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“Okay” Susan left the room and headed down to the kitchen

But she couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that soht

The Zermatt Group Offices

West 75th Street, Manhattan, New York

23 February

Friday, 10:55 pm local time

Aidan went straight to his aparte the doorman, and then took the elevator up to the seventh floor

He unlocked the front door and strode in, locking it firmly behind him

This was home to hied nanny, who spent uest room while Aidan traveled or worked Joyce had twenty years of experience, an enore She cooked, straightened up the apartment, and accompanied Abby to preschool and to all her other activities and playdates She was a lifesaver

The aparte, with tons of rooht now, it was quiet, which meant that Abby was asleep

He’d check in on her later At thefrom his mind

He headed directly for the less rooic command center for the Zermatt Group, aka the home base of Aidan’s “other life” They called this space “the Cage” because the entire roonetic waves to enter and thereby protected all the sensitive electronic devices within its walls from electronic surveillance All communications to the outside world were hardwired, heavily monitored, and protected with multiple firewalls When someone tried to reach either Aidan or Terri on their cell phone when inside the Cage, the call could be routed instead to the desk phone in the room

He paused in front of the solid steel door and the Hirsh keypad controlling access to it Adjacent to the keypad was a slowed, Aidan was inside and not to be disturbed

Spotting a crumpled candy wrapper on the floor, he squatted to pick it up and pocket it, a s to her little friends, “Unless there’s fire, flood, or blood, do not disturb ” So very Abbylike She defended her daddy’s unusual and über-private work space with absolute loyalty, even if she did have a million questions about it when she and Aidan were alone

Right now Aidan could see that the red light was glowing, which told him that Terri was already inside Only the two of them had the combination to the Hirsh Aidan entered the access code and pushed the door open when he heard the lock click