Chapter 1 - The Paper in Her Sleeve
At 4:12 in the morning, the hospital administrator asked me to sign a form releasing Chloe's clothing to campus security.
I had not slept, but I could still read.
The form was dated six hours before she was admitted.
I set the pen down.
“Who prepared this?”
The administrator looked toward the door before answering.
“University counsel sent it over.”
“Tell university counsel my daughter is not university property.”
Through the glass, Chloe watched us with one swollen eye.
The administrator retreated, and I sat beside her again.
“You do not have to tell me anything tonight.”
Her hand moved beneath the blanket.
She drew a crooked square on my palm with one finger.
Then she drew three lines inside it.
I understood the square before I understood the lines.
A folder.
The night nurse, Rosa Delgado, brought a notepad and a marker.
Chloe wrote only two words.
BLUE TIDE.
The marker fell from her fingers.
I asked Rosa to photograph the page, seal it, and keep the original out of the hospital computer system.
Rosa's expression tightened.
“You think someone can change her chart?”
“I think someone already tried.”
Outside, a young man wearing an expensive raincoat was photographing Chloe's room number.
I caught his reflection in a vending-machine mirror.
When I turned, he hurried toward the elevators.
I followed at a walking pace.
People who ran were usually convinced the person behind them would run too.
I did not have to.
The elevator doors were closing when I spoke.
“Tell whoever hired you that she is alive.”
His fingers punched the close button twice.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Then you won't mind giving the police your employer's name.”
He dropped his phone, snatched it up, and disappeared downstairs.
On its illuminated screen, I had seen a message preview.
CONFIRM THAT THE FILE IS GONE.
I called Major Daniel Vance back.
“Find Blue Tide.”
“That's not a campus program,” Daniel said after a pause.
“What is it?”
“A procurement code, Commander.”
I looked at the marks Chloe had drawn on my hand.
“Procurement for what?”
Daniel's answer came quietly.
“Unmanned coastal surveillance.”
In the room behind me, a monitor began to chirp.
I turned and saw a woman in gray scrubs standing beside Chloe's IV line.
She was not Rosa.
May you like
And she was holding a syringe that had no label.
