Vanessa Micheal Munroe 01 - The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

Author:Taylor Stevens [Stevens, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307717115
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2011-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

WHEN SHE KNOCKED on the door, he was bent over a series of charts that lay spread across a table braced against the wall. He slid the charts aside to make space for her, and the smile on his face said that he was genuinely happy to see her.

She sat on the edge of the table, dangling a leg over the side, and said, “How long is the list of people in this country with the power to have me dumped into the Atlantic?”

Beyard let out a low breath and leaned back in his chair. “It’s hard to say, really, without knowing who the men were that carried it out. If we assume that they were Angolans, then it would have to be someone within the presidential family, someone connected enough not to risk a similar fate if the president was displeased about it. If they were merely rank-and-file military, the main issue, I suppose, is who you are, who you’re connected to. If you don’t have any important connections, the list of who could do it grows exponentially longer.”

Munroe stared out the windows. The ship was surrounded by various shades of blue that stretched to the horizon, connecting in the far distance with the barely visible mountainous peaks of Bioko Island. She ran her fingers along the back of her neck. So many pieces of the puzzle and but for the central figure of Emily Burbank, none of them connected.

“What do you know about Titan Exploration?” she asked.

“Besides the inconvenience they’ve been to me, what’s to know?” He shrugged. “They’ve been around for the past four or five years, started as a small presence off the coast of Río Muni, and once they struck oil, the operation grew and has continued to grow ever since. They just finished bringing another offshore well online last month. A tanker shows up about once a week, fills, and goes.”

“The girl I’m trying to find is the daughter of Titan’s founder.”

Beyard sat quietly and tapped his pen against the table. “What was she doing in Mongomo? Why not Bata, why not Mbini?”

“I don’t think her travels here had anything to do with Titan. It seems to be coincidence.”

“Well, if she was connected to the captain of one of the oil firms and something happened to her here, I can see why someone in this country might not want you looking for her.”

“That doesn’t explain why I was followed upon arrival.”

“True.”

“And,” Munroe continued, “if someone in the government is covering up her disappearance, did that person even know who she was when whatever happened, happened?”

“Do you have a photo of her?” he asked.

“Not on me, but I can get one off the Internet if you have access.”

He pulled out a laptop and connected the modem through the phone. “It’s painfully slow.”

Munroe retrieved a page with Emily’s high-school photo, downloaded it, filled the screen with her face, and then turned it toward Beyard.

He sat quietly, staring at the picture. “I’ve seen her,” he said.

Munroe shook her head.

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