Chapter 16: Adrian

The shadow of the city skyline stretches long and dark across the floor of our luxury hotel suite. The digital clock on the marble mantelpiece clicks steadily toward 7:00 PM.

It is nearly night. Twenty-four hours have passed since my televised performance on the church steps, and the silence vibrating from the Vancouve headquarters is beginning to taste like ash in my mouth.

I pace the length of the plush Persian rug, my fingers violently ripping at the cuticles of my thumb. "Why haven't they called, Donald? It’s been an entire day. Our public relations stranglehold is clear. The stock markets closed hours ago, and they took...