“I'm aware of that,” Gorman replied darkly.
He set his hat down on the table before propping his cane against the chair.
“But we're all here,” Michael stammered nervously. “I already said, all four of us are in the house and accounted
for, no-one's out there, no-one's missing... I mean, in this weather, you'd have to be crazy to go outside. It's like the end
times out there -”
“There was a break-in at the station tonight,” Gorman said, interrupting him. “Someone got into my office. Into my
safe, as a matter of fact. It was a very well-planned and well-executed job. The cameras were disabled, Elizabeth was
drugged... That safe alone is state of the art. The manufacturer's website says it's the best one on the market, the damn thing
should be impregnable, but someone got it open.”
Michael opened his mouth to reply, but the words caught in his throat and a look of fear crossed his eyes. He
already knew what was coming: it was the moment he'd been fearing for five years, the moment he'd somehow known
would eventually come.
“They took the disc,” Gorman added. “Nothing else. Just the disc.”