“In addition to that image and another one of the island, I think there’s one more locked in the camera,” Olivia said. “But I haven’t been able to pull it up.” She looked at Harlan. “Any news from Las Vegas?”

“A few things,” Harlan said. He took out a small notepad and glanced at what was written on it. “First, the license plates on the two SUVs that chased us are registered to a small private security firm. Address is a storefront in a dying strip mall outside of Seattle. Lucas Pine said it looks like the firm has only one client, a shell corporation that lists an address on an island—”

Excitement sparked through Olivia. “In the San Juans?”

“No, that would have been too easy,” Harlan said. “The corporation is located on an island in the Caribbean.”

“And yet it employs a security firm that has a small office here in the Pacific Northwest,” Harmony mused.

“Exactly.” Harlan went back to his notes. “Arganbright also told me the Foundation team based in Seattle has secured the Sefton house but that it’s going to take a while to dig through the ruins to see what survived.”

“What about the no-name island that you think might be the site of the Vortex lab?” Olivia asked.

“Lucas is still checking that angle. No luck so far.”

“You can’t make an entire island vanish,” Harmony said.

“In the days of the Bluestone Project you could do just that,” Harlan said, “if you had government connections. The question is, why hasn’t it been found in recent decades? It’s not as if no one has been looking for it.”

“People, including a lot of raiders, have been searching for Vortex,” Harmony pointed out. “But they had no way of knowing that it might be located on an island.”

“True,” Harlan said. “Until I found Olivia and her camera, I didn’t realize I was looking for an island. I had some sense that the lab might have been located in the Pacific Northwest, but that’s it.”

“There are not an unlimited number of islands in the San Juans,” Harmony said. “About a hundred and seventy or so if you count every reef and chunk of rock. But a lot of those wouldn’t be large enough to support a secret government lab. If necessary the Foundation can search each island.”

“That would take too much time,” Harlan said. “We need to narrow the possibilities as quickly as we can. Arganbright and Pine are working that angle.”

Harmony leaned back in her chair. “It’s just hard to believe Vortex has been right in our backyard all these years. Hiding in plain sight.”

Olivia looked at Harlan. “You told me it’s not that difficult to hide in plain sight if someone knows what he’s doing and has a certain talent for the business.”

Harlan’s eyes tightened at the corners. “Meaning?”