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Bobby ‘Bit’ Nowacki

June 2025

Wednesday — 2:12 pm

B it shifted in the driver's seat of the rental SUV, stretching his legs into the footwell with the seat pushed all the way back. He had rolled down the window in case anyone needed him. A few minutes earlier, the supervisory special agent of the Anchorage field office had arrived on the scene, allowing Bit some time to gather vital intel that could be useful to Brook.

Seven minutes remained before Bit was scheduled to radio her with false information regarding the ice cave.

He squinted at the screen in concentration while Mitch's burner phone lay connected by a thin black cable. The extraction program he had written was running in parallel—one reconstructing the deleted call history, another recovering text messages, and a third scanning for location data cached by various apps. Burner phones were becoming more sophisticated, and this one—which was relatively basic—still contained enough older components to leave behind evidence.

The screen was currently filled with strings of code as his program parsed through the physical memory addresses, rebuilding the digital traces that would provide him with cell phone tower locations.

Bit entered a new set of commands to circumvent another security layer just as a shadow appeared over the dashboard. Nathaniel had been glued to his phone since getting off the radio with Brook, but it seemed he was done. His mood was clearly still sour.

“I requested two agents take some ATVs up to where the incline gets too steep,” Nathaniel informed him as he came to a stop near the window. “That will cut the time it takes to get Norona down here and on his way to being officially charged for his involvement in Special Agent Kate Lin’s murder.”

“Before you make any type of deal, give me a few days.” Bit wasn’t used to making such requests. Brook or the other team members were usually in such positions of negotiation, which meant that he had to step up to the plate. “I can give you something to work with by then.”

It was obvious that Nathaniel’s first instinct was to defend his position, but he thought through his choices before responding.

“Fine. We’ll reassess if Norona will give us the name of his accomplice, though.”

Nathaniel could reassess as much as he wanted, but there was a chance he could charge both men. Bit didn’t want to get ahead of himself, just in case his theory didn’t pan out. He would keep his suspicions to himself until he received confirmation.

“The chopper dropped the requested items near their position. The pilot is now headed around the mountain to search for Theo and Sylvie.”

Bit appreciated the update, but he had heard the transmissions himself.

One of the federal agents had given Nathaniel another satellite radio, leaving Bit with one to follow through with Brook’s request. That meant Nathaniel had only made his way to the vehicle to determine how much progress Bit had made extracting information from Mitch’s burner.

A phone rang—not the burner he was dissecting, but Bit’s own. He glanced at the screen, recognizing the Alaska area code. He answered without hesitation.

“Mr. Nowacki? This is Natalie, returning your call regarding the vehicle rented by Mr. Norona back in 2014.”

“Thank you for getting back to me so quickly,” Bit replied as he maintained his focus on his laptop. The program he was running on the burner was finally producing reliable intel. “I realize that the rental was over eleven years ago. As I mentioned in our earlier call, we have a federal warrant for the information, and the forms have already been forwarded to you in an email.”

“You are in luck, Mr. Nowacki. We usually only keep records for seven years, but those with damage tend to stay in our system longer.”

“Damage?” Bit shifted in his seat, mindful of his laptop.

“Yes, there was slight damage to the front bumper on the right side. Nothing major—a small dent and some scratched paint. Mr. Norona had purchased our additional insurance coverage, so it wasn't a financial issue. We noted it in our system and processed the return normally.”

“Would you please forward that report to me?” Bit asked, waiting for confirmation. Once Natalie assured him that she would forward the documents to the email address on record from receipt of the federal warrant, he thanked Natalie for her assistance before ending the call. “You have leverage to cut a deal with Norona. He’ll probably give you the name of the individual who killed Kate in return for a lenient sentence, but you’ve got him on another murder—Chester Bernard. The residents of Blackpeak called him ‘Old Man Croc’. He was killed in a hit-and-run back in 2014. The rental car had front-end damage. Right side of the bumper, exactly where you'd expect to see damage if someone clipped a person or object while driving.”

“You think Norona killed that man on the night of Lusa Kalluk’s disappearance?” Nathaniel asked, his interest clearly piqued. “That’s circumstantial evidence at best, Nowacki.”

“Maybe, but Norona doesn’t know that.” Bit turned back to his laptop, where one of his programs had finished collecting information regarding nearby cell towers. “The number used by the other individual pinged off one cell phone tower—the one in Blackpeak.”

“So, your theory is that Mitch Norona and Nanuq Kalluk worked together to kill a man named Chester Bernard, join forces with Jacob Walsh to kidnap and kill Lusa Kalluk, and then somehow have the wherewithal to lure a federal agent to Alaska to kill her?”

“I don’t know how everything ties together, but those three people are connected to these crimes.” The wind picked up, rustling through the nearby pines and sending a chill through the open window. Bit pulled his beanie lower over his ears. “At least the connections are becoming clearer. We can?—”

Bit's phone alarm cut off his sentence.

