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Kate lowered herself into the armchair. “I was told he was on a corporate adventure. But I didn’t hear where.”

“Colombia. The mountains and the jungle make it pretty challenging, but everyone has their own guide. The report is that he told his guide he was quitting and walked off.”

“Walked off to where?”

“That’s the worrisome part. This territory used to be controlled by the FARC—Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. They funded their operations by kidnapping ordinary Colombians and collecting ransom.”

“You think Patrick may have been kidnapped?”

“No, that was in the past. The point is that FARC was so successful because the Colombian mountains and jungle are so impenetrable that a rescue mission was virtually impossible. It’s easy to get lost. Not so easy to be found.”

“Didn’t Patrick have a tracking chip?”

“No,” he said with a sigh. “That will be a bit of egg on our face in the media.”

Kate rose and walked to the window. “So many things about this sound wrong to me.”

“What does that mean?”

She turned to face him. “First of all, Patrick never quits anything. I took him to his first cross-country meet in middle school. He pulled a hamstring on the first hill. The race was over in about twenty minutes. Two hours later, Patrick crossed the finish line, practically hopping on one leg. Quitting is not in his DNA.”

“We’re talking about a twenty-two-year-old man, not a twelve-year-old boy.”

“There’s more.” She told him about her conversation with Noah on the jogging trail—his suspicions about Patrick’s sudden disappearance.

“What was Noah implying?” he asked. “That we sent Patrick away to undermine his security audit?”

“Noah put him on his list of employees to interview, and the company sent him on a survival venture in the Colombian jungle with no way to communicate with him. Are you saying that’s a complete coincidence?”

“I had no idea Patrick was even gone. The first I heard of it was an hour ago, when I learned he was missing.”

“Really?” she asked, not in an accusatory tone, but hoping it was true.

“Yes. Kate, do you have any idea how many employees there are at Buck Technologies? I’m the CEO, not the attendance taker. I don’t keep track of everyone’s comings and goings.”

“Then who sent him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you find out?”

“Has Noah asked that I find out?”

“Not explicitly. But Noah was doing you a favor by reaching out to me, indirectly.”

“How is that doingmea favor?”

“He was giving you a chance to produce Patrick for an interview before reporting back to the DOJ that Buck Technologies was playing games with witnesses. When he hears that Patrick has gone missing, that will only confirm his suspicions.”

“In his mind,” he said.

“In the minds of many,” said Kate. “You need to get to the bottom of this, Dad. Not just for your own sake. For Patrick’s.”

He paused, seeming to consider it. “Sit down, Kate.”

She did. Her father pulled up the matching armchair and seated himself on the edge of it, facing her. He was looking her in the eye but not in a penetrating manner. It was more on the level.

“Certain things at Buck Technologies are dark to me,” he said.