Page 131 of Split Decision

"Which means she's more afraid than the institutional approach suggested." She's already working through it. "She's been running this methodology for thirty years, and it's never failed completely. We're the first time it's failed completely."

"And now she's improvising."

"Improvising people make mistakes." She looks at the block where the car disappeared. "Luke. She sent someone. That means she used a person. A person who can be traced, can be identified, can be interviewed."

I look at her.

"The sedan was here before," she says. "You said you saw it across from the gym when the first news alert went out. The same profile." She pauses. "If it's the same asset, there's a pattern. And patterns are evidence."

I look at my hands.

Both the frustration and relief of being in a parking lot after doing the right thing rather than the satisfying thing. I didn't touch the car or the driver. I simply positioned my body between them, stood there, and let them make their decision, which turned out to be correct.

That's the fight I'm capable of now that I wasn't capable of a year ago.

"We go to Bill today," I say.

"Today," she agrees. "Not tomorrow. Today."

"And the device stays in place."

"Until we have enough that it doesn't matter anymore." She starts toward my truck, slow and steady on the crutches. "Come on. I want to be in Bill's office before noon."

I fall into step beside her—slightly behind, slightly to the left, the position that puts me between her and the street.

She notices. She doesn't say anything.

That's how we walk to the car.

ANDI

In Bill's office, I tell him about the device.

He listens without expression, which is how Bill receives information he's already begun to process. When I finish, he asks two questions: when we found it, and what we've said in that room since the break-in.

"Everything," I say. "Her name. The operational history. That we're looking for documentation."

"What haven’t you said?"

"That you've already confirmed the firm. That we think someone has the original documents." I pause. "That we think that person is about to make contact."

Bill looks at his desk.

"The sedan," he says. "You have no plate?"

"No."

"Description of the driver?"

"Male. Dark jacket. That's all I saw through the tinted window." I pause. "Luke was closer."

Luke gives the description. Bill writes it down. It's not much.

"It's a beginning," Bill says. "The escalation from institutional to physical is significant. It tells us she's made a calculation—that the documentation risk outweighs the exposure risk of a direct action." He folds his hands. "That's a woman who has decided the window is closing."

"She's right," I say.

Bill looks at me.