Stephany read the message twice. She called up Robins on Technical to make him explain in detail how they measured the accuracy of the information. Afterwards, she checked the tapes, list of victims, maps and governmental databases. Only then did she contact her superior.

"Senior Agent Solitaire, we have a situation," she sounded after knocking. She had sometimes wondered why he chose that as his agent name. Everyone was free to choose their own agent name. She had simply used her last name. Most of the younger agents went with something cool. Every single type of natural disaster had agents named after them. The same with practically all Greek, Roman and Norse gods.

Agent Solitaire turned from the screen to meet her eyes with his piercing, steel stare. "Go on, Agent Morli," he urged.

Stephany unconsciously swallowed.

"We have just gotten a report that a cell phone belonging to one of the victims was moved from the vicinity of the mansion to a small building in the forest, belonging to the Foxfur Scout Group."

She placed the laptop in front of him and showed the two locations on the map. "The movement started about 40 minutes after the raid started, and took about four hours. That translates to a very slow pace, significantly less than half the expected walking speed of an adult through heavy forest."

She opened up the prepared data sheet.

"The cell phone belongs to Martin Schneider Kinsley, age 53. Professional violinist and private music tutor. Associated with the Dancing Dreams Orchestra, hired to perform at the mansion."

She did not mention his marital status and family. It was all in the data sheet; he could read it if he was interested. After all, he disliked too much unnecessary information almost as much as he hated a lack of proper legwork.

Instead, she brought his attention to a video with a specific timestamp.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"As you can see from the surveillance tape, here he is with the orchestra."

A zoomed still shot showed him, slightly blurry but recognizable.

"Once the purge started, he escaped through the door leading to a corridor. From there, he entered the dining hall, which unfortunately did not have any camera."

"The timing is peculiar," she pointed out and showed a slide with a rough timeline. "The cell phone started moving eight minutes after the execution team had pronounced all dead and the fire was started. I have confirmed this with Agent Willow."

She produced a zoomed satellite picture of the forest building.

"The network tower lost connection with the cell phone roughly six hours after it was moved here. From the start of the purge to when it lost contact, it made no calls, sent no messages, and received one. The message was from Kinsley’s mother, inviting his family to eat dinner with her this Sunday. There was a minor amount of data traffic, small enough that it is likely it was just data from apps running in the background."

"While positional data stemming from triangulating signals are somewhat imprecise, we have enough data points that the location is almost certainly accurate."

Throughout her presentation, Agent Solitaire listened to every word while staring intently at her. Apart from the occasional nod, he looked like a statue. He was silent for a while, seemingly in deep thought. Stephany waited patiently until he spoke up.

"An abnormal observation,” he spoke with an almost monotone voice. “It seems highly unlikely, but not impossible, that Agent Willow failed to detect an individual. He has a perfect track record so far. Still, we can't discount the possibility. I will talk with him personally."

He pointed to the triangulated position on the map.

"Send a team to the building. I want them in the air within 30 minutes. Keep me updated. If an individual has survived the purge, catching him will be our highest priority. Alive."

Stephany nodded. She knew he would take it seriously. Still, making it the highest priority was more serious than she had expected. There was so much going on that also required attention. He was the boss, though, and she knew how to follow orders. She did not ask him to confirm his orders. No unnecessary questions.

She went back to her workstation, and sent out a flurry of messages. All individuals known to be connected to Mr. Kinsley would be put under surveillance. His apartment would be bugged. An agent would hack his mail and social media. It was usually laughably easy when you had access to messages sent to the target's phone.

She did not want to disappoint Agent Solitaire.