When I arrived at the warehouse, I paused before running in. Foss had wanted me to wait for him, but I couldn't do that. I listened carefully but didn't hear any heartbeats or breathing inside the building. I went in. I hadn't been to Foss's warehouse for a while; it was just as I remembered it. And empty.

Kyle was standing in the warehouse when Foss rushed in with his gun drawn.

"Kyle, are you all right?" He asked.

"It's empty," Kyle said his voice filled with despair. "She isn't here."

"Kyle," Foss said firmly trying to focus him. "Tell me what you know."

"What are we going to do, Foss?" Kyle was agitated, "It's just empty."

"Kyle, you have to focus," Foss said forcefully. "Jessi's life depends on what we do in the next few minutes. I need to you to concentrate, tell me everything you know."

I struggled to control my fear. Jessi needed me. I told Foss about the vision I had experienced in the Trager kitchen. I explained how I had seen an attack through Jessi's eyes, I described the man I had seen coming with a gun.

"You say you were able to see through Jessi's eyes?" Foss shook his head in amazement, but immediately became practical. "Can you identify where she was?"

"From what I could see, she was lying here," Kyle pointed to a spot on the floor, "and looking in that direction." He pointed to the other side of the room. "The man with the gun came from there.' He pointed to the barrels set to one side.

"It looks like he set up an ambush," Foss said. He bent over to study the cement floor. "There's no sign of blood – or cleaning," he announced. "The dust in this area has been disturbed, though." He stood up and said, "I'm going to get my laptop from the car so that we can look at the recordings from the surveillance cameras."

"Surveillance cameras?" Kyle asked.

"Ever since you and Declan broke into my monitoring station in that apartment I've always had hidden cameras monitoring my own location to see if anyone has been around," Foss explained. "When I got your call, I rushed over here without checking them. We can review them to see what happened. Wait here."

Foss went outside and returned in a moment carrying a laptop. Declan was behind him, a serious expression on his face.

"I called Declan on my way over," Foss explained. He set the laptop on one of the work benches and accessed the video record. "Ok, here he is." Foss announced, pointing to the screen.

The surveillance replay showed a sandy haired man of medium build walking into the warehouse.

"That's the man I saw," Kyle said.

The man walked around the warehouse, looking at the various furnishings, periodically looking back at the entryway.

Foss said, "He's looking for a hiding place that he can cover the door from."

Apparently that was the case, because when he got to the barrels, he rearranged a couple of them and checked that he could hide behind them and then headed back toward the door.

"Maybe we can get some fingerprints," Foss said. "No, he's wearing gloves. This is a professional."

The man reappeared carrying a boom box and set it on the workbench, turning it on.

"It's too bad I only have visual recordings," Foss said.

I accessed my holographic memory and replayed the moment I had been connected with Jessi. I hadn't noticed it before but there had been music playing. It had been relatively loud.

Kyle said, "There was loud music playing when Jessi contacted me. He might have been trying to interfere with her hearing."

"It doesn't look like Jessi was an accidental target, then," Foss shrugged. "That never was a likely possibility, anyway."

The man then took cover behind the barrels.

Kyle said, "Nicole said that she got a call that she thought came from you, Foss. I didn't see him make any calls."

"He may have done that off camera," Foss suggested. "Or he may have an accomplice. We're going to have to be alert for that possibility."

When nothing happened for a while, Foss fast forwarded the display until Jessi finally appeared in the frame. She paused in the center of the room and looked around, saying something.

"Probably calling for me," Foss said grimly.

Then she grabbed at her stomach and fell to the ground. The sandy haired man came out from behind the barrels carrying his gun.

"That's the moment I saw when we were connected," Kyle exclaimed.

"It looks like a hypodermic gun," Foss leaned close to the screen. "She doesn't look like she has been shot with a bullet. There was no blood at that spot."

The man carried a blanket over and spread it out next to Jessi. He checked her pulse at her throat and then rolled her onto it. He patted her pockets and then reached into one of them and pulled out her keys. Then he rolled up the blanket around her. He picked her up, putting her over his shoulder and walked out of the scene.

Foss said, "Obviously he doesn't want to attract attention. Let's check the external view at this timestamp."

He called up the external view and fast forwarded it to the matching timestamp. It showed Jessi's car sitting in front of the warehouse. The sandy haired man appeared in the frame carrying a rolled up bundle and set it down behind the car. He opened the trunk, then picked the bundle up and put it in, closing the trunk lid afterward. He went out of the frame, back into the building and then reappeared carrying his boom box. He tossed it into the passenger's seat, then got into the driver seat and drove away.

"That's it." Foss closed the laptop and picked it up, "let's get going. We'll take Declan's car, it's faster. Keys?" Declan handed him his keys. Foss led the way, saying "Kyle in the front, Declan the back. Declan do you have your Glock along?"

"It's under my seat," Declan said.

"Good," Foss said. "Take this," he handed the laptop to Kyle, "if you can do any of your magic to track that car, we need a direction."

"I can try accessing the traffic cameras and see if I can locate it," Kyle suggested. "I've done that before."

They all jumped in Foss started the car and pulled out. As they drove away, Declan said from the back seat, "Where are we going?"

Foss explained, "Unless Kyle can get me some actual data, I am going to have to guess. My guess is that he is going to take interstate 90 eastbound. That will get him out of the city fast. After he passes Issaquah it gets pretty rugged. I'm betting that's his goal."

Kyle looked up from the keyboard his fingers were rapidly typing on, "His goal for what, Foss."

Foss ignored him and stared straight ahead at the road. Kyle turned grimly back to his keyboard.

After a moment, Kyle announced, "I picked him up. Starting with Foss's assumption narrowed the search significantly. Instead of a spiral search pattern, I began by attempting to verify Foss's conjecture."

"He's heading for I90?" Foss asked.

"I've picked up one contact on that path," Kyle agreed. He typed for few more seconds then announced, "Here's another, stopped at a stoplight."

"How long ago?" Foss asked.

"He seems to be fourteen minutes ahead of us," Kyle said. "It took time for us to gather at the warehouse and figure out what happened. We wasted time."

"Fourteen minutes is very good, considering," Foss assured him.

"I have another picture confirming the path," Kyle announced. A moment later he added, "And I have one of him getting onto interstate 90 heading east.
You were right, Foss."

Foss said, grimly, "After this, it get's harder. There won't be any traffic cameras on the interstate."

"There are three," Kyle corrected. "But they are all within the metropolitan area to manage commuter traffic reporting. If your theory that he is attempting to head for the wooded areas holds true then we won't have any way of tracking him once he gets there." After a moment he asked, "Do you think we should call the police?"

"I don't think we can feasibly explain what we know to them in time," Foss said. "And if we try, they'll stop our pursuit while they question us. I don't think that we have the time to spare, I think he knows exactly where he's going and it isn't going to be very far." He glanced at Kyle sitting next to him and said, "Kyle, her best chance would be if you could make contact with her again. Is that even possible?"

"Normally, it would be," Kyle assured him. "I'll try." He set the laptop aside and leaned back, closing his eyes.

Jessi and I were connected. It was something we took for granted. I had used that connection to contact Jessi to summon help when Nicole, Josh and I had been in an accident miles away from the Trager house. As Jessi and I had become romantically involved, the connection had become even stronger. Normally it was a quiet presence in the background, when we were together it could become overwhelming. I settled my mind and concentrating on finding that connection and Jessi.

I blocked out my fear and the pounding of my heart. I blocked out the fear and heartbeats of Foss and Declan and the sound of the car's engine, the wheels on the road, the wind blowing past the window. I blocked out the feeling of motion and tried to focus my entire mind on the part that could feel my connection to Jessi and searched for her.

When your house is quiet, it isn't really quiet. There are always hums and other noises that the electronic aids of modern life fill our world with. You ignore them, unless you pay attention, they are not there. But if you have a power failure and they all stop, you notice suddenly how starkly quiet your house has become. When I sought my connection to Jessi, I found that silence. There was nothing there. Not the quiet hum that I felt when she was deeply asleep. I found only that stark silence.

Kyle opened his eyes and looked at Foss with tears welling in them. He said, in deep despair, "Foss, I can't find her. She's gone. There's nothing there at all."