32. Erik #2
I look at Harper. "You found it."
She shrugs, but her eyes are red from too little sleep. "I finally stopped assuming the boring code was boring."
Makari slides a chair toward her without comment. Harper sits in it this time.
Liya starts matching the AR-17 payments to maritime vendors. "If Orell uses the island for recovery transfers, there will be transport."
Peter pulls up port records. "Medical supply barges, private launches, charter service."
I return to the boat reservation from last night.
The charter departs before dawn from Stonington.
The booking company shares an intermediary account with AR-17.
I read the reservation again. Departure time 5:40. Vessel assigned at 5:12, twenty-eight minutes before launch. Passenger manifest blank.
Too easy.
Makari sees it at the same time I do. "That's not transport."
"No." I push the laptop toward the center of the table. "It's bait."
Liya looks from the reservation to the island. "You said that last night."
"Now I know what it's attached to." I stand and take the dock map from Peter. "Orell expects us to find the island. He left the charter where a grieving man searching every Zaitsev account would find it."
Peter studies the dock layout. "He wants you on the boat."
"He wants me approaching from the southeast where the island can see me for three miles."
Makari enlarges the satellite image. The main dock has clear sightlines over open water, with two low structures near the shoreline and enough elevation behind them for shooters.
Peter points at one. "That's where I would put the first team."
"There will be another behind the fuel house." I mark it with my finger.
Richard looks at me. "Then you can't use the charter."
I glance at him. "I'm going to use it exactly as he intended."
Liya closes her laptop halfway. "Erik."
"Peter's people take the charter."
Peter understands immediately. He pulls the dock image toward him. "We shadow it from the harbor, let the original crew cast off, then replace their passengers before they clear the breakwater."
Makari turns toward him. "You don't approach the island."
"I know how bait works." Peter circles the southeastern route. "We let them see the boat, draw their dock teams into position, and stop short before the killing lane."
I move to the western side of the island. There is a narrow strip of clear ground beyond the clinic, separated from the helipad by trees and one service road.
"Our actual approach comes here."
Makari studies the terrain. "Helicopter."
"Yes."
Liya gets up from the table and takes the satellite view from him. "They'll hear you."
"They'll hear us after they've committed men to the dock."
Makari enlarges the western approach. "Exterior cameras cover the helipad and service road. I can kill those remotely if they're on the same maintenance network as the clinic systems."
Harper looks at the screen. "If Evelyn handled the legal waivers, she may also have routed their communications through Blackthorne vendors."
Makari nods once. "That gives me another way in."
Liya takes out her phone and walks toward the windows. "There's a Coast Guard traffic exercise north of that sector this morning. Civilian marine traffic is being diverted for two hours."
I look at her. "Can you move the boundary?"
"Maybe." She unlocks her phone. "The foundation funded coastal emergency equipment last year. I know the regional coordinator."
Peter raises one eyebrow. "Philanthropy has improved."
Liya points the phone at him. "You are not allowed to make fun of legitimate influence today."
"I wasn't making fun of it."
"You were about to."
Peter returns to the map without denying it.
Liya makes the call from the windows while Makari builds the helicopter route.
The penthouse has changed from a room full of evidence into a departure point.
Operators carry equipment cases from the elevator to the office.
Peter calls his dock team and gives them the charter instructions.
Harper stays with Aaron's notebook and cross-checks the medical entities against Richard's unsealed records.
I go to the bedroom long enough to change.
The ring remains in my coat pocket.
So does Rowan's sealed lab envelope.
I touch both once while I button a clean shirt, then leave them where they are. I will not open the envelope without her. I will not take the ring out until she can tell me whether she still wants the future I bought it for.
When I return downstairs, Liya ends her call.
"The traffic boundary moves south at five-thirty." She puts her phone on the table. "Aircraft will be routed west of the island for nineteen minutes under the exercise restriction. Our helicopter can enter inside that corridor without looking unusual until it turns east."
Makari checks the timing against the charter. "Peter's boat clears Stonington at five-forty."
"Make it five-thirty-eight," Peter says from the other side of the room. "Two minutes early will look like a captain wanting daylight."
Makari adjusts the route.
Liya comes toward me. "We should wait for federal support."
I don't answer immediately. Two operators pass behind her carrying medical packs toward the elevator. Harper has fallen asleep sitting upright again, this time with Aaron's notebook open in her lap. Serena arrives from the hallway in dark trousers and a jacket over scrubs.
Liya lowers her voice. "We have the island. We have the ownership records. We have enough to bring in outside law enforcement and keep the state channels away from it."
"How long?"
She knows the question before I finish. "At least an hour to assemble the right people."
"No."
"Erik."
I look at my sister and make myself say every part of it instead of hiding behind logistics.
"Rowan is fourteen weeks pregnant with triplets.
She was abducted after a physical fight, held at one site, escaped through a service corridor, crashed a van, walked miles in socks, fought Rahil again, and was recaptured.
She has been awake for most of three days. "
Liya's face changes.
I keep going because stopping would be easier. "I learned two days ago that I'm going to have three children. I have not heard Rowan say it to me herself. I am not spending another hour waiting for a cleaner operation while Orell moves her through a medical facility he controls."