Rogue's Passion(56)

With the HOT still closed, driving out to the peninsula or taking a ferry would’ve taken too much time. All he wanted was a Yes, this could be the same girl and he’d have had the Institute fly him over in one of their helicopters to bring her in. “Under no circumstances was the woman to be approached or detained.”
He shook his head. The ineptitude of these people was mind-boggling. No wonder the Institute used private contractors like him to get the important jobs done.
The sergeant held out his hands, palms up. “Beats me. Are you sure it was input correctly in the first place? Mix-ups happen, you know.”
Not with me they don’t.
“Why wasn’t someone from AIU sent to handle the request?” Most of the agents were fairly capable.#p#分页标题#e#
“You didn’t hear this from me,” the sergeant said, “but word is there’s an undiscovered portal somewhere along the western face of the Olympic Mountains, so they’ve got all army units stationed on the peninsula searching for it. They must’ve sent the request to the Night Patrol and the order was inadvertently changed from Eyes Only to Pick Up.”
Officials didn’t like to admit that the police force was under army control, but they were. He didn’t tell the sergeant, but he did know about the possible new portal because one of the army Talents had sensed the ripple.
“If that girl is who I think she is, she’ll be a valuable asset to our cause.” He removed his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes, ignoring the sergeant’s gasp at his appearance. Why the hell was he even arguing? The damage had already been done. This was the last fucking time he relied on someone else to do the job right.
“Well, that’s the thing,” the sergeant said, tugging nervously on his tie as sweat beaded on his forehead and dripped down the side of his face. He was one of those overweight army lifers who wouldn’t be able to pass the physical tests if he were joining the service today. Too many years behind the desk had expanded his ass and gut to fit the proportions of the chair he sat in all day as he gave orders for other people to follow. “When our men arrived on the scene, it was obvious she knew they were coming. Someone had tipped her off.”
“Tipped her off? Why do you say that?”
“Well, for one, it appeared she slipped over the balcony shortly before the NP arrived on the scene. She’d been packing. And from the looks of it, she’d almost finished.”
“Hold on. The Night Patrol entered the premises?”
“Yeah, they were going in to detain her, remember?”
The Fixer narrowed his eyes. “She was moving?” he said more to himself than the sergeant, but the guy answered anyway.
“Yeah, that’s what they said.”
Which meant she had known before the Night Patrol unit arrived that she was being pursued. When he’d been hired to locate the unregistered Talent, he assumed it would be an easy task. After all, how hard would it be to find a civilian woman? Given that she’d eluded capture at the scene of the explosion and had avoided it again now, he wondered if she could be getting help from someone.
“Did they try to follow her?” he asked.
“They tried, but their tires had been slashed.”
Could she have had an accomplice? An untrained citizen would not be able to stay one step ahead of them like this. A headache was forming behind the ruined side of his face and his jaw began to ache. “You said she left some things behind?”
“Just some old furniture and a few boxes.”
“Don’t tell me the Night Patrol touched anything.”
The sergeant looked confused. “Why would they?”
“Let them know I’m on my way.”
It took the better part of the morning to get out to the peninsula. He arrived at the Olympics View apartments at dusk, and, wouldn’t you know it, a Night Patrol officer was there to let him in.
He walked through the rooms of the small apartment, trailing a forefinger on the walls as he went as though it would help him figure out where the woman had gone and who had been helping her.
The living room furniture was still in place but the bedroom and bathroom had been cleared out. Inside the hall closet, he found a vacuum, some cleaning supplies and several winter coats. He riffled through the pockets, finding nothing but a strawberry lip balm and a few receipts for the HOT. The two boxes left near the front door yielded the same disappointing results. There wasn’t much you could deduce about a person’s life from towels and kitchen utensils other than the fact that she had an affinity for wire whisks and wooden spoons. There must’ve been a dozen of each in the box.
The sergeant was right. She had almost finished packing. If the Night Patrol hadn’t come when they had, she’d have been completely cleared out. She must’ve had a moving van parked outside, although it wasn’t mentioned in their report. Surprise, surprise.