Chapter 7: Forty-Eight Hours
She drove in a wide loop, no destination, watching the mirror.
The sedan followed for four blocks, then turned off.
Either they'd lost interest or they were handing her to someone else further along the route.
She took three more turns, doubled back once, and pulled into a parking structure on Aldren.
Killed the lights.
Waited.
Nothing followed her in.
She called Marsh back.
"I'm mobile.
Someone spotted me at the warehouse."
"How close?"
"Close enough to know I had the drive.
Someone tipped them fast."
"Edith Crane?" Marsh said.
"I don't think so.
She had more to lose than I did if this falls apart." Nora watched the structure entrance.
"Someone else was watching the warehouse."
"The man from the train.
Danny."
"Or whoever Danny reports to." She paused.
"Marsh, how clean is your team?"
"Clean enough that I'd stake my career on it."
"You are staking your career on it."
"Then I'm confident," Marsh said, without hesitation.
"New location.
There's a federal field office annex on Brennan Street, two floors below the public entrance.
I'll text you the access code.
Get there.
We'll come to you."
"And Callum?"
A pause.
"We're working on a way to signal him that doesn't trigger the network's monitoring.
It's delicate.
Give us time."
"He may not have time."
"I know." Marsh's voice was steady, but something underneath it wasn't.
"I know, Nora.
Move."
She moved.
The annex was a grey room with a long table, secure terminals, and the particular stillness of a space that had been used for serious things and knew it.
Marsh arrived thirty-seven minutes later with two agents Nora didn't recognize and a forensic analyst who took the drive without a word and began working.
Marsh sat across from Nora and put a folder on the table.
"Garrett moved two hours ago," she said.
"He filed an internal review request flagging your name.
Cited your departure from the department, alleged procedural violations during your last case.
It's a preemptive discrediting move.
If we surface this drive publicly before we can act on it, his attorneys will use that review to argue the source is compromised."
"So we can't go public first."
"We go through proper channels, fast, and we lock the charges before he can build the narrative." Marsh opened the folder.
"The drive gives us the financial trail.
What we need is corroboration from the embedded source."
"Callum."
"Yes." Marsh looked at her directly.
"Is there any way to reach him that doesn't go through channels Garrett can monitor?"
Nora thought for a moment.
Then she thought about a Tuesday afternoon, a closed door, and a single printed page placed on her desk without a word.
"Yes," she said.
"But it's going to sound strange."
"Tell me."
"When Callum wanted to show me something he didn't want on record, he left it at a specific location.
A dead drop.
Old habit from a training exercise we did together years ago.
I don't know if he's still using it.
But if he's been compromised and he's trying to signal someone, that's where he'd go."
Marsh looked at her for a moment.
"Where is it?"
"Meridian Street station," Nora said.
"Behind the second bench on the northbound platform.
There's a gap in the tile behind the wall bracket.
We used it as a joke at first.
Then we used it for real, once."
The forensic analyst looked up from the terminal.
"The drive is clean.
No trackers, no malware.
The documents are authentic.
I can certify that."
Marsh nodded once.
Looked back at Nora.
"Go to the station.
If there's anything there, bring it back here.
Don't touch anything else.
Don't engage anyone."
Nora stood.
"And if someone's waiting there?" she said.
Marsh met her eyes.
May you like
"Then we'll know Garrett's people found the drop before you did.
And we'll know exactly how much time we don't have."
