1
Extreme close, near black. The nameplate CONSTANCE CHASE, and a capped red pen
beside it. Nothing else in the frame.
Sixty informants. Each one wearing a wire.
And if they're doing their job right, I'll never hear a single word.
2
Connie in the dark, listening to nothing. No desk, no paper, no room.
Number thirty-one's a head-scratcher, though. Only wears it most of the time, not all day. Informants who want out don't go cold turkey. They ease off, a little at a time. Sure would be a shame if I had to take her off the books.
3
The first wide shot on the page: an ordinary office, lights on. Tracy in the
doorway, holding out a printed report: one row per person, never a day-by-day chart.
I'm sure you're already aware, but VIGIL's thirty-one is at seventy-four percent. Under seventy and she's out.
Don't chase it, though. People drift.
Dr. Grant does this every Friday. Says goodnight, gets halfway to the car, comes back with a number.
She was right. Probably just random anyway. But then something caught my attention.
4
The same moment. Tight on the phone face-up on the desk, everything outside its
glow falling away. The first color anywhere on the page.
⚠ 031 · WEAR TIME 74% · UNCHANGED 41 DAYS
Seventy-four percent. Dr. Grant was right on the money.
But hold on... forty-one days with a sigma you could slip under a door? How is she that consistent?
5
Minutes later. Lights up full, no blinds, no stripes. Connie on the phone.
Mrs. Ruiz is never in frame.
Mrs. Ruiz? Connie, from the university. When does that watch come off?
Oh, when I charge it. The card you gave me says daily, so I plug it in when I go to bed.
She had an alibi. CHARGE DAILY. Two words, and neither one was when.
6
The report going into a tray, nothing marked on it. Beside it, an instruction card with a
new line added in red, the pen lying across it.
When a wire flips on you, it pays to ask. Could be the bird has flown. Sometimes it just can't find its way back to the nest.
I was about to tell Dr. Grant all this, when I realized her car had been gone ten minutes.