All Due Respect by Vicki Hinze

her breath, and a disappointment so deep it felt as if it were cutting her in two slashed through her body. There would be no break from the threats.
    Karl had found her.

Chapter Six
    JULIA stared into the bathroom mirror and groaned. A corpse had more color than she did this morning.
    She slathered on extra makeup to hide the dark circles under her eyes and her deathly pallor, dressed, and then dragged herself into work by nine.
    Her gray suit looked drab, but she needed the comfort of quiet to recover. Finally, just before dawn, she had stopped heaving, but her insides were still shaky.
    As soon as she left the Camry to approach the building, something Seth had said in the car the night before niggled at her. If when in his office he often kept his badge on his desk, then anyone could have made the first switch. But the sensor codes had been copied at 1040 and Seth had left the building for lunch at 1100. So the second switch, where the thief had returned Seth’s badge, had to have occurred during that twenty-minute time span.
    If she were committing treason by stealing Top Secret information, what’s the first thing she would do?
    Get the codes out of the building.
    Yeah. Before the second switch. Before anyone noticed the copies had been made. Before any irregularity had been noted and Security shut down the lab.
    So, who on the first-switch suspect list also left the building between 1040 and 1100?
    Good question.
    After clearing the lab’s first Security checkpoint, she stopped at the second one. Sergeant Grimm was on duty. He lifted the handheld scanner to run his check, and she asked, “Sergeant, where is the Security office?”
    He backed away. “First corridor to the right after you come out of the transporter.”
    “Thanks.” Julia went through the cylinder, and then to the Security office.
    A female sergeant who appeared about six months pregnant sat at the reception desk. “May I help you, Dr. Warner?”
    Word was out. Everyone in the building knew her name and credentials, and they’d likely already started a betting pool on where she had been for the past three years. Merciless gossip grapevine. “Yes, please. Who is responsible for inner-lab security?”
    “That would be Colonel Mason, ma’am. But I can probably help you with whatever you need.”
    “Great.” Julia thought fast. “I’m looking for clarification on a specific security procedure. There appears to be conflicting instructions in the regs.”
    The smile faded. “I’d better get the colonel.”
    Julia smiled. “Thank you.” Conflicts in the regulations usually signaled sticky wickets, often with legal repercussions. No one voluntarily became involved. At least that hadn’t changed.
    “This way, Dr. Warner.” The sergeant led Julia to the colonel’s office.
    The colonel stood and offered his hand. “Bob Mason.”
    Julia clasped it firmly and shook. Mason was a huge man, barrel-chested and broad-nosed. His crew cut was short and his complexion ruddy.
    “Have a seat, Doctor.” He waved to a chair.
    Grateful, Julia sat down. After the exercise of walking through the building to his office, she found her insides weren’t just shaky from last night’s vigil, they rattled. “Thank you.”
    “We have a problem on a reg?”
    “No, we don’t.” Julia smiled. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t want to discuss this with anyone else.”
    His eyes sparkled interest. “So what do you want to discuss, Doc?”
    “I need a list of everyone who was in the inner lab yesterday morning between nine and eleven. Is it possible to get that information?”
    “Sure.” Smelling a situation in the making, his interest deepened. “Do we have a problem?”
    “Not at present, no.”
    “Can I feel confident that if we develop a problem, I’ll be notified immediately?”
    “You can bank on it.” As soon as Agent 12 gave her an approving nod, she would gladly dump the works in Colonel Mason’s lap.
    The overhead light glinted on his watch.