Home > Work > Edge
21 " When innocent people find themselves in situations that require the presence and protection of people like me, their reaction more often than not is as much bewilderment as fear. Mortality is tough to process. But "
― Jeffery Deaver , Edge
22 " But, I added, duBois had found no evidence of any malfeasance. She’d spoken to dozens of officers and administrators within the department, armed with her pen and calculator. What Westerfield and Teasley had found, the money shifting from one account to another, seemed to duBois to be innocent. "
23 " He tapped his pistol. “I’m loaded with Glasers.” Safety bullets. Powerful rounds that can kill, but they won’t penetrate Sheetrock and injure bystanders. They’re called suburb slugs. "
24 " Whatever else you could say about Jason Westerfield, grass didn’t grow under the man’s feet. A "
25 " Finally, I pointed to the picture on the left. “That one.” “Why?” I hadn’t known I had to show my work. “I don’t know; I just do.” “Uh-uh, commit.” “I really don’t know. They’re both nice.” I glanced up the hall. “I’ve got to talk to your brother-in-law.” “Come on, Corte. Humor me. You’ve screwed up my weekend pretty bad. You won’t even be my masseur. You owe me.” I banked my irritation again and looked at the pictures. Suddenly I had a thought. “I like it because you have to ask yourself, what’s your goal? You said it was to show conflict. The one on the left does that better. It’s more focused. "
26 " My opponent . . . what is he going to do? In game theory analysis the followers of eighteenth-century statistician Thomas Bayes hold that the world is made up of constantly changing knowledge, and in determining the probability of an event—what Zagaev was planning, in this case—you have to continually readjust your predictions as you learn new bits of information. The odds that he’ll play rock, as opposed to paper or scissors, change from 331/3 percent, for instance, if you learn that your opponent has a muscle problem that makes it painful for him to form a fist. But "
27 " The pictures slipped past again and I kept looking at them. Some of the scans were sepia pictures, going back a hundred years; some were black-and-white; some were oversaturated, from the sixties and seventies. Many were recent, direct digital. Finally, "
28 " In my twenties I was in Austin, Texas, finishing up yet another degree. I’d always loved hiking and, sick of the sedentary life of academia, I’d joined the orienteering club at the university. The sport, which originated in Sweden, is a competition in which you use a special map and a compass to navigate through wilderness you’ve never seen before, stopping at checkpoints to have a control card physically or electronically stamped. The first competitor to hit the “double circle”—the end of the route on the orienteering map—is the winner. I "
29 " Sign cutting taught me that terrain determines the route the prey follows 90 percent of the time: you generally have only to follow the path of least resistance to be pretty sure of remaining on the trail of your target. Henry Loving was different. His route took him in directions that didn’t seem to make sense, less direct and more difficult. But "
30 " I paused to listen too. Dogs track by smell first, then sound and then sight. Humans are different but hearing comes second with them as well. Always listen and listen carefully. Your prey makes noise escaping and those preying upon you make noise moving in for the kill (humans tend to be the loudest approaching that climactic moment; other animals, the opposite). You’d think that snaps and rustling would seem to come from everywhere. But it doesn’t take long to learn to compensate for echoes, judge distances and know with more or less certainty where the source is located. After "
31 " I said evenly, “Loving’s low-tech. Usually he uses sandpaper and alcohol on sensitive parts of the body. Doesn’t sound too bad but it works real well.” I "
32 " I was satisfied that it would be virtually impossible for Loving to find any connection. “Call him.” I handed Ryan a mobile, a flip phone, black, a little larger than your standard Nokia or Samsung. “What’s this?” “A cold phone. Encrypted and routed through proxies. From now on, until I tell you otherwise, use only this phone.” I collected theirs and took out the batteries. Ryan "
33 " Somebody you busted?” Amanda asked matter-of-factly. "
34 " Chris Teasley came on. She said, “Um, Agent Corte.” “Officer Corte,” I corrected. My organization is an office, not a bureau or an agency. When Congress gave Abe the money that’s what he created. "
35 " I sat down at my desk and ate a pickle spear and a large bite of sandwich, a Heimlich bite. I then sipped hot and strong and very good coffee. I "
36 " Our SUV and four other cars accelerated fast and skidded up over the grass on Professor Peter Yu’s property, tearing up the lawn and destroying shrubs. I’m told that this dramatic entrance, which you’d think was made up by TV-movie directors, is in fact the most efficient way to approach a suspect. It’s all about intimidation. We "
37 " We tugged on door levers and jumped out, all our jackets fluttering in the wet breeze. I was limping—the toe still stung like crazy. DuBois and I moved in slowly, behind the eight armed tactical officers, who were sprinting into Yu’s open garage, brandishing weapons. “On the ground, FBI! FBI!” Screaming is standard operating procedure too. Intimidation, again. In "
38 " She jotted this down in her ubiquitous notebook. "
39 " In a moment the two men were on their bellies, hands bound behind them with Monadnock restraints. Other agents entered the house, searched it and then returned, calling, “Clear.” Claire "
40 " Well, to the matter at hand,” Westerfield said. “I was pretty surprised the whole morass rose as high as it did.” He caught that mixed metaphor, at least, and hesitated. Then: “A U.S. senator. Hm.” His voice and attitude continued to be as irritating as I remembered from the last time we met. Well, every time we’d met. I "