“Barrett confirmed the training is happening now—which, of course, you knew already.”

Jae nodded.

“He also said everything was normal on NSWC’s end. I don’t know if that means they’re in communication with the trainers and SEALs or not, but it doesn’t sound like they’ve received notice that anyone interrupted the exercise.”

“Is there any chance Xavier would hold back that information from his superiors?” Undine asked.

Jae shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s a straight arrow—but we all know he behaved strangely when it came to Audrey a month ago. It’s possible he could withhold the information to protect her, if it wasn’t relevant to the success of the training.”

“Do you think he would contact you in that situation?”

“I’d like to think so, but if all comms are down for the exercise, perhaps he wasn’t able to.”

The whole situation made Undine uneasy. It didn’t feel right. She wrapped her arms around herself as if to ward off the chill. Luke stepped to her side and draped an arm around her shoulders, then pressed his lips to her temple.

He didn’t offer false words of comfort, and she appreciated that. Right now, there was little they could do and they knew even less.

To Jae, he said, “We’ll go through channels right now, but if we don’t hear from Audrey by four p.m., I want to go with you into the park to search for her.”

Jae gave a sharp nod. “I hate waiting that long, but I also don’t want to overreact, and this could be nothing. There’s also the issue that the gate lock was changed. My master key doesn’t work.”

Luke frowned. “Then how did Audrey get into the park?”

Jae shrugged. “My best guess is she entered before the lock was changed. Maybe both the park gate and the inholding gate weren’t changed until the last minute. But the problem there is—the Navy wasn’t authorized to change the park gate’s lock.”

“Have you asked the park superintendent about that?”

“I left a voicemail for Jim this morning. I didn’t tell him about Audrey, though—he stood by her after Xavier’s allegations, but if he thinks she went into the park to disrupt the training, she could be fired.”

Luke swore. “Glad I didn’t use her name in my conversation with Captain Barrett, but it’s bound to come out—sooner rather than later—that we’re looking for Audrey and not some other random park employee.”

Jae nodded. “I’ll talk to Jim face-to-face and give him the full context when I ask for the gate key. There’s no way the Navy could change the lock without giving the superintendent a key.”