We laid Mike on the sofa in the cabin’s main room.
“I heard the commotion and followed the noise,” Mr. Needlemier explained. His face was flushed by the all the excitement or exertion—or maybe both. He had used the tire iron from the Lexus to take Mike out. “I suppose the fog helped cover my approach and of course he was distracted by Samuel here—but I didn’t kill him, did I?”
“No,” Op Nine said. “He lives.”
“Not for much longer,” I growled, and I shouted into Mike’s face, “Where is it, Mike? Where’s the Vessel?”
“Alfred,” Op Nine said softly. “He can’t hear you.”
We searched the cabin for two hours, from the rafters to the floorboards. We checked the crawlspace and under the porch. We walked the grounds, looking for any signs of digging. I had gone through the bedroom twice before realizing I forgot to look under the bed.
I didn’t find the Vessel under there, but I did find a laptop computer. An IBM ThinkPad. I carried it into the main room, set it down on the coffee table, and booted it up.
“What is this?” Op Nine asked.
“It’s an OIPEP computer,” I said. “Maybe after he was fired, Mike stole it like he stole the Seal, but I don’t think so. I’ve got a very bad feeling about this.”
“OIPEP?” Mr. Needlemier asked. He looked like somebody trapped in a nightmare. I knew the feeling. “What is an OIPEP?”
“Good people who sometimes have to do bad things,” I muttered.
It seemed to take forever for the screen to pop up, and my stomach did a slow roll when it did.
Op Nine and Mr. Needlemier crowded over my shoulder, and the three of us stared at the screen.