Keywords appeared in his most recent communications with his superiors: their orders, his responses, and – most importantly - code names.
“Catfish” was Horace Hansson, the target of Moreno’s operation. He’d been tracked by “Zapata,” the codename for Moreno. Catfish was lured out of Serenity Clinic by “Farmer”: Dr. Morris McDonald. But lured where? And why?
Then Zapata had gotten wind of “Bloodhound” and begun tailing him, too. Bloodhound was apparently Lux’s codename, and it was clear to him now that Moreno wasn’t working for Nels Hansson after all. That he’d never been. In the cascading packets of orders and responses, never did Nels appear once, whether coded or otherwise.
Within Corbeur Tower Lux located McDonald’s space on a chart in the building directory. The elevator that arrived was carpeted and musty. Long ago it had been a luxurious ride 110 floors up, but now it was somewhat harrowing; the car shuddered as it accelerated up and then shuddered again as it decelerated to a stop.
Lux rode to the floor below his destination and departed there, intending to approach the room from the opposite side. The hallway here was dark. Outdated sconces illuminated dimly by after-hour settings, a means of energy conservation. Every third was burnt out. Two of the fixtures had been pulled from their mounts and hung, limp, like marionettes’ hands, from the wall. One surveillance camera watched the hallway at the elevator landing, another midway down the hall. Both were dark. Unmonitored. Theater. Like most of the surveillance cameras in the police state.