Then Elias.
He hated the logic.
“What do you need?”
“My tool bag.”
Marcus turned to one of his agents.
“Bring his bag.”
Elias shook his head.
“I can get it.”
“Humor me.”
“Your people always this controlling?”
“Only when someone attempts to murder our principal.”
“Reasonable.”
The bag arrived.
It was unimpressive.
Canvas.
Oil stains.
One broken zipper.
Marcus watched Elias open it.
Inside were normal mechanics' tools arranged with unusual care.
No exotic military hardware.
No dramatic equipment.
Just the things a man carried when his income depended on fixing problems in driveways and parking lots.
Elias examined the affected system without explaining every motion.
He inspected.
Measured.
Verified.
Then he made the damaged vehicle safe enough to be moved slowly to a controlled location.
Marcus watched in silence.
“You carry equipment for that?”
“I carry enough to stop small problems from becoming bigger ones.”
“That isn't small.”
“It started small.”
Victoria stood beneath an umbrella one of the guards had finally convinced her to hold.
“How long will the repair last?”
“It isn't a repair.”
Elias wiped his hands.
“It's stabilization.”
“Difference?”
“Repair means I'd let you trust it.”
“And this?”
“I'd let you move it carefully.”
Marcus checked the vehicle's indicators.
“They're stable.”
“For now.”
“How far?”
“Controlled speed to somewhere secure.”
“We have a facility twenty miles away.”
Elias shook his head.
“Too far for me to recommend.”
Marcus looked at the map on his phone.
“Safe house eleven miles.”
“Better.”
Victoria spoke.
“My headquarters is fourteen.”
Marcus shook his head immediately.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if the route leak came from inside your corporate network, taking you straight to headquarters follows the same compromised planning.”
Victoria did not like that.
She accepted it anyway.
A new thought crossed Elias's face.
Marcus caught it.
“What?”
“Whoever set this up expected the vehicle to continue.”
“Yes.”
“If they were nearby, they know it didn't.”
Marcus nodded.
“So now they know the first plan failed.”
“Exactly.”
Victoria looked down the highway.
“Then what?”
Elias stared at the rain.
“Then you stop assuming the night only had one plan.”
The words stayed with them.
Marcus ordered all convoy vehicles checked.
Not because Elias told him how to search them, but because the logic had become unavoidable.
If one vehicle had been compromised, assumptions about the others were no longer safe.
The team worked quickly.
Nothing immediately suspicious appeared on the remaining SUVs.
That should have been comforting.
It wasn't.
The attack on Victoria's vehicle was too specific.
Too carefully timed.
Someone had wanted the failure to occur after departure.
Not while she sat at a gas station surrounded by cameras and witnesses.
Not on the slow local road.
Later.
At speed.
On the highway.
Marcus walked back to Elias.
“What would you do?”
Elias looked at him.
“If?”
“You were running security.”
“I'm not.”
“Pretend.”
“I hate pretending.”
Marcus stared.
Elias sighed.
“I'd change the route.”
“We already planned to.”
“I'd change it again.”
Marcus said nothing.
“I'd assume whoever knew the first route might learn the second if you generate it through the same system.”
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
“So no digital planning.”
“I didn't say that.”
“You implied it.”
“I said question the channel.”