He had set it precisely for when Brook had requested that he provide her with unfounded information about the ice cave. He set his phone in the cup holder before reaching for the satellite radio on the passenger seat.

He met Nathaniel’s gaze. The false narrative regarding the earthquake needed to sound authentic. After a brief hesitation to organize his thoughts, he pressed the button.

“Boss, you copy?”

“Go ahead, Bit.” Brook's voice came through, clear and composed as always.

“I looked into the ice cave, accessing several resources. The USGS archives indicate there was some seismic activity about twelve months ago. The NEIC records also verify a significant seismic event, which apparently led the state to conduct a survey on the mountain’s southwest side. From their documentation, it looks as if some of the passageways collapsed, cutting off access at several locations. I’m not sure how far inside you’ll be able to go, but you’ll need to keep in mind the instability of the cave.”

“Any surveys completed from our location?”

“No, but the main tunnel that spanned horizontally from your position no longer exists. If you give me an estimated region, I can try to figure out if that area is accessible.”

Now that the main part of their discussion was over, the lies flowed more easily. There was a brief silence from the other end.

“Understood. Thanks for the info.”

“Boss? There is one more thing, and it’s regarding Slick Mitch.”

Bit had forewarned Brook on the subject in case she needed to step away from the group. He wasn’t certain what she wanted Jacob to overhear and what should be kept secret for the time being.

“Go ahead.”

“That hit-and-run on the night of Lusa Kalluk’s abduction? A man named Chester Bernard died on impact. I thought it would be wise to check the vehicles of everyone involved in the case. It turns out Slick Mitch’s rental car was returned with a dent in the front bumper on the right-hand side.”

“Bit, you just solved half the equation.”

Nathaniel quickly lifted his own radio, clearly intending to ask Brook to elaborate on her response. However, Bit reached out and snatched the device from his hand, surprising even himself.

He quickly muttered an apology, but they both understood it wasn’t sincere.

“When we get back to D.C., you can go ahead and order that fingerprint analysis device you've been wanting—the one that connects directly to the FBI database.”

Bit couldn't help the smile that spread across his face, invisible to Brook but warming him nonetheless. It wasn't just the permission to get a new toy, though that was certainly part of it. It was Brook's way of conveying that she valued his contributions and trusted his judgment.

Her response was practically a bear hug.

“Back at ya, Boss.”

Nathaniel rubbed his face with both of his hands in frustration, but no one was going to ruin this moment for Bit. He placed his radio on the passenger seat, mentally configuring the specifications for the fingerprint analyzer that he had been eyeing for months. He would have enjoyed the idea of such an expensive convenience, but he realized he couldn’t do so until Theo and Sylvie were found safe and sound.

“Do you not realize that Brook is doing more harm than?—”

A distinctive chime emanated from Bit’s laptop.

A program of his had detected something of significance. He swiftly changed screens, reducing the burner phone extraction tool to display a background application he had been using on financial records.

The window expanded to fill the screen.

Nathaniel rested his forearms on the window frame of the door for a better visual, but Bit still had to verbally point out the significance of the dollar figures.

“Once you told me about the search warrants for Nanuk Kalluk, I started pulling his financials.”

“Jesus Christ, Nowacki,” Nathaniel exclaimed in irritation. He reached inside the SUV and snatched back the other radio that Bit had rested in his lap. “I said I was putting in for them. Not that we were granted yet. Do you realize?—”

“My bad.” No one could prove that Bit had known exactly what Nathaniel had said after arriving back on scene. What mattered was that his hunch had paid off. He pointed to the highlighted transactions. “Nanuq's mother—the former governor’s sister—has a checking account at First Alaskan Regional. If you look here, there is a pattern of large deposits over the past twelve years. Twice a year, like clockwork—May and November. Would you like to know what those dates have in common?”

“The same months as the fundraisers for the wildlife conservation,” Nathaniel muttered in disgust. “Lusa was right. Nanuq has been skimming the donations. We now have motive.”

“You’re welcome.” Bit flashed a smile, figuring his contribution was enough for the federal prosecutor to ignore his jumping the gun on the warrant. “Do you want to reach out to Boss? Or should I?”

“You do it,” Nathaniel instructed as he hooked the radio to his belt. He pulled out his cell phone and held it up. “I’ll be too busy making sure those warrants come through.”

Bit expected Nathaniel to walk away, but he tapped the door’s window frame instead.It took a moment for the federal prosecutor to form the right words, but Bit was confident he was two for two.

“The fact that you’ve gotten all this information from a laptop in a rental SUV in the middle of nowhere speaks volumes about your abilities, Mr. Nowacki,” Nathaniel said with respect. “I sure as hell hope she is paying you what you’re worth.”