Finally a Relaxing Day Sort of. I slept in real late for a change. I think I got 12 hours of sleep last night at least. Half the football games were over before I even turned on the tube. I got a call around one. My heart skipped a beat, thinking it might be Ellie, but it was Carrie, saying that she was spending the day at the office and would I like to join her. I politely declined, explaining that I needed to work on the apartment after Ellie and that I was doing something with a buddy tonight. Both lies, but I need some time to sort everything out. At first I had resisted letting Ellie decorate the place with Chinese style art, but now that it's all gone, the place looks plain and uninteresting. If what Marcia says is true, then maybe Ellie just missed her home. I sigh a few times as I kept finding places that held Ellie's items. Around 3 Marcia shows up unannounced. She kind of barges in and sits on the chair next to my couch, and indicates that I should sit. "Hello, Alex. I see I'm not interrupting anything." Nothing except me trying to figure out my life, I think to myself. "What do you want?" "We've been studying the disks we recovered and your story seems to check out so far. The data on the disks are highly encrypted, but I have some friends over in the NSA and it wasn't hard to crack. The data are confusing and conflicting. Some of it points to Chinese involvement. We know they've made inroads into local companies. Alex, we really need to find Ellie. She could be in danger. If someone at Infinitae is plugging leaks, and she's on their list, they'll use their vast tracing ability to find her." "I've tried," I tell her. "I'm worried about her too. I've searched this whole place for clues as to where she might be. But I've been thinking about what you've said about her, and I just don't see her as this cold-blooded assassin. I know you've never liked her. But Ellie is a good person." Marcia regards me for a moment. "Alex, these people are highly trained. They can make you feel however they want you to. I'm sure she's had years to perfect her skills. I know you want to believe in her, but at some point you're going to have to face reality. Every moment you delay adds to the danger to her life. Just think about it." I just shake my head. Marcia gets up. "I'll see myself out. I'll see you tomorrow when I drop Brad off." "What are you going to tell him?" Marcia shrugs. "This is all between me and you. I'll let him know that Ellie's gone, but you can fill him in on your new friend if you want." So that's about it for today. Like Marcia says Brad's coming over to watch the Niners-Seahawks game tomorrow. Should be fun.