Expectation (Ghost Targets, #2) (15 page)

"Interesting," Hart said, scanning through the details—most of them apparently reconstructed by the analysts back at Ghost Targets. The police chief spoke with a faraway voice. "I wonder if she knew that."

Reed frowned. "Why?"

She pointed to the last entry in Hart's location history, and Katie immediately saw what she was getting at. Hart said it first, though. "She disappeared the same time you guys headed to town."

Ellie's official location history was certainly slim, but it showed pings just often enough to keep her identity intact, right up until Monday morning. There was nothing since then, though, for over twenty-six hours. Her last known location was at the clinic, an arrival mid-morning that had removed her from the eyes of Hathor as soon as she stepped through the gate. She'd been a ghost ever since.

Katie caught Reed's eye. "Can we find her?"

"With some effort, yes." He looked at Dora. "Can you track their cars?" Hart shook her head, and Reed nodded. "I've got some guys who can, but it's slow work."

Katie didn't know what he was talking about. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it, so she said, "Their cars?"

"It's a provision of restricted areas," Reed said, and Katie remembered. He continued anyway. "They have a fleet of private taxis at the clinic that don't register in the database. VIPs can use them for arrivals and departures to keep their activity hidden. Eric and Ellie both used them regularly for their commutes, and presumably Ellie took one when she left yesterday morning." He tapped that last entry in Ellie's location history. "But she clocked in when she got to the clinic. She left that record for a reason—"

"What if she didn't?" Katie said, interrupting him. She had a sudden recollection of a conversation in a private train car with Martin, and another one earlier that morning. "What if she's there?" Incomprehension showed on both of their faces, so Katie reached across the desk to pull up Ellie Cohn's map. A burning red dot glowed right on the flat gray border of the clinic, showing Ellie's arrival. Katie tapped the dot. "What if she's still there? We would never find her in Hathor."

"We will," Reed said, closing out the casefile. "Dora, bring everyone you've got. We're searching that place top to bottom."

She shook her head. "My people don't have access—"

"You do now." He nodded across the desk to Katie. "Lieutenant Drake just promised us his full cooperation. We shouldn't have any trouble at all."

Dora's eyes flew wide, but she didn't waste any time. She slipped past Reed and out into the bullpen. "All right, people, listen up. We're going to De Grey."

Katie didn't hear the rest of the call to arms, because Reed caught her elbow and steered her back toward the exit. "Hathor, Katie and I need a private car back to De Grey, now. Thanks." He tilted his head to Katie. "This should give us a few minutes alone," he said. "I need to know what you know."

It took the car five minutes to arrive, and Katie spent all of it trying to figure out how to keep Martin's secret from Reed. Dora Hart came out to the curb where they waited to talk them into riding with her, but Reed stood firm and sent the cops on ahead. After she left, he spoke into his headset. "Craig, connect me to Brian Dimms. Thanks. Brian, I need you to run a ghost vehicle analysis on the De Grey Clinic restricted area, specifically tracked departures from the clinic since ten hundred yesterday. We're looking for Ellie Cohn, who is already flagged in the casefile. Got all that? Good. Make sure I can track it on my handheld, and give it to Katie, too. No, don't put the track on the casefile. I'll attach it if anything turn up. Thanks, Brian. Goodbye."

"What was all that?" Katie asked. "You don't believe Ellie's still at the clinic?"

"A little caution never hurts," Reed said. "That process is incredibly slow, so if things don't pan out, we'll be glad I got it started sooner rather than later."

Just then the car pulled up, and as Katie moved around to the opposite door she asked him, "What is the process? How does it work?"

Reed considered her suspiciously across the roof of the car for a moment, as though he could see her attempt at a diversion, but he finally relented and ducked into the car. As she settled in beside him, he said, "I
am
 supposed to be teaching you, aren't I?" He pulled out his handheld and drew up a map showing the clinic and three bright yellow dots around its perimeter, one where Ellie's location history had ended. As Katie watched, that dot stretched out into a short, stubby line creeping north along the boulevard. A moment later it collapsed back to a single point, and one of the other dots disappeared altogether.

