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She recorded it all dutifully, her ht, and her initial exahtened

“I’h She can go with the ME”

“Yes, sir”

“You stand, Peabody,” Eve decided The cop had a good, firlanced over her shoulder, ignoring the shouted questions, the glint of lenses “Give no comment, no statement”

“I’ve got nothing to say to them”

“Good Keep it that way”

Eve unsealed the door, passed through, resealed it The lobby was nearly empty Peabody, or someone like her, had cleared it of all but essential personnel Eve shot a look at the security behind the main console “C J Morse Where?”

“His station’s on level six, section eight Some of your people took him up that way”

“I’ another cop Send him after me” Eve turned and stepped onto the ascent

There were people here and there, soainst video backdrops talking furiously to caht the scent of coffee, the stale just-burned fragrance so siht have made her smile

The noise level was cli, even as she did She stepped off on level six into the frantic buzz of the newsroom

Consoles were set back to back, with traffic areas snaking through Like police work, broadcasting was a twenty-four-hour business Even at this hour, there were more than a dozen stations manned

The difference, Eve noted, was that cops looked overworked, rumpled, even sweaty This creas video perfect Clothes were streamlined, jewelry camera friendly, faces carefully polished

Everyone see quickly to their ’link screens—feeding their satellites updates, Eve iined Others barked at their computers or were barked at by them as data was requested, accessed, and transmitted to the desired source

It all looked perfectly normal, except mixed with the stale scent of bad coffee was the sticky odor of fear