“Aren’t you the lucky one? I’m the engineer and designer, along with my twin sister. And that piece of shit as you call it, contains technology you obviously cannot understand.” Wentz frowned, pushing his chair back from the table as if he were going to leave.
“Mr. Wentz, stay where you are,” said the colonel running the proceeding.
They could see the panic in Wentz’s face as Sophia Ann picked up the device. Mansur was sweating, looking down at his notes as if hoping to find something that would help him escape.
Pulling out a small, zippered tool kit, Sophia Ann began taking the device apart.
“We have a problem,” she said quietly. “This device has been tampered with. The camera and recording information are external. You don’t have to open it to get to those items. Someone obviously opened it for another reason. In the process, the clumsy, awkward, inexperienced individual damaged the drive.”
“I…” Wentz stopped, knowing he couldn’t say anything.
“Can you get anything off of it?” asked Hunt.
“I can get everything off of it,” nodded Sophia Ann. Carefully removing the drive and the recording component, she slipped it into another small device on the table. Immediately, they could hear and see the images caught that night.
“Soldier, want to come with me?”
“No, ma’am, thank you.”
“Please come with me,”said the female.
“I appreciate the offer, ma’am, but I’m not interested. Please back up. Ma’am, take your hands off of me.”They could see that he’d held her wrists, hoping to keep her at arm’s length.
“He’s hurting me! He’s touching me! Stop touching me!”
The Japanese consulate members began whispering to one another and stood from the table.
“Please accept our apologies, Sergeant Hunt. You are obviously innocent of the accusations.” They left the room, and all eyes turned to Mansur and his team, along with Wentz.
“Why did you do it?” asked Georgie.
“Wh-what?” stammered Wentz.
“Why did you screw with the device? You nearly put an innocent man behind bars, destroying his career.” Wentz said nothing, shaking his head.
“You’d better speak up, asshole, or you’re going to find out just how angry I am,” said Hunt.
“He made me do it!” he screamed, pointing at Mansur. “His stupid son needed to track his ex-fiancée. I tried to just re-use the device, but it wouldn’t work, so I had to take it apart. I didn’t realize it would ruin the recordings.”
“It didn’t ruin them,” said Sophia Ann. “It only had them in a sort of cold storage, tucked away until we released it. Mr. Mansur, I believe you need to tell us where we can find your son.”
Wentz stood to leave, and Carl and Aiden blocked the door. Aiden shook his head.
“I don’t think so, buddy. You nearly ruined a soldier’s life. You’re not going anywhere.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I demand that you allow me to leave this facility!” said Mansur with a petulant tone.
“And I demand that you sit your ass down before I tie you to the chair. I believe you may be charged in the case of Sergeant Hunt, should he decide to press charges against you and Mr. Wentz,” said the colonel.
“I believe I would, sir,” said Hunt. He turned to the five individuals new to the room and nodded. “I don’t know who you are but thank you. I knew I was innocent of all claims that woman made. I just couldn’t understand why the equipment wasn’t working when we’d never had issues with it before.”
“Let me help you to understand,” said Georgie. “Peter Wentz tried to destroy his ex-wife’s relationship with her boyfriend, a D.C. patrol officer. When the charges were brought against him, Mr. Mansur’s firm took notice and decided to do a little pro-bono work as long as Mr. Wentz did something for them. This had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Wentz and Mr. Mansur’s son’s ex-fiancée.”
Hunt turned toward Wentz and Mansur, a scowl that would have made most men cringe covering his face.
“You were ready to send me to prison? For what?” he snapped. “I deserve to know.”
