If he ejects out of this entire enterprise, lets Ethan go back to his case in Everett, he stays a good guy who almost did a very bad thing.

Nothing confusing here. No gray area from his perspective.

“Sir?” Ethan says.

Hassler pictures Theresa, a couple years back at the company picnic. Thinks of Ethan flirting with Kate while his wife cried by herself on the shore of Lake Union.

Theresa’s fears about Kate and Ethan were borne out last year when Kate put in an abrupt transfer request for Boise, Idaho. Ethan cheated on Theresa with his partner, and everyone knew it. He humiliated his wife, and a woman like Theresa deserves so much better.

“Adam?” Ethan says.

Hassler lets out a breath as rain ticks on the window behind him.

He says, “Kate Hewson is missing.”

Ethan leans forward in the chair. “For how long?”

“Four days.”

“She went missing on the job?”

“Her partner’s missing too. Guy named Evans. You and Kate had a . . . special relationship, right?”

Ethan doesn’t bite, just stares, intense.

“Well, I just figured you’d want to take on the search for your old partner.”

Ethan stands.

“Boise is e-mailing the case file,” Hassler says. “We’re booking you on a flight out of Sea-Tac first thing. Tomorrow morning, you’ll meet up with Agent Stallings in the Boise field office and the two of you will head north to the last place anyone heard from Kate.”

“Where’s that?”

“Little town called Wayward Pines.”

Hassler watches Ethan leave.

He’s done it.

Set it all motion.

And the weird thing is, he doesn’t feel any different. No regret, no fear, no anxiety.

If there’s one overriding emotion, it’s relief.

Spinning around in his chair, he stares out his window at the gray, wet gloom of downtown Seattle, the water droplets beading and running down the glass.

From his office on the thirty-first floor, he can see the building where Theresa works as a paralegal. Imagines her sitting in her lifeless cube, typing dictation.

He doesn’t know how exactly, but he will have her one day. He’ll love her like she’s meant to be loved. Somehow, and this is the biggest mystery of his entire existence, she has become the only thing that matters in his world.

Flipping open his prepaid cell phone, he dials.

David Pilcher answers, “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Hassler says.

“I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever hear from you again.”

“He’s coming to you tomorrow.”

“We’ll be ready.”

Hassler closes the cell, takes out the battery, and breaks the phone in half. He places the two pieces in the Styrofoam container at the bottom of his trash can that holds the remnants of yesterday’s lunch.

THERESA

THERESA

Theresa and Ben reached the edge of the forest as the sun dipped behind the distant peaks.

She whispered to her son, “Wait here.”