“After just six weeks?”Miles asked, irritated.
“That’s how federal spending works,” Marsh said dryly.
"Then we keep working while we have the time," Masters said."We refine our algorithms, expand our search parameters.Eventually we'll find one."
Miles wanted to believe that.He wanted to think that all this effort would eventually pay off, that they would catch a disciple before they could kill rather than after.But six weeks of work had produced nothing but false positives and dead ends.
"What's next on the list?"Miles asked.
Marsh pulled up a new file on the monitor."We have three cases flagged for review.One in Oregon involving possible mercury poisoning and another one in Texas where a woman died from what might be sodium-related complications.And there’s one in Florida with suspicious circumstances around oxygen use.But if oxygen has already been used, I don’t know how likely it is that Kane would want that repeated."
Miles looked at the three case summaries displayed on the screen.Each one would require hours of investigation, phone calls to local authorities, deep dives into the victims' backgrounds and relationships.And each one would probably turn out to be another accident, another coincidence, another case of the task force seeing patterns where none existed.
But they would investigate anyway.Because the alternative was doing nothing.And doing nothing meant more victims, more disciples completing their missions, more of Kane's philosophy spreading through the country.
"Split them up," Miles said."Marsh, you take Oregon.Masters, you take Texas.I'll handle the Florida case."
"What about me?"Vic asked.
"You and I are still the response team," Miles said."When an actual disciple surfaces, we're the ones who go.But until then, we can help with the screening."
Marsh and Masters gathered their materials and left the conference room.Vic remained, looking at the monitor with its three new case files waiting to be investigated.
"You think any of these are real?"she asked.
"No," Miles said honestly."But I hope I'm wrong."
Vic nodded and headed for the door.Miles stayed in the Nest for a few more minutes, staring at the case files and thinking about the enormous task they had taken on.Just knowing that Kane's disciples were actively planning their next moves, following their twisted missions, made it hard to focus on much of anything else.The task force was supposed to find them before they could act and right now, he had to not think like the higher-ups.He knew six weeks really wasn’t that long for a project to be determined pass or fail.
Still, with nothing more than ten dead ends to show for their efforts so far, Miles was beginning to wonder if they were looking for ghosts.
CHAPTER THREE
Much later in the day, when night had fallen over the city and Miles’s eyes were starting to go dry from looking at case after case throughout the country, he sat in his car outside McGinty's Bar.He was staring at the neon sign in the window and wondering what he was doing.Kim had texted him that afternoon asking if he wanted to grab drinks after work.He had said yes without thinking about it, the same way he had the other times they had met up over the past few weeks.It had become pretty much a once-a-week thing.
But sitting here now, he felt the weight of the decision pressing down on him.
This was the eleventh time they had gone out for drinks.The first three had been easy to categorize as colleagues decompressing after difficult cases.The fourth and fifth had been more casual and much more comfortable.Almostnatural.But tonight felt different somehow.There was no case to decompress from.No immediate crisis that needed processing.This was just two people meeting for drinks because they wanted to spend time together.
Miles thought about his session with Dr.Mitchell that morning…specifically her question about romantic opportunities.He had pushed thoughts of Sarah away then, just like he had been pushing it away for weeks.But maybe he was pushing it away for the wrong reasons.
It had been nearly seven months since Elena's death.Seven months of grief and therapy and slowly learning how to function without her.He still thought about her every day.He still felt the absence of her presence in his apartment, in his routines, in all the small moments that used to include her.But the grief had changed.It was no longer the raw, bleeding wound it had been in those first weeks.
Was seven months enough time?Miles had no idea.There was no rulebook for this, no timeline that said when it was acceptable to feel something for someone else.He wondered if the hesitation he felt was loyalty to Elena's memory or just fear of moving forward.Maybe both.
He got out of the car, making himself stop sorting through the reasonsnotto go in—reasons to text Kim and tell her he wasn’t going to be able to make it after all.But he walked inside and felt instantly relieved that he had.McGinty's was a quiet place that catered to professionals who wanted a drink without the noise of a typical downtown bar.Exposed brick walls, dark wood furniture, shelves lined with bottles that actually got used instead of just sitting there for decoration.
Kim was already at a booth near the back, two glasses of water on the table in front of her.She looked up as Miles approached and smiled.She had changed out of her work clothes into jeans and a light blue sweater.Her hair was down instead of pulled back the way she wore it at the office.To put it simply, she looked really pretty.
"Hey," she said."I got us a corner booth.Hope that's okay."
"Perfect."Miles slid into the seat across from her.A server appeared almost immediately and they ordered drinks.Bourbon for Miles, a gin and tonic for Kim.
"Long day?"Kim asked.
"Aren't they all?"Miles settled back against the vinyl cushion."How did your afternoon go with the Elementalist’s potential Florida case?You helped with that one, right?"
Kim held up a hand."Nope.We're not doing that tonight."
