The sixth time was a part of the city I have no documented connection to, not the parking structure, not close to it, a street I picked specifically because I was trying to break my own pattern after the fourth occurrence, no route planned, random turn, and he was there anyway. eighty meters out. same cadence. facing away from me the same as always, that part never changes, only the street does.

The first five, fine, call it routine if that helps you sleep, same neighborhoods, same kind of block, somebody could build a "coincidence