Chapter 25 Twenty five

Chapter 25 Twenty five
"Rivera," I confirmed.

He fell into step beside me. "There's something else," he said. "Cole got a message from Stone twenty minutes ago." He paused. "Colt checked out of his motel this morning. Packed everything. Stone's circuit access was cancelled by phone, no reason given."

I stopped walking.

"He's not gone," Reaper said. "His vehicle is still registered at a second location across town Stone found it through a contact at the rental company. But he's moved and he's changed his preparation pattern." He looked at me. "Something shifted for him this morning."

I thought about Kane in federal custody. About a son with a contract and a father who could no longer confirm or cancel it.

"He's deciding whether to run or finish the job," I said.

"That's our read too." Reaper paused. "Dax wants the inner circle in her office in twenty minutes. She got a call from Rivera this morning that changes the final's legal situation."

"The motion," I said.

"The motion was withdrawn," Reaper said. "Kane's attorney filed a withdrawal at eight AM."

I looked at him. "Why would Kane withdraw a motion that was buying him two weeks?"

Reaper's expression was the expression of a man who had thought about that question since he'd heard the answer and was still not comfortable with the implications.

"Because Kane doesn't plan to be in federal custody for the final," he said.

The compound gate was behind us and the main house was ahead and the morning was still doing its ordinary Tuesday things around us.

"He's going to try to run," I said.

"Rivera thinks he already is," Reaper said. "The attorney filed the withdrawal remotely. Kane's transport was scheduled for the federal holding facility at nine AM." He paused. "He wasn't in his cell at nine AM."

I stood in the compound yard and looked at the main house and thought about a man who had been paying Dutch Steele for eleven years and had a son with a contract and had just withdrawn a legal motion that was protecting him and had not been in his cell at nine in the morning.

"When did Rivera find out," I said.

"Twenty minutes ago." Reaper looked at me. "Same time Colt changed motels."

I started walking toward the main house.

"Reaper," I said without turning. "Get the bikes ready."
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Dax's office held five people and the specific atmosphere of a situation that had just changed shape for the third time in twelve hours.

Dax was at the whiteboard. Reaper was at the door. Gravel had come from Murphy's Garage when Reaper called him, which meant Murphy was currently alone in a building that Kane had surveilled before and Gravel had not had time to arrange a replacement for, which was the first problem on a list that was growing.

I told Dax about Gravel's absence from Murphy's Garage before anything else.

She picked up her phone and called Cole without putting it down. "Steel Riders' nearest member to Murphy's Garage on State Street. I need someone there in the next fifteen minutes." A pause. "Yes, now. Tell Stone it's a Wolves request and I'll explain later." She ended the call and looked at Reaper. "Cole?"

"Compound perimeter," Reaper said. "He was on his morning check-in. He'll be back in eight minutes."

"Get him back in four."

Reaper stepped out. Dax turned to the whiteboard and uncapped her marker.

"Rivera's timeline," she said, writing as she spoke. "Kane was last confirmed in his cell at the federal holding facility at six AM during the standard head count. The nine AM transport found the cell empty. That's a three-hour window." She drew a line. "The attorney's withdrawal was filed at eight AM, which means Kane communicated his decision to the attorney between six and eight. Through what channel is currently unknown the facility is investigating."

"He had help from inside the facility," Gravel said.

"Almost certainly. Rivera has two federal investigators on that question right now." Dax capped the marker. "The withdrawal of the motion tells us one thing definitively Kane is no longer interested in the legal defense strategy. He's operating outside that framework now."

"Which means he's either running or he's accelerating the timeline," I said.

"Running would be the rational choice," Dax said. "He has resources, international connections, and three hours of undetected movement. If he went straight for the border he's potentially already in a position we can't recover from." She looked at the whiteboard. "But Colt changed his location at approximately the same time Kane's absence was discovered. That coordination suggests communication."

"A father telling his son to move," Gravel said.

"Or a principal telling his contractor to proceed," Dax said. "We don't know which dynamic is stronger the family relationship or the professional one." She looked at me. "Colt's contract was for the championship final. If Kane is running he either cancels the contract or he fulfills it remotely, because completing the contract while he's outside federal reach gives him something."

"What does it give him," I said.

"Proof that his organization still functions without him. That his network is intact and his contracts are honored." She looked at the whiteboard. "It's a message to the people who work for him. He goes to ground and the final happens anyway and Colt finishes his job Kane maintains authority even in absentia."

I thought about that. About a man building a demonstration of organizational resilience from somewhere outside federal jurisdiction.

"He's not running from the final," I said. "He's positioning himself to watch it from somewhere we can't reach him."