrant.”
Renee looked at him. “I didn’t tell you what the warrant covers.” The lobby went silent. Knox realized his mistake. I felt my pulse jump. Renee turned to me. “Malcolm, call the cyber team.” Travis sank into a chair. “Oh, God.” I crouched beside him. “What did Knox tell you?” “That Captain Weller was under federal investigation. That someone posing as DOJ would bring forged papers so they could get into our financial servers.” “Why would you destroy the document?” “Knox said no copies could remain inside the station.” Renee heard him. “Did he put that in writing?” Travis looked toward the command hallway. “No. But he gave me a burner phone yesterday.” Knox shouted, “He’s lying!” Travis reached slowly into his pocket. “It’s in here.”
Before anyone could take the phone, the lights flickered. A deep electronic alarm sounded from somewhere below us. Hannah spun toward the terminal. “That’s the evidence-server room.” A red warning box appeared: REMOTE PURGE INITIATED — 04:59. Renee’s face tightened. “Five minutes until what?” Hannah stared at the screen. “Until every financial evidence archive on the local server is overwritten.” Knox smiled for the first time since being restrained. “Looks like you’re too late.” Then Captain Gregory Weller stepped through the newly opened front doors with two federal agents behind him and said, “No, Brad. That’s exactly why I called them.”
PART 3
Knox’s smile disappeared. Captain Gregory Weller walked directly toward us, removed his police badge, and placed it on the counter. “Four minutes, thirty seconds,” Hannah said. Weller pointed down the hallway. “Server room is beneath Evidence Control. Knox changed the access codes last week.” Renee handed Knox to two agents. “Malcolm, with me.” We ran. Travis followed until Renee snapped, “You stay here.” “I know Knox’s override!” he shouted. “He made supervisors memorize it.” Renee hesitated only a second. “Then move.” We sprinted down two flights of stairs. At the steel server-room door, Travis punched in six digits. Red light. “He changed it.” “Try his command code backward,” I said. Travis did. Green. The door clicked open. Inside, server racks screamed with cooling fans while a wall monitor counted down from 03:41.
