The Tower

Waiting for Jade on his seat was a folded sheet of paper. He opened it to find the home phone numbers and addresses of the agents heading up the task force. There were seven names on the list, and Jade memorized all the information as he waited for the meeting to begin.

The list was a gesture of good faith, he realized. For this case, they were letting him all the way back into the fold, and while he had mixed feelings about it, it made him acutely aware of just how much Allander scared them.

A tall agent sat down across the table from him. By watching him, Jade could tell he didn't work with any of the other agents. No eye contact. Uncomfortable gestures. He scratched his forehead a lot and laced his fingers together. He ignored Jade. Probably called over from admin to oversee things, Jade figured. He heard one of the other agents address him as Fredericks.

A secretary entered to bring everyone bottles of water. When she left, Agent McGuire locked the door behind her and opened a refrigerator-size steel door in the wall, revealing a large cabinet of files. He selected several and returned to the table.

"Here's what we got," he said. "Agent Travers, would you like to brief everyone?"

"Sure," she said, her tone serious.

Although she wore a plain suit and no makeup, Jade thought she looked as if she'd just escaped from the pages of Elle magazine, career women's issue. Jade caught himself admiring her neck and turned his eyes back to the table.

"We found the boat early this morning. It was seven and three-quarter miles offshore, about twenty-three miles up the coast from Maingate. The wheel had been jammed to ensure that the boat would continue to travel out to sea after its occupant departed. We don't know how far it drifted after it ran out of gas, but we're estimating Atlasia got off somewhere along a twelve-mile stretch."

"How can you make that estimate?" Fredericks asked.

"Well, it started with a full tank-we got that from the Maingate maintenance crew-so that gives us some idea of the outer limits of the distance he could have traveled. We looked up and down the coast from the Tower to find the more reasonable areas where he could have gone to shore. We believe he took the boat in close to shore, then set it to travel out. In the engine, we found traces of seaweed from inland and grains of sand that were picked up after the boat departed from the Tower."

"It just seems like it's too large a range to be very helpful," Fredericks said.

"It's a lot more helpful than you're being right now. Any objections to my finishing the briefing?"

Fredericks turned scarlet and looked down into his bottled water. Jade laughed.

"Is something funny, Mr. Marlow?" Travers asked.

"Yes, something is funny, but you can go ahead, Ms. Travers."

"Agent Travers."

"I was not aware of the fact that agents can't also be ladies, but I apologize. Agent Travers."

She was seething, but she shifted her jaw and continued. "Atlasia's prints were all over the boat and the metal bar used to set the wheel."

"Where did you get his prints for comparison?" an agent in the back asked. Everyone in the room turned and looked at him. "I'm just kidding. A joke."

Travers continued, ignoring him. "I think we're all clear on what happened at the Tower. He killed both guards and opened the vents on the prisoners. He also disabled the pumps. Hackett was a very experienced guard, so this guy's dangerous as hell. He collapsed Hackett's windpipe, probably by stepping on it after knocking him down.

"We'll have the complete forensics back from pathology tomorrow. He cut the location sensor out of his finger using surgical equipment from the guard station. He also stole some supplies from the Tower, but we accounted for everything on the speedboat."

The agent beside Jade leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "Great," he said. "So where are you set up?"

"We have roadblocks on every road leaving the coast, and we're keeping local law-enforcement officials on lookout in every town within thirty miles of the Tower. If that net's not large enough to catch him, then he's already slipped through anything we can throw up."

"Are we definitely ruling out the possibility that he had outside help?" Fredericks asked, finally recovered from being reprimanded.

"Well-" Travers began, but Jade interrupted her.

"Yes," he said shortly. The clock was ticking. He wanted to cut through the shit.

Travers looked over at him angrily before continuing in a calm voice. "There's no outside contact from within the Tower, so it would've been nearly impossible to coordinate, and if Atlasia had any outside help they would've probably met him where he cut the gate."

McGuire rose from his chair at the head of the table. "As all of you probably already know, Mr. Marlow here has been brought in to profile and track Atlasia. Obviously, I expect you to cooperate fully with him."

He looked over at Jade. "I assume you have a few things you'd like to say."