Page 48 of Booked for Theft

“I think two horses would be wonderful, and we can add them to the booking and send over all of the health requirements for the cruise,” Bradley said with a smile. “I’ll keep in touch, and we’ll talk about everything you need to join us in being crazy horse owners. And we can go riding before the cruise, too. There are a bunch of nice trails we can take horses on between here and Maryland. We can meet in the middle.”

“Seriously, I can’t thank you enough.”

“We all need something to look forward to, especially in moments of grief,” my fiancé replied. “I’m just glad we could help, even a little.”

The instant we made it home, Bradley set down the box of books, turned on classical music, and went to work examining everything in search of bugs. Within thirty seconds, he found one, but not in the way he expected.

Emma had smashed it to the point it was barely recognizable, every chip and component broken and rendered harmless. The device came with a note, and the words cut me deep.

Even after her husband’s death, the government watched her, and it reminded her of a lion poised to strike, crouched and ready to tear into her flesh.

Then, tucked within the pages of every volume, were folded sheets of paper, which proved to be printed photographs of sensitive documentation the government likely wanted destroyed—or had already been destroyed.

“It’s clean of functioning tracking devices,” he announced, revealing a set of six more destroyed units.

“Shit,” I whispered, staring at the destroyed devices with wide eyes. “This is so much worse than I thought.”

“And the government knows the trackers have been taken offline, much like they know we removed the trackers on your SUV. And unlike you, she doesn’t have the excuse of marrying the son of a security specialist. We clean our vehicles as a part of our routine, and they know there’s no point in trying to spy inside our home at this point. We’ve both learned how to check for bugs, and we do so daily. The government is only testing us to see if we’re remaining diligent. They might try to eliminate her for removing the bugs.”

“With luck, they’ll assume it’s a consequence of grief.” I eyed the collection of devices, marveling over how thorough she’d been with disabling them. “I like how she sent that message, though. She’s quite done with bullshit right now.”

“And she has a lot of reasons to resent the system. Hopefully, since she isn’t active in politics, they’ll let it go and she’ll be able to live a normal life. Well, as normal a life as someone who has been under the thumb of the government for so long.”

I picked up one of the hidden sheets, reading it over to discover it was a summary sheet of the upcoming debates, complete with a guide on what was to pass and fail. I whistled before handing it over. “It’s likely trapped to prevent anyone from sharing directly, but if we can get three or four different copies to figure out how they’re modified, we might be able to take this to the media, Bradley.”

“What we really need to get is the government’s primary original, the one that hasn’t been adjusted.”

“I highly doubt that’s going to be possible, Bradley. That’s probably being kept at the White House, the Pentagon, or some other fancy government building.”

He sighed. “I know. And we’d have to get a conspirator on the inside to get the copy. But that’s the only way we’re going to get down to the bottom of this.”

“Unless we are somehow able to get to where they’re keeping all the copies,” I muttered. “If we’re going to be targeting the originals, we may as well target the whole lot.”

“I doubt we could even if we wanted to, unless they’re cocky and bold enough to be putting them on unsecured servers. That’s not going to be happening. The government can’t afford for these documents to be leaked.”

“I wonder if the government has been thorough about the removal of files from deceased politicians,” I muttered. “Emma was clearly able to access her husband’s files, and she stole the stuff she thought was important to get them to us.”

Bradley pressed his finger to his lips and put everything back into the box before carrying it to our dining room. “Let’s continue this discussion away from the door. Even with the music on, I’d rather not risk it.”

“Good call.” I emptied the box, sorted the books by age, donned a pair of gloves to prevent damage to the oldest of the books, and began the tedious process of checking between every page for more sheets. My efforts bore fruit in a hurry, and I marveled over how much Emma had hidden away. Most of the books were ancient, with the youngest of them having been printed in 1826 AD. The eldest, which hadn’t been used to hide anything, was the prayer book he’d told me about, the crowned jewel of his collection.

“What’s wrong?” Bradley asked.

“We talked about this when I saw him. It was his oldest piece, and he got it from a charity auction. It’s a priceless treasure. A gospel of some sort, I think? Or a prayer book. It’s in a different language.”

“He knew you would take care of it, and Emma likely isn’t as much of a fan of old books as you are—she didn’t seem to have any issues with letting the collection go. Or if she did, she felt the value of the information she passed to us was worth more than the books.”

I could believe that. “I feel like we’re spinning our wheels with no hope of gaining traction. We know what the government is trying to accomplish, but we’ve been tied to the tracks with no hope of stopping the oncoming train.”

“It’ll be all right. I’m sure Emma had a reason for hiding these sheets in the books.”

“Or Senator Thaddens did. Or they had decided to do this together. She would have had to get the files from somewhere if she did it after his death.” I sighed, continuing my search through the pages. One sheet of paper, yellowed with age, caught my attention. I unfolded it, realizing I held a half of a page of a newspaper, with the date intact on the upper corner.

The headline indicated changes to daylight savings, something that had been abolished before the establishment of the MR calendar. I’d only learned about it due to studying world history. Puzzled, I began to read.

Three paragraphs in, I spotted why Senator Thaddens might hide the article within an old book.

According to the newspaper article, as part of the change removing daylight savings, the government would begin implementing slight changes to time zones, which in turn would adjust the time and dates in some regions. There was no mention of the MR calendar, but there was a date the changes would occur: March 14, 2106.