“I rest my case,” Clayne said, leaning back in his chair. “I don’t think he’s accepted that for one minute, but each one of us gets exactly the response that serves his purposes best.”

“So what’s he waiting for?” the Major asked quietly.

“You’re the ones who keep using the term ‘biding his time,’” Clayne said. “Me, I don’t think he is waiting.”

“What do you mean by that?” the Major said, putting his glasses back on to peer more closely at Clayne.

“Remember this is just a hunch, a linebacker’s intuition, okay? I might be reading the play all wrong.”

“Go ahead.”

“Eric has had one goal, and one goal only, since the first day when he came out of sedation. He has never wavered in pursuit of that goal, and that is freedom for him and his family.”

“But,” Travis reminded him, “we are offering him that freedom, for him and his family.”

“Not freedom by his definition. He’s been stymied by the system, and that’s the only reason he hasn’t made his move. But…” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“But what?” Nicole demanded.

“This is where my instincts come in, all right?” They nodded and he plunged on. “But now he’s worked it out. Just in the last week or so, he’s worked it out.”

“Worked what out?” Travis asked.

“His escape.”

He savored the look on their faces, his own expression one of benign satisfaction.

“Escape?” the Major said, for the first time looking skeptical. “How? How could he possibly escape?”

“That I don’t know,” Clayne admitted. “But he’s worked it out in his mind, that much I’m sure of. And he’s moving forward on it, whatever it is, as swiftly as he can. I’d bet my breakfast on that.”

“Then I believe you,” Nicole laughed. But almost instantly she was sober again. “If that’s true, then—”

“When did it turn?” the Major cut in. “Can you remember which day you first sensed the change?”

Clayne wrinkled his brow in thought. “Definitely by last Monday, maybe a day or so sooner. I wasn’t sure at first what it was, but that’s when it started.”

“All right,” the Major responded. “Clayne, I know you’ve been on shift all night, so you go home and get some rest. Travis, I want you and Nicole to go back two weeks. Make a careful analysis of his movements every minute since then. Cross-check every item that forms a pattern, every action that seems even the tiniest bit out of the ordinary. Use the computer to check anything that catches your eye.”

He stood up. “We’ll meet in my office at six tonight and decide then what to do about this difficult young man.”

CHAPTER 14