SIMS 09

"Second floor - clear!"

"Office - clear!"

"Garage - empty!"

Luca stood in the center of Dr. Cannon's living room listening to the reports through his headset, and felt ridiculous.

The op had started out perfectly. With the six team members divided between two Jeeps and a rented van, they'd arrived in town with time to spare. They'd left the Jeeps in the lot of an autobody shop and headed for Cannon's house in the van. The plan was to ditch the van at the shop lot after the op and make it back to SimGen in the Jeeps. But now...

Shit, the house was empty.

Luca had had his first premonition the moment they'd pulled up in front: the lights were on. Upstairs and down. At four in the morning?

They'd crept up to the windows - no one moving about inside. They'd slammed through the rear door  - no alarm.

Footsteps pounded down the stairs behind him. Luca turned and saw a helmeted figure approaching, recognized him as Lowery when he lifted his visor.

"Three bedrooms upstairs. The reports on her say she lives alone, but all three have slept-in beds. They're not warm, but I'd guess they haven't been cold too long. Looks like they left in a big hurry."

Luca felt as if he were turning to ice. "You're saying they might have been tipped?"

Lowery shrugged. "Who'd tip them? You and me were the only ones who knew where we were going. Maybe they got spooked. Maybe they spotted us watching the place and decided to take off."

Luca turned away and ground his teeth. He should have kept someone here until the raid, but without Snyder and Grimes he was short-handed. What did he do now?

"All right," he said into his helmet mike. "Everybody back to the van. We're outta here."

They'd return to the other cars, but not to SimGen. Not yet. He was staying in this area. Maybe he'd split up the team and send them looking for Cannon's Volvo. Slim chance there, but better than doing nothing.

Needed time to think. No question now that Cannon and the sim were together. Find the doc and he'd have the sim, and Cadman and Sullivan too, no doubt.

Butwhere?