Nat glared for a moment, but she was far too reasonable to ignore the argument. She wasn’t done, though. “Karen Ingram is only slightly taller than me. If she turns out to be a Lorann, I’m set. And that’s almost certain; a colder, more reptilian individual you’ll never meet.”

In a voice that actually sounded tired, Sheldon said, “They are not reptilian. There are only slight, superficial resemblances. Are you people completely unable to hold onto a fact for more than a few seconds?”

“Fine. If that turns out to be the case, I’m all for it,” I said, ignoring the comment.

Sheldon continued, apparently ignoring me in turn, “I set the drone down where I could scan individuals as they came and went. And I got some good images to work from. Where possible, I also recorded voice samples. Natalie, I’ll forward those to your phone, and you can comment if you recognize them.”

“Will do, Sheldon. Thanks.” Nat cocked her head and smiled at me. “Karen’s assistant, Marc Abramson, is quite tall, Jack. Perfect for you. We might both be going in.”

I groaned. “Outstanding.”

Chapter Twenty-Six: Making Plans

Chapter Twenty-Six: Making Plans

Day 20. Wednesday

We were in the barn again, reviewing Sheldon’s progress. Nat was examining all the footage taken of individuals, hoping for someone from the third floor of her office. Finally, though, she slapped the cover closed on her laptop and muttered, “Shit.”

I looked up from my work—okay, I’d been watching a YouTube video, but she didn’t need to know that—and raised an eyebrow.

“Sheldon hasn’t been able to get as much as I was hoping for,” she explained. “A few visuals, definitely no surprises as far as I’m concerned, but not enough in the way of audio samples.”

“And no Karen Ingram, I bet,” Patrick added, “which is what’s really pissing you off.”

Nat turned to him and tried to burn through his brain with laser vision, if that glare meant anything at all. When Patrick’s head didn’t burst into flames, she sighed. “And no Karen. Is there any way to speed this up?”

“Plant a bug?” said Patrick.

“A reasonable suggestion,” said Sheldon.

“Um, sure,” Nat replied. “We can disguise ourselves to go in and plant a bug so we can get enough audio and video to be able to disguise ourselves to go in and spy. Am I the only one who sees a problem?”

“Is there any way you could get yourself invited upstairs?” I asked.

She paused and frowned in thought. “Not for anything routine. Normally they come down to the second-floor conference room for meetings, and anything one-on-one is either email or Zoom.”

“So what would qualify as nonroutine?” Patrick asked.

“Without getting me fired?”