Page 16

It didn’t last long.

CHAPTER 18

BUZZ… BUZZ… BUZZ…

It was his cell phone.

Holmes slid the device from under his pillow and held it in front of his face. A murky image filled the screen, seen through some kind of night-vision filter. Holmes raised himself onto one elbow.

It looked like body-cam footage—jerky and bouncy. He boosted the volume. He heard footsteps and equipment rattling. When the camera panned to one side, Holmes could see several men in black tactical gear moving double-time across a hilly landscape.

What the hell is this? A movie trailer?

No. It didn’t feel like Hollywood. It felt real. Holmes grabbed the phone with both hands as he sat up. He blinked a few times to clear his vision.

As he watched, an unnatural shape emerged in the distance. It was a huge industrial pipe, about three feet in diameter, bolted together in sections and supported at intervals by thick concrete posts. The camera was closing in on it.

Suddenly two new figures appeared, facing the camera. A pair of men in uniform caps and jackets, their torsos silhouetted against the pipe. They started forward, one after the other, hands reaching for their sidearms. Then, muffled gunshots. Pfft. Pfft. The men dropped.

What on Earth is happening? And where?

Holmes jumped out of bed, pacing anxiously, watching intently. The image bounced and twisted. It blurred, then cleared again.

Several figures in head-to-toe black approached the pipe and huddled around it. One attached a boxy packet to the side. The camera turned 180 degrees and bounced with the rhythm of a man running. Holmes heard heavy breaths and an urgent voice. “Go! Go!”

The view from the camera halted suddenly and turned back toward the massive pipe. The frame flashed and jolted. When the image settled, Holmes could see that the pipe had been split open, like a sleeve ripped along the seam. Flames licked at the jagged crack, and slick liquid gushed out in a brownish flood, splashing over the bodies of the two dead men.

The screen went black.

A text popped up.

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION YET, SHERLOCK?

Holmes froze. A sour taste rose in his throat.

Sherlock!

Only one person in the world called him that.

CHAPTER 19

BY 5:00 A.M., Holmes was huddled urgently with Poe at the dining table downstairs. They’d been reviewing the assault footage on Holmes’s iPhone over and over, trying to extract the metadata. Even with their proprietary software, it was no use.

“It’s masked,” said Poe, “totally anonymized. No coordinates. No triangulation. Must be a custom ROM.”

Holmes slammed his hand on the table in frustration. “Dammit!” The watchmaker had stepped up his game.

“Do you think Paul was there?” asked Poe. “Was he the one wearing the body cam?”

“Not likely,” said Holmes. “My bet is that he was supervising from a safe distance.”

The aroma of fresh-brewed coffee began wafting through the lodge. Virginia was already at work in the kitchen. Always one step ahead.

“Where’s Margaret?” Holmes asked, glancing at the stairs. “We need her brain on this!”

Virginia called out from the kitchen, “She left before you two came down. Drove off in the pickup.”

“At this hour?” asked Poe. “To go where? Bird-watching?”