"This is one of our analytical tools," Reed said. "We're usually using it on short-term ghosts, which leave clearer tracks in the traffic pattern than these private taxis, but the principle is the same." He gestured to the boulevard east of the clinic, the same one he and Katie had used every time they'd visited.

"Hathor has a record of all the traffic traveling along this road
except
 for Ellie's car—and others like it." He pointed to the dot that was stretching north again. "We can't see Ellie's car, but we can see the car-sized gaps in the traffic history. If one of those gaps persists longer than coincidence would allow, if it continued to move with traffic in ways that a real car would move, it could easily be the ghost of Ellie's car causing the disruption. The Traffic Management System software is consistent and predictable—albeit incredibly complex—so with sufficient resources we can track the behavior of all the other vehicles on the road and find the path of the invisible ones they're all working to avoid."

The line suddenly lunged north and around the next corner to the east. While Katie watched, it crawled out to two miles, then collapsed in half, then disappeared altogether. A moment later the dot reappeared.

Reed nodded. "There are lots of false positives in a search like this. Unless Ellie did something stupid, it could take days to map any kind of path."

"Assuming she left at all," Katie said.

"Of course," Reed said. "They could all be red herrings." He tapped the screen and brought up a list of data points that meant nothing to Katie, but each one was marked with a timestamp. He pondered it for a moment, then closed out the program. "Doesn't really do any good to watch it crawl. It'll send us a report once it's finished."

"Now," he said, turning to her as he pocketed his handheld. "What's this about your interview with Theresa Barnes being restricted?" Katie shrugged, unsure how to answer. Reed said, "Was it a bluff? Because the only person with authority to clean something like that out of the database would be Ellie herself, and I don't see her helping you. So unless you've got...." His jaw dropped open, and he shook his head. "No." Katie winced, and he took it for a nod. "It's Martin."

Now she nodded once, mute, and Reed laughed out loud. "Katie Pratt, you sure know how to stir up a hornet's nest. The Steves are going to love this."

"But I didn't
mean
 to," Katie said earnestly. "I had no idea, but he's involved with the clinic. He...he helped set it up. And after I spoke with Theresa he contacted me."

"You're going to tell me
that
 story," Reed said, then held up a hand to stop her. "But not now. We're here." Even as he said it the car rolled to a stop. He turned to the door, ready to climb out, and froze with a sudden, miserable sigh. "And," he said quietly, "it looks like we've got trouble."

Lieutenant Drake stood at the gate to the clinic, staring down a throng of anxious police officers. Katie saw the clouds gather in Reed's eyes as he threw the door open. She followed him quickly.

The lieutenant wasn't happy. Red-faced, he shouted to all the police officers, but Chief Hart stood right in front of him, and she caught the bulk of his ire. "I don't know what the hell you were thinking," Drake bellowed, "but this clinic is a restricted area and so far outside your jurisdiction that you shouldn't even be
thinking
 about it. When I get done with you—"

"Hey!" Reed cut him off, dashing up to the gate. He pushed ahead of Hart to confront the lieutenant directly, though he lacked two inches on the soldier's height. "What are you doing? You said we had your cooperation. Is this as much as your word is worth?"

Drake's eye narrowed to slits. "No disrespect intended, Agent Reed, but I didn't expect you to bring a stampede of dogcatchers onto my grounds. This is a highly sensitive military facility—"

"And we have reason to believe a suspect of
treason
 is hiding somewhere on the grounds," Reed said. "One of your soldiers trained in escaping detection, so I thought some assistance was in order."

"Well," Drake said flatly, but without his earlier venom, "you were wrong."

"Oh, dammit, Drake!" he shouted. "This is serious—"

"Now hold it right there." The lieutenant stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Don't make this a fight between us. I
can't
 let the cops through this gate, but how about you and Agent Pratt head on in to Barnes's laboratory, and we can get this sorted out."

"We can get it sorted here," Reed said, still with a full head of steam, but Katie laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Take a breath," she said softly, for him alone. "You're not going to win this one. Don't get us thrown out, too."

