She could see whether Ethan, when he went back out there, was going to check the directory or write a report without checking it. She also sat because she understood that the greatest danger in this room was not the baton. It was the report. He went back out. He went to the terminal.
He stood in front of it. Camille watched. He did not type. He reached past the terminal and picked up a paper form from the slot beneath it. He brought it to the station desk and began writing.
She understood then what was happening. He had her name. He had access to the directory. He had access to the phone. He was choosing at this moment to construct the incident in writing before completing the verification that would have ended the incident before it began.
Jonathan, watching from the waiting area, saw Ethan return to the screening station with a form. He wrote, "Officer at desk, writing 8:27, did not access the terminal. Patricia Morgan at the clerk station could see the same thing. She looked at the form in Ethan's hand. She looked at the security room door down the corridor.
She picked up her pen and went back to her intake folders. At the screening station, Ethan wrote, "Subject presented invalid credential and refused to comply with redirection to public entrance. " The subject became verbally aggressive when the officer requested she move to the secondary screening area. The subject was verbally confrontational throughout. Subject attempted to push past security personnel at the initial screening point. The subject interfered with normal security operations during a period of elevated building security.
He paused, reviewed what he'd written, and continued. At 8:27 and 14 seconds, according to the server logs that would later be examined, Ethan Cole's user credential activated a manual override function on the recording system covering the eastern security corridor and the secondary screening room. The camera indicator in the secondary screening room, which had been dark since Camille entered, now showed a brief flicker as the buffer that had been passively collecting audio was interrupted and partially cleared. Camille in the room noticed the indicator. It had not turned on, but it had done something.
She filed it. From the lobby, Jonathan did not see the override, but he saw Ethan move from the station to a panel on the wall near the east corridor entrance. He wrote, "Officer accessed wall panel near east corridor 8:27 approximately. Duration at panel approx 30 seconds. " Camille sat in the room. She did not have a phone because she had placed everything in the tray at screening.
She did not have a watch. She counted seconds by the rhythm of her own breathing, which she had trained herself to keep slow. She counted to 60. She counted to 60 again. She counted to 60 a third time.
3 minutes from the last time she had seen Ethan. The door opened hard. Not a slam, but the kind of push that carries weight behind it. Ethan came back in. The quality of his movement had changed.