Webb's story went live at four forty-seven in the morning.
By six it had been picked up by fourteen separate outlets. By seven the number was forty-one. By eight it had crossed into international coverage, European papers, Asian wire services, the story moving through the world's information systems with the unstoppable momentum of something that had been held back too long and was now simply finding its level.
Francis watched it happen on Chen's phone because his own battery had died sometime in the night. He sat at Hale's table with cold coffee and read the headlines as Chen scrolled them and felt something he couldn't immediately name, not relief exactly, relief implied the danger was fully past and he wasn't certain of that yet, something more like the particular exhaustion of a pers