Reed frowned, but after a moment he relented. His shoulders fell, and he dropped his challenging gaze.

Dora bulled through him, then, and shouted, "What? That's it? You're just going to let him toss us out?"

Lieutenant Drake restrained Hart with a hand on her chest and a stern look. "That's enough," he said calmly, apparently oblivious to the angry reaction he drew from her officers. "This is over. It's a matter of military policy, not a personal decision." Hart turned to Reed, but he couldn't meet her eyes. She gave a disappointed huff and then gave the resigned order to withdraw. The lieutenant watched them disperse to their cars, which were still waiting by the curb, and then disappear up the street and around the corner. When they were out of sight, he finally relaxed a bit.

He dropped a heavy hand on Reed's shoulder. "Sorry about that," he said, "but it had to be done."

Reed only grunted in answer, but that was enough for the older man. He turned on his heel and led them through the gates and over toward Eric's lab. "You know," he said amiably, "it's still not a good time for you guys to be here, but the simulations are done and under the circumstances it seems like good PR."

"Good PR would have been to let the local police do their job," Reed seethed. "Not calling them names and leaving them on the curb like so much trash."

Drake rounded on him, stopping Reed in his tracks. "I understand you're involved in an investigation," he said. His voice was still friendly, but there was an unmistakable hard edge to it. "I understand it's the most important thing in the world to you, and I've offered my cooperation, but I'll tell you what. We do more important work at this facility every day of the week, with or without Barnes. And I'll be damned if I'll let you compromise that research to satisfy your suspicions."

Reed sneered. "What ever happened to 'Jurisdiction won't be an issue'?"

"Jurisdiction isn't my concern here," Drake said. "Saving lives is." He pointed across the lawn to the laboratory doors. "You can find your own way from here.
I
 have work to do." With that he headed toward the administrative building without looking back.

Reed watched him go, then finally fell back into step toward the doors. "Anything seem odd about that to you?"

Katie had a strong suspicion the lieutenant was privy to Barnes' and Martin's secret, but she didn't voice it. Instead she said, "Maybe he didn't expect you to take him up on his offer."

"I dunno. He was pretty clear," Reed said as he pulled open the door for Katie. "That was, what, ninety minutes ago?"

"He wasn't acting unreasonable, though," Katie said. Her comment drew a withering look from Reed, and she put up her hands defensively. "I'm not saying I agree with his decision, but there was probably a real reason for it. You...I'm sorry to say it, but you didn't really give him a chance to explain."

Reed looked hurt, but he recovered quickly. "It doesn't matter," he said. "He promised us his cooperation—"

"And we're here now," Katie said. "We can do well enough without Hart's men." They were carrying on their argument in the foyer, which offered nothing in the way of hiding places. Katie scanned it quickly, then took Reed's hand and dragged him toward the lab doors. Hoping to distract him with another change of subject, she said, "How are things back home?"

"They're bad," Reed said, and he let out a sigh. "Okay, okay," he said. "You're right. I see your point. The auditors have me riled—"

"Do they?" Katie hadn't actually realized it, but it made sense.

"Yeah, and I'm letting the stress cloud my judgment." He stopped and gently pulled his hand free of Katie's. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I should go talk to the lieutenant."

Katie looked him in the eye. She smiled. "Talk to me first." She reached out to push open the lab door, and waved to the big room beyond. "We can canvas the lab, and you can catch me up on things in DC. If nothing turns up here,
then
 you go to Drake."

Reed smiled back at her. "That sounds like a plan." He stepped past her into the lab, and Katie followed him. He said, "Where to start?"

"Break room," Katie said, pointing across the room to a pair of doors in the opposite wall, "and the bathroom. We didn't even peek in either of them last night."

Reed chuckled and started toward the break room, ignoring the mousy lab assistant who watched them without a word from her place by one of the lab tables. Katie smiled across at her but got no response.

"Okay, DC," Reed said. "I've got Craig forwarding me copies of all the files the Steves access, and they're poking their noses everywhere."

"I can't pretend I'm surprised," Katie said. "That Fredrik seemed like a real bloodhound."