Page 68 of Peak’s Code

Maeve's eyes narrowed. "You think it's a key."

"I think it's instructions,” Peak said.

She took the evidence bag from him. "Tide Before Dawn," She whispered the words several times and then stopped. "Oh."

Peak immediately recognized the look. She'd seen something. "What?"

"Wren hated metaphors."

He blinked. “So," he said with a shrug.

"If she wanted to tell me something—” Maeve smiled despite herself. "She'd hide it in something literal."

Peak leaned closer. "Go on."

"Tide." She looked at him. "Not water. Data is the crawler. Peak's eyebrows shot up. She became more animated with every word. "Wren called data movement 'the tide.'"

"You never mentioned that before,” Peak said.

"Because I forgot,” she said.

"No—” She shook her head. "I buried it."

Peak felt excitement replacing exhaustion. "So 'Tide Before Dawn' means⁠—"

Maeve looked him straight in the eye. "Intercept the transfer."

The room went silent, and Warden frowned. "English, please."

Peak answered. "They're moving something."

Maeve nodded. "Or someone." Her voice dropped. "She’s warning us."

Peak looked back at the coded strip. "If Wren left this, then she knew a transfer was coming."

"But she didn't know when." Maeve finished the thought. "So she left instructions instead of a date." Peak's mind raced. If she was right, there was going to be a transfer at the Virginia station. Everything was clicking into place—the trafficking routes, shipping manifests, his motorcycle shop, and the docks. Everything connected through movement. It didn’t have anything to do with locations. It was about movement.

He grabbed his backpack, and Maeve looked surprised. "What are you doing?"

"I need a tablet,” Peak said.

"You brought one?" Warden asked.

He smiled faintly. "I like to keep my options open."

Warden groaned. "Please stop saying that." Peak ignored him. Within seconds, the tablet powered on and he opened a mapping program.

"No internet." Maeve sat beside him on the floor. “They can trace that.”

"We don't need it,” he said.

She pointed toward the coastline. "Show me every commercial dock within fifty miles."

Peak zoomed in. "There, and there." She pointed to another. "That one is too exposed, and this one has no rail access."

Peak smiled. "You've done this before."

"I've chased them for eighteen months,” she reminded. Warden watched the two of them work, but neither noticed. Peak zoomed in more, and Maeve rejected locations almost immediately.