“As for the woman that was with Mr. Danielson in India, I have not seen her come or go from his DC residence during the time I have been observing him. Maybe the hub could update us on her whereabouts.” said Shahim.

<My records show that Madeline Cavanagh boarded a plane to Florida to stay with her mother at the Sunny Valley assisted living facility six months ago. She has remained at that location since that time.>

“She hasn’t visited her friend Neal once?” asked Lana.

Before John could interrupt, the AI said, <No. She has remained inside the facility for the entire time.>

Fuck. He had been concerned that Madeline’s dropping off the radar might spark suspicion, but it had been an even greater risk for her to be seen flying back and forth to North Dakota regularly, so they had gone with this lesser of two evils with the assumption that John could warn her if the Council’s suspicions became aroused. As his avatar remained outwardly calm, the real Agent Hunt was already sending a coded message to her via the agreed upon channels. If Madeline reacted immediately, she might be able to stave off further investigation.

But when Lana had the scent of something she pursued it with singular purpose, saying, “Are you telling this Council that this woman has stayed indoors for the last six months?” said Lana indignantly, “That is ridiculous. You must be mistaken. I have spent enough time with these people to know that they could no more remain in one building for that long than I could. She must have left without you knowing, you must have missed her. She could be anywhere right now.”

<Agent Lana Wilson, we do not rely solely on visual surveillance to track subjects. That would be, as you suggest, inherently open to error. To supplement the position that she has remained in the building for that time, we can also tell you that we have no record of any use of any of her credit cards, ATM cards, driver’s license, or passport at any other location during that period. Unfortunately, the home does not have an extensive security system so I cannot review internal footage to confirm her whereabouts, but it would be difficult for a person to go that long without appearing on my grid if they were moving about the country.>

Lana was incensed, like a dog on the trail, “Unless she knew we were watching her!”

John went to respond but the AI’s reply was almost instantaneous, <To suggest from the information available that either Neal Danielson or Madeline Cavanagh have discovered both our presence and the extent of our capabilities to the degree necessary to circumvent our surveillance systems is highly unsubstantiated. That said, we concur that her behavior does not fall within accepted norms and may warrant further investigation.>