Chapter 18: The Plant Gate

Fiorella heard it from the top of the stairs.

She came down so fast she lost a slipper, and she did not stop for it.

"Which school gate?" she said. "Who signed him out?"

"A man with Aurelio's pass," I said. "The guards said it had the chairman's seal."

"Aurelio's seal is in Rocco's desk."

She grabbed Brennan's sleeve with both hands.

"He said he would. He said it to your face on the road, and we sat in that kitchen all night."

"We didn't know he'd move this fast," Brennan said.

"Nobody ever does."

His phone rang.

He read the screen and answered it on speaker.

"Mr. Doyle." It was a low, heavy voice I had never heard. "I'm calling from a pay phone. I don't have long."

"Say it."

"Plant Four, on the river road. The filling hall has been dark since Monday. Mr. Venturi's car went in an hour ago with the boy in the back."

"Who's with him?"

"The two from your landing. I'm not allowed near." A pause. "Mr. Doyle, I held her arm in that room. I'd like to hold something else."

The line went dead.

We took Brennan's truck, the four of us, and I drove, because Brennan was dialing the troopers and Fiorella was shaking too hard to steer.

Plant Four sat on a flat stretch of land by the river, behind a chain-link fence.

The lot was empty.

The big gate stood open, and every window in the filling hall was dark.

My process had run in that building for three years.

Now there was only one car in the lot, a long black one, parked square in the middle with its rear windows down.

Two men stood beside it with their hands folded.

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