THE BEGINNING:CHAPTER XIV:THE TAPE

"You aren't allowed to go inside so stay here and watch", Joe said interrupting his movement.
"Why can't I? I'm a NAS agent you know that, don't you? I have equal rights to access the fuselage like you do. So, what's the problem?", Steven queried looking at him plainly trying to find out why he was prevented from going inside the plane.
"I'm sorry but you just have to comply with the outrageous demand of the mayor to restrict other agencies apart from the red cross team and the police. Even I was restricted from entering into the airplane without seeking the permission of the police chief who denied me access to investigate properly", Joe replied holding him back trying to placate his temper that almost flared up because of his intrusive approach in blocking his path.
"You should have told us about it before we came here. And concerning your mysterious man, I think he went inside the wreck possibly looking for survivors but his footprints of leaving the wreckage has totally disappear", Steven said turning around to look at the rowdy crowd behind them who were busy tending to their affairs especially the police chief who remained seated in his truck waiting for his squad to complete their clean sweep inside the wreck including the outter layers as well.
"And possibly because of the snow blowers", Jonas completed his statement and peered to the direction of the police chief. " So, to carry out proper investigation, we need to know what happened in the airplane before the plane crashed. Therefore, we need the black box from our guy over there", Jonas said gesturing at the police chief enabling the two other men to notice the chief's slumber who had fell asleep on the front seat of his truck ever since the reporters gave up trying to get Intel from him.
"And we should steal it or.....do what exactly?", Joe asked peering at the snoring officer sitting behind the front glass of the truck.
"More like... borrowing it for some days before returning it back", Steven replied facing them, "Here's how we gonna take it without him knowing about it. You two keep a lookout for the other cops while I sneak around to the other side door to get the black box probably underneath the dashboard" , Steven whispered softly to his cohorts keeping his voice down so that his plans will not heard by a cop who passed behind him exiting from the fuselage.
"Alright but we gonna have to do it quickly. The police will soon complete their sweep inside the wreck before the bulldozer arrive to demolish the wrecked fuselage", Joe replied gazing at the cop that walked past them oblivious to their secret plot. They waited patiently for the cop to pass through the line barrier before carrying out their secret operation to borrow the flight recorder from the police truck beside the sleeping Chief and walked closely towards the truck without arousing any noise while pretending to be heading back the way they came after they passed through the barrier under the pretext of leaving the scene to the crowd.
Steven surreptitiously passed the front of the truck bending down his tall head to avoid been seen by the other cops after using the bodies of the two men as his shield to sneak to the other side door while the two men rested their backs on the truck keeping a tight lookout for the others policemen and at the same, pretending to have a serious conversation amongst themselves trying to convince the cops that nothing is amiss with their chief's vehicle.
After succeeding in keeping his tall height down from the side mirror, Steven quietly opened the door without making a sound and silently took out the black box that was kept inside a parcel from the seat beside the sleeping man who was quite oblivious of the presence of Steven beside the opened door which revealing his tired body resting heavily on the front seat before removing the hard drive from the parcel and slowly closed the door without awaking the snoring cop.
He sneaked back to the front of the truck bending over before raising his body in order to get return back to his partner and gave him the device safely hiding it in his pocket before tapping the detective who was quite focused on the rowdy crowd oblivious to the silent arrival of Steven behind him since he was trying to make sure they weren't spotted by any cop.
"You've got it, right?", Joe asked looking at him with nervously after receiving a surprise reaction from his tapping.
"Yes I do but we have to get outta here before someone else sees us", Steven replied leading the way for them to follow from the truck strolling towards the cleared path paved by the four snow blowers that remain lifeless ever since they landed on site with the chopper leaving the truck to remained closed against its sleeping driver.
"Where is the chopper?", Jonas asked peering at the spot where they had landed with the green helicopter.
"Oh no, it's gone back heading to the city without us?", Steven said looking dismayed and transfixed after being deserted by the green chopper who left the excavation site fifteen minutes ago.
"And how do we get back to the city? We gonna leave before the chief find out about the black box", Jonas whispered looking at the pale faces of the two men standing beside the four machines after they had left the arrived at the exit spot
"I don't know but we have no other choice than to use one of the ambulances heading to the city", Joe said walking straight to one of the vehicle that was set to depart with a dead corpse shrouded by a long sack that stood at the back of the red van and showed a man inside his ID card before gaining access into the van including the two NAS agent who entered inside quickly in order not to get caught by the police before closing the door behind them allowing the vehicle to convey them straight to the city treading on the snow cladded asphalted road with evergreen trees on both sides of the road which took them to the past the red bridge heading towards the main hospital where the other dead bodies were conveyed to the morgue.
Thirty minutes after their departure, the police chief woke from his slumber and looked around the side window of his truck checking the progress of his team but found that they were still preoccupied with their duties which has raged on for five hours ever since they came to the crashed site and looked beside him for the parcel which he found lying in the exact position that he had left it before leaving the truck to the his crew oblivious of the fact that Steven had surreptitiously taken without his knowledge.

    "How long have you guys been cleaning up this junk, huh? Can't you go any faster?!", the police chief was about to flare up screaming at a cop whom he met at the barricade tape before his cell phone rang from his side pocket interrupting his conversation and gestured with his fingers at the cop to hold on before taking out his Sony Ericson from his pocket and answered the call.

    "Hello, mayor, how....yeah everything's fine", He answered looking upwards trying to understand what the caller was saying.

      "The black box? .....Yeah, it's with me, I kept it in a parcel", He replied peering angrily at the cop who avoided his gaze before before his face turned pale.
"What!....Hold on sir. Let me check the parcel", He replied and quickly headed back to the truck taking out the thick brown envelope and opened it only to find rumpled pieces of paper which Steven had kept inside to replace the hard drive he took from it when he was asleep making feel infuriated and helpless since the thief must be long gone by now making him unable to catch whoever stole the device putting him in a serious dilemma he have to sought out with the mayor.