Page 175 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“Damn it.”

Urban already had his radio up. “Secondary reacquire possible westbound—”

Martinez interrupted sharply. “Negative. Lost visual.”

The target was gone. Silence hit the channel. Nobody spoke for several seconds. Rourke hadn’t panicked. He hadn’t fled wildly. He’d identified the surveillance, moved into terrain favorable to counter-surveillance, created a visual disruption, and vanished. Very professional.

Urban stepped beside him. “He’s experienced.”

DuBois spoke into his phone. “We lost him.”

“He knows?” JP asked.

DuBois looked back across the parking structure. “Yeah.”

JP was quiet for a moment. “Sabre’s at court, but we have to assume he knows she was bait. That’s going to make him furious.”

“Do you think he’ll come after her?”

“I think he’ll either totally disappear or stay out of sight and contact her.”

“Which do you expect?”

“He’ll contact her because he still thinks he’s safe. He knows we don’t know where Hannah is or we would be picking her up, not tailing him. Rourke doesn’t see himself as the villain. He’ll want Sabre to understand him before he disappears.”

Urban crossed his arms. “The cowboy’s smart.”

DuBois ignored that. “Okay,” he said into the phone. “Then what?”

“We keep Sabre safe.”

DuBois stepped away from the railing. “All right. We regroup.” He looked at Urban. “Get quiet coverage on Sabre and the house.”

“No uniforms,” JP said.

“Agreed.” DuBois returned the phone to his ear. “And you?”

“I’m going to Sabre.”

Of course he was.

Chapter 68

Wednesday late afternoon

Sabre was finishing notes just outside of Department 5 when her phone vibrated. She glanced down. It was JP.

The second she answered, his voice came low and controlled. “Where are you?”

“At court.”

“Stay there.”

Her stomach tightened. “What happened?”

“We lost him.”

She looked down the hall, instinctively looking through the crowd for Rourke. “He knows?”