The man said, “When?”
“Yesterday. You guys were sitting at the same table in the library.”
“We’re friends, Donna. That’s all.”
“How do I know it’s not more than that?”
“Because you trust me? Because I love you and would never do anything to hurt you?”
Ted killed the volume. “Okay. I remember this couple. He is actually cheating on her. He’s done it with at least four women I can think of. Real scumbag.”
“So you won’t continue to monitor this?”
“No, we will.” He typed as he talked. “I’m flagging this camera feed right now. Later today, one of my techs will scan Mr. Cheater’s footage from the last week or so. Confirm none of his trysts are getting out of control. Mr. Pilcher and Pam will have surveillance reports on their desks first thing tomorrow.”
“And then?”
“They’ll take whatever action they deem necessary.”
“You mean they’ll stop him from doing this?”
“If his behavior is seen as a threat to the general peace? Absolutely.”
“What will they do to him?”
Ted looked up from the controls and smiled. “You mean what will you do. All likelihood, you’ll be the one to handle it, Sheriff Burke.”
Ted reset the screens to the single aerial view of Wayward Pines.
“Now that you have a basic understanding of how our system works and its capabilities, I’m at your disposal. What do you want to see?”
Ethan leaned back in his chair.
“Can you pull up Alyssa’s tracking chip?”
A red blip appeared in a house at the east end of town.
Ted said, “Obviously, that’s not her. The night of her death, Alyssa removed her microchip and left it in her bedside table drawer.”
“I didn’t even know Pilcher had a daughter. How’s he holding up?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. David’s a complicated man. Values, above all, control of his emotions. He’s grieving privately, I’m sure.”
“Where’s Alyssa’s mother?”
“Not here,” Ted said in a tone that discouraged further inquiry.
“All right, let me see her movement around town going back one week.”
Ted worked at the controls.
The blip went from the house, to the community gardens, and back.
Then it moved out of the house and off the map.
“Was that when she was last inside the mountain?” Ethan asked.
“Yes.”
Alyssa’s microchip moved back into town.
Up and down Main Street.
The community gardens.
Then home again.
Ethan stood up from his chair and stretched his arms over his head.
“Can you pull another microchip?” Ethan asked.
“Sure. Whose?”
“Kate Hewson’s.”
“You mean Kate Ballinger.”
Ted keyed in her name and tapped a panel with his right hand.
A second blip materialized in another part of town.
Ethan asked, “Is it possible for you to isolate all instances where these two dots were in the same place at the same time?”
“Now you’re talking. How far back?”
“Same date range. Starting one week ago.”
Ethan watched Ted input the parameters into a data field.
When he looked back at the screens, there were four paired blips on the aerial map.
“Can you—”
“Pull video and audio feed from each encounter? Thought you’d never ask.” Ted exploded the first of two pairs of dots in the community gardens. “This was the first encounter,” he said. “Happened six days ago. Give me a second. Let me find the best angle.” He cruised through a number of vantage points—far too fast for Ethan to comprehend anything. “Okay, here’s our winner.”
Kate filled the screens. She wore a summer dress, sunglasses, a straw hat. She strolled toward the camera between rows of raised flowerbeds. A woven basket dangled from one arm, bulging with vegetables and fruit.
The back of someone’s head filled the lower part of the screens.
“Is that Alyssa?” Ethan asked.
“Yes.”
Ted upped the volume.
Kate: “No more apples?”
Alyssa: “No, they went fast.”
Kate reached into her basket and handed something to Alyssa.
“Freeze it,” Ethan said.
The image held—Kate’s arm outstretched.
“What is that?” Ethan asked.
“A green apple?”
Ted rolled video.
Kate: “You’re always bringing the loveliest fruits and veggies to us. I thought I’d bring you something from my garden.”
Alyssa: “What a gorgeous pepper.”
Kate: “Thank you.”
Alyssa: “I’ll have this tonight.”
Kate moved out of frame.
“Wanna see it again?” Ted asked.
“No, play the next one.”
They watched Kate and Alyssa rendezvous three more times.
Next day, on Main Street, the women passed each other and Alyssa shook her head.
The day after, at the riverside park, their paths crossed again.
This time, Alyssa nodded.
“Wonder what that was all about?” Ted said. He glanced at Ethan. “Any ideas?”
“Not yet.”
Ted played Alyssa and Kate’s last encounter.
It happened the day of Alyssa’s death at the community gardens, and the interaction was identical to their first.
Kate stopped at Alyssa’s vegetable stand.
They exchanged a few words.
Then Kate handed her another bell pepper.
Ted paused the video.
Ethan said, “There’s probably a note in that pepper.”
“That says what?”
“I don’t know. Meeting place and time? Instructions for Alyssa to remove her microchip? Explain something to me. I understand that when these Wanderers remove their chips you can’t track them. But don’t the cameras still pick up their movement?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Our cameras only key off microchip proximity and motion.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
“Look, there’s no way to monitor this town using the thousands of cameras all running at once. Most of the time, we’d just be scrolling through empty space. So our cameras key off the microchips. In other words, until a chip moves within range of a sensor, the camera is in sleep mode. It only transmits a video feed when a microchip pings it. And even then, when a chip is motionless for fifteen seconds, the camera reverts to sleep mode.”