Page 61 of Hidden

Miles

The auction video has been running for six hours, not the video itself, but the analysis of it. Frame by frame, the audio is stripped, cleaned and run through three different enhancement filters. The visual degradation is mapped and partially reversed using a reconstruction algorithm I built eighteen months ago. It works better on this than it did on what I built it for originally.

The primary voice is Romanian. I’m certain of that now. There’s twelve seconds of clean audio. Not enough for a voiceprint, but enough to narrow down to geography and start pulling the next thread.

Eastern European operation. American buyer, Midwest accent, educated, and sounds like someone who’s used to moving serious money.

I make a note, tag it and then cross-reference it against the financial trace I’ve been building.

Mason is on a call downstairs. Declan left an hour ago. It’s just me, the screens, and the quiet hum of the house.

A soft ping pulls my attention to the left monitor. The reconstruction algorithm has finished another pass. A new notification blinks in the corner. Partial match found: secondary encrypted partition. My custom crawler finally breached one of the dead drops. A video file is uploading now. The progress bar is crawling across the screen. 14%... 27%... 41%. It’s high resolution, and a large file size, so this is going to take some time.

I switch tabs, watching the metadata populate in real time. The timestamp matches one of the missing girls, Renee Park, the nursing student from Nashville. My jaw tightens.

My phone lights up, pulling my attention away.

Sadie

Are you going to the pool party tonight?

On the right hand monitor, the live feed shows her lying on her bed in that thin tank top, her hair still damp from her shower, and her camera in her lap.

Miles

Why do you want to know?

Sadie

I don’t know. I just do.

Miles

Maybe I’ll be watching from somewhere you can’t see me. Same as always.

Sadie

That should bother me more than it does.

Miles.

I know. But it doesn’t.

Sadie

Will you be there or not?

Miles

Yes. I’ll be there.

Sadie

How will I know which one you are?

Miles

You already do.