He knew the secondary room because he had once delivered paperwork there, and he knew Maya had told staff not to modify systems under review. He went directly to the digital evidence office.
"Agent Williams," he said, a little breathless, "Lieutenant Sloan went upstairs. Toward the secondary administrator terminals."
Maya did not hesitate. She asked him to lead the way while Owen and another technician followed. The door to the command room stood partly open. Rebecca sat before the console with one hand near the keyboard. When the group appeared, she stood so abruptly her chair moved back against the wall.
"What are you doing here?" Maya asked.
"Preparing a clean archive export so your technicians don't contaminate our data."
"Step away from the workstation. Don't touch anything else."
Rebecca complied, but her expression was hard. Owen used an adjacent authorized console to review the recent action history. There was no export operation underway. Instead, he found an archive selection and a pending purge request. The console showed that the administrative action had been authenticated by Rebecca's biometric credential after the federal preservation mirror had begun recording activity.
"Were you preparing to delete these records?" Maya asked.
"No. I was isolating compromised material."
"A purge request was initiated. What material did you intend to remove, and under what authority?"
"Evidence security falls within my responsibilities. Your people have been inside the system all day. I had reason to believe some records could be unreliable."
"A federal preservation order has been active since this morning. You knew that."
"I disagree with your interpretation of this function."
Owen displayed the authentication event. "The request was associated with Lieutenant Sloan's own biometric confirmation. The federal mirror recorded the activity independently of this terminal."
Maya waited before speaking again. "Did anybody else use your hand to authenticate that command?"
Rebecca stared at her. "No."
"Then the system didn't invent the request. We'll preserve exactly what it says and let a technical review determine its effect."
Chief Mercer arrived while Owen was still documenting the pending operation. He looked at the screen, then at Rebecca. "Why were you using an administrative console after we were told not to modify records?"
Rebecca's expression changed from defiance to disbelief. "You're asking me that now? You knew I had privileges here."
"Having access isn't authorization to disregard a preservation instruction."
"I was trying to protect the network."
"From what?" Mercer asked. "We're standing in my command area with federal agents documenting an attempted purge."
"You think I did this alone?" Rebecca demanded.
Maya raised a hand. "We aren't having a negotiation in this room. Your explanation will be documented in a separate statement. Chief Mercer, yours will be taken separately as well."
Rebecca looked at Mercer. "Ask him who approved the hidden environment. Ask him why outside reviews were delayed until Calvin finished the project."
Mercer took one step toward her. "Be careful. You're making serious allegations because you were caught changing a system under review."
"You wanted Calvin's access left active," she said. "You told us not to let outside technical inspectors into the basement until after closeout."
"That isn't what happened."