Travis pocketed the pen and for a moment rested both hands on the desk. He looked at the fragment of concrete that was keeping him alive. He looked at the distance back to the girder.
Then he stood up straight and crossed the pad in five steps, ready to jump and grab for the beam if necessary. It wasn’t necessary. If the concrete moved at all beneath him he didn’t feel it. He saw Bethany exhale hard as soon as he was fully onto the girder, but he didn’t pause to share the sentiment. They had information now. Something they could work on. Just like that, his urgency had fuel to burn. He turned atop the beam and made for the stairwell at close to a sprint.
They were six flights down when they heard the concrete fragment snap high above them. They turned in time to see the massive slab, desk and all, plunge through the channel of space defined by the girders. It blasted through the intact pad on level twelve without slowing, and the entire mass fell a hundred feet further to the foundation pit. The impact kicked up a halo of ash and dead leaves.
They stared for less than a second, then continued down the stairs as fast as they could move.
Chapter Fifteen
Three minutes later they were on top of the pile of girders at the southwest corner of the Ritz-Carlton. The rope hung from the iris above, exactly as they’d left it. Bethany went up first, and Travis followed a few feet below. By the time he’d climbed through the iris she was standing at the window with her phone in hand, already going to work.
Travis stared south at the green-tinted high-rise while Bethany worked on the name. He looked at the top floor and visualized the desk there in the present, bolted to the concrete through some expensive carpeting or hardwood. Maybe Eldred Warren was sitting there right now, with the same pen in his drawer that Travis now had in his pocket. Literally the same pen. That was a hard concept to get a grasp on.
“He’s not in the federal tax records,” Bethany said. “Not too surprising, someone way up in a company like that. We already know they’re big on secrecy. I’ll try corporate registration in the Caymans.”
Thirty seconds later she came up empty there, too.
“There are lots of other tax shelters to try,” she said, “but before I start on those I’ll pull his social security file. That’ll give us at least some basic info on the guy.”
She navigated for twenty seconds. She pressed a last button and waited for something. She smiled.
Then she frowned.
“What?” Travis said.
“Got it. Only one Eldred Warren with a social security number in the United States.”
“Must be our man, then.”
“Yes and no.”
“What do you mean?”
“Give me a minute.”
It turned out to be ninety seconds. She spent them navigating to some other information on her phone, and reading it. Her frown deepened as she did.
“It’s the right guy,” she said, “but he’s not going to be any help to us.”
“Why not?”
“Because he doesn’t work in that building yet. I’m looking at his blog right now. He graduated number two in his class from Harvard Law School . . . three months ago. He hasn’t taken a job anywhere yet.”
“That’s hard to believe,” Travis said. “Wouldn’t someone like that have offers waiting for him before he bought his cap and gown?”
“Tons of them, but a guy like that knows he can pick and choose. It’s not unthinkable that he’d take his time. I had a dozen offers myself, and spent two months making up my mind. And this guy’s degree is more versatile than mine was. He’ll have everyone from movie studios to lobbying firms filling up his voice mail these days.”
“All right, so maybe he doesn’t work for this company yet,” Travis said. “But he’s probably in talks with them. We could go have a chat with him, shove a gun in his face if we have to.”
“Not anytime soon, we can’t. According to his last blog post, a few hours ago, he’s on vacation in Japan with his girlfriend.”
Travis sat on the couch and leaned back. He pressed his hands to his eyes. He was tired as hell.
They were at square zero. They had nothing at all to work with. The barrier of open space around the oubliette was as vast as it’d been when they’d first spoken of it.
He looked at his watch. Nine thirty in the morning. Paige had been captive for just shy of ten hours.
Bethany was pacing now. Holding her phone but unable to think of anything to do with it.