I asked him if there were helicopters and stuff in the hangars, but he didn’t answer.
31
BENNY SAID, “I FOUND SOMETHING I think you need to see.”
“Is it a red powder?” Joe asked quickly.
“What? No. Why?”
Joe waved it away. “What’ve you got for me?”
Benny produced the Teambook and handed it to Joe.
The ranger stared at it for a moment, eyes bulging from his face. “Where did you find this?”
“The reaper had it in his quad. And no, I don’t know where he found it. We . . . didn’t really talk, you know.”
“This must have come from the plane, and it definitely wasn’t there when I searched it. That means it was removed before that day.”
“Is that good for us?” asked Benny. “Does it mean the D-series records are around somewhere?”
“It might.”
“Joe, what if the records aren’t around here?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know . . . it just seems strange to me that one complete set of records is all that’s missing from the plane. So far we haven’t found that stuff, and none of the zoms was Dr. McReady. What if she was never onboard that plane?”
“The whole point was to evacuate her, kid.”
“I know, but maybe something else happened. Would there be any kind of record of that?”
Joe grunted. “It’s possible but unlikely. Once the plane left, McReady wouldn’t have had any way of getting out of there, and my rangers have been to Hope One. She didn’t stay behind.”
“Are there other places she could have landed? Other bases like Sanctuary?”
“Not like Sanctuary, but there are a million places she could have landed. No way to know unless it was recorded, and I’ve been over every inch of that plane. . . .” His voice trailed off.
“What is i
t?” asked Benny.
“I might be jumping the gun here. We actually don’t know if the plane landed anywhere else or not. There was no flight log in the cockpit, at least none that we could find. I knew all those guys. Only Luis would know, and we never found his body.”
“Who?”
“Luis Ortega, the logistics coordinator. He would have maintained a record of everything. Luis was detail-oriented like that. You sneeze and he has a record of the time, the date, and the air-speed velocity. He never missed a trick.”
“Wait . . . I know that name.”
Benny flipped to the picture of Sergeant Luis Ortega and showed it to Joe. “Is this the guy you’re talking about?”
“That’s him. Luis was a big ol’ boy, looked like a linebacker but he had the heart of an accountant. He was exactly the kind of miss-nothing guy you’d send when you wanted to evac a research facility. He’d bring back every last paper clip.” Joe cocked an eye at Benny. “How is it you picked up on him so fast?”
Benny explained about how he’d thought he recognized the man but couldn’t remember from where. “Is he here?” he asked. “I mean, is he maybe one of the zoms over on the airfield?”
Joe thought about it. “No, I don’t think so. Last time I saw him was when they were loading the plane to fly up to Hope One. But . . . let me know if you remember where you saw him. If those D-series records weren’t onboard, or if Doc McReady planned any other stops, maybe to drop some of her research and cargo anywhere, then Ortega would definitely be the one to know all the details. That’s his job.” Joe grunted again.