As they laughed, Burke thought of Carter’s story of the burning party, and it reminded Burke of a quote from Einstein: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

Carter couldn’t truly appreciate his wife’s paintings, or, by extension, her, without knowing why she would destroy them. The why … He thought of Carter’s words: She could create one painting and one party and make it mean so many different things to so many people, accomplish so much through one act of sacrifice.

Burke stared off into the distance at the sand and scrub brush, the lights of cars traversing the distant hills. But he didn’t see any of that. He saw data points on a timeline. A story playing out. A plan. One plan with multiple objectives. He felt the pieces of a puzzle sliding together inside his mind. A puzzle that he couldn’t have solved that morning, because he needed to achieve a higher level of thinking in order to do so. He needed more knowledge, more experience, more data to expound upon. But now, the pieces were starting to form together into an image, a shape, a chess board with multiple players and multiple teams, all vying for separate but interconnected objectives.

Under his breath, Burke said, “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom your real intent.”

He turned back to his colleagues, who had stopped laughing.

“It’s a quote from Sun Tzu,” he said. “The Art of War.”

“Do you have something to share with the rest of the class?” Carter asked.

He hesitated, needing more time to work out the problem in his head. He began to speak, but his phone vibrated against his leg, saving him from an awkward explanation. Instead, he read the text message he had just received and looked up with a smile. “Albert says that the gods of might and magic were with him on this night. He has something to show us.”

Chapter 84

Burke pulled up to the beautiful home of Allanon Majere, his mind only on driving as a reflex, his real attention and focus on connecting the different threads of the case. Nic and Carter had talked most of the ride, and he had monitored the conversation with the periphery of his mind, but they were mostly discussing Allanon thinking of himself a wizard.

But now, as they pulled into Allanon’s driveway, Nic brought up a different topic. “Do you think we should be doing this?”

The comment drew Burke back into the real world. “What do you mean?”

“Yoshida said that if we recover anything off those drives and don’t contact him, then he would charge us with treason. He seemed pretty serious about it.”

Carter, having lost the battle for the front seat, leaned over the console and said, “He wouldn’t charge us with treason, and if he did, I have enough goodwill built up with enough influential people to get us out of that. But the three of us would probably never work in law enforcement again. At this point, honestly, I couldn’t care less. My wife is gone, and they have me pushing papers all day, which makes me want to jam paperclips through my eyeballs. And Burke here just wants to be a mechanic. But I understand if you want to stay out of it, Nic. You have something to lose and a young lady to provide for.”