Page 70 of Peak’s Code

"No,” Warden said. "If he scratches his beard, then he means to. "If he folds his arms, he means to."

Peak nodded slowly. "So why'd he lean left?"

Maeve looked at him. "He what?"

Peak crouched and pulled his tablet closer. "Right before he said 'run,’ he shifted."

Maeve closed her eyes, as though trying to visualize it. Then, her eyes snapped open. "He wasn't shifting."

Peak smiled. "No, he was showing us something." He opened a sketch program on the tablet, quickly drawing the room from memory.

"What was on the left?"

Maeve knelt beside him. "There was—” She stopped. "Oh."

"What?" Peak asked.

"A number."

Peak looked up. "You saw one too."

"Yep, in red paint." She pointed near the corner of his sketch. "It started with a B.”

Peak nodded. "I saw that, but what came after it?" Neither answered, because neither knew.

Warden looked between them. "I hate it when you two do this."

"What?" Peak asked.

"Start speaking hacker,” Warden said.

Peak laughed quietly. "It's not hacker."

"It's pattern recognition." Maeve smiled. "Wren used to call it—” She stopped speaking.

Peak looked over. "What did she call it?"

Her expression softened. "She used to say that the answer is always hiding in the background." Peak looked back down at the sketch—not at Captain, but at everything around him.

He enlarged the rough drawing and froze. “No,” he breathed.

Maeve leaned closer. "What?"

"The conduit." She looked and then seemed to immediately understand.

"It wasn't electrical." Peak nodded.

"No, it was steam,” Maeve said.

Warden blinked. "You lost me."

Peak stood. "Steam lines are industrial." Peak's pulse quickened. "The warehouse." He pulled up the map they'd been studying of Bayview Logistics and the old seafood processing plant. Everything seemed to fit—too well. "They want us to think Captain's somewhere else."

Maeve nodded. "But they slipped."

Peak smiled grimly. "They're using the warehouse."

Warden grabbed his shotgun. "Then let's go."