Exclusive. Katherine Garbera
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you something to drive if you decide to go.”
Tory nodded. Since Andrea and her crew had frequented that spot, the hostage takers could have predicted when she’d arrive and who would be with her.
“Next I’d look for a woman named Alaleh. She works in the open-air market, right here,” Joan said, marking another spot on the map. “She’s a rug merchant’s wife. Alaleh has been very outspoken on the way women are treated here despite the American influences. She might be able to help you, but you can’t see her until tomorrow morning.”
Tory remembered that Andrea had done several stories on that topic. Because of the nature of the demands from the people holding her and the others hostage, Tory feared that America’s influence over women in this region might have instigated the kidnapers going after Andrea.
“Is that it?”
“No, there’s one more spot. Here.” Joan marked an area a distance from Suwan near the mountain range that bordered Afghanistan. “This is near the insurgent camp in the mountains where we suspect the Marines are being held.”
Tory stared at the map. “I called the press office for the Marine Corps to get some additional information from them, but they only referred to what they’d said in their press release.”
“Andrea talked to someone else, I don’t know who. The station had me box up all her notes and personal things. They’re in the news suite—do you want to see them?”
“Yes,” Tory said, and Joan finished her whiskey and led the way out of the bar.
“Do you think Andrea and Shannon Conner look similar?” Tory asked, advancing the theory that had been bothering her since Jay’s comment about the blond reporter.
Joan stopped. “You know, they do. I never really thought about it before.”
“Someone made a comment to Jay about the blond reporter, which got me thinking. Shannon and I aren’t really close enough for me to ask her what she’s been working on….”
“I’ll see what I can find out. Will you be in the hotel?”
“No, I’m going out after this. You can always reach me on my cell.”
The news suite was actually a quarter of the ballroom with partition doors around it to separate UBC from the other news networks. In a small, dark corner with pipe and drape surrounding it was the editing suite.
“Andrea’s stuff is over here.”
Joan led Tory to a small table that had a computer on it. A cardboard box lay on the floor under the table. “You can use this area while you’re here.”
Tory nodded to Joan and sat down in Andrea’s chair. Joan drifted off to talk to some others in the newsroom, and Tory let the sounds drift away until the conversations became background music. She turned on Andrea’s computer and booted it up.
She was tired. If only she could leave this for morning…but the terrorists who’d taken Andrea and her crew had only given the U.S. a few days to take action, and Tory didn’t want to waste any of that limited window of opportunity.
She dug around in the box, hoping to find something that would give her a lead. She sat up when the LAN log-in screen popped up.
“Joan?” she called across the crowd. “Do you know Andrea’s log-in?”
Joan walked back toward her. “I had the IT guys reset it. It’s AJancey for log-in, UBCBERZ for password.”
Tory typed it in. While the computer loaded Andrea’s page, she pulled out a small stack of manila file folders. None of them were labeled. Inside one, she found the notes for the stories Andrea had filed for Tory’s show, A Closer Look. They included interviews with Alaleh and a small group of women.
Tory put that file aside to take with her tomorrow when she tracked down Alaleh. She should be able to recognize the woman.
The next folder had clippings from the AP and Reuters on the Marine Huey that was shot down. She skimmed them but found nothing new in the press articles and no notes from Andrea.
She opened the Outlook e-mail program and read through Andrea’s recent messages. The list had several familiar e-mail addresses and one surprising one. She didn’t know that Andrea had started working for AA.gov.
Tory opened that e-mail with a feeling of trepidation. The message was brief and coded but Tory was familiar with the codes used by AA.gov, since she worked as a courier for the agency herself.
Andrea had been working on an assignment for the agency when she’d been taken hostage.
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