Youre stepping on toes here, Luke. Kurt Myerson called his boss at NYPD and told him you were at the hospital treating people like your personal servants. And that you commandeered a SWAT team. Really? A SWAT team? Listen, this is their turf. Youre supposed to follow their lead. Thats how the game is played.

Ron, the NYPD called us in. I assume thats because they felt they needed us. People know how we work.

Cowboys, Begley said. You work like rodeo cowboys.

Don Morris got me out of bed to come up here. You can talk to Don…

Begley shrugged. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. Dons been recalled. He caught a chopper out twenty minutes ago. I suggest you do the same.

What?

Thats right. Hes been kicked upstairs on this one. They called him back to do a situation briefing at the Pentagon. Real high-level stuff. I guess they couldnt get an intern to do it, so theyre bringing in Don.

Begley lowered his voice, though Luke could still easily hear him. A word of advice. What does Don have, three more years before retirement? Dons a dying breed. Hes a dinosaur, and so is SRT. You know it and I know it. All of these little secret agencies within an agency, theyre going by the wayside. Were consolidating and centralizing, Luke. What we need now is data-driven analysis. Thats how were going to solve the crimes of the future. Thats how were going to catch these terrorists today. We dont need macho super-spies and aging former commandos rappelling down the sides of buildings anymore. We just dont. Playing hero ball is over. Its actually a little ridiculous, if you think about it.

Great, Luke said. Ill take that under advisement.

I thought you were teaching college, Begley said. History, political science, that kind of thing.

Luke nodded. I am.

Begley put a meaty hand on Lukes arm. You should stick with that.

Luke shook the hand off and plunged into the crowd, looking for his people.

*

What do we got? Luke said.

His team had set up camp in an outlying office. They had grabbed some empty desks and built their own little command station with laptops and satellite uplinks. Trudy and Ed Newsam were there, along with a few of the others. Swann was off in a corner by himself with three laptops.

They called Don back, Trudy said.

I know. Have you talked to him?

She nodded. Twenty minutes ago. He was just about to take off. He said keep working this case until he personally calls it off. Politely ignore anyone else.

Sounds good. So where are we?

Her face was serious. Were moving fast. Weve narrowed it down to six high-priority vehicles. All of them passed within a block of the hospital last night, and have details that are funky or dont match up.

Give me an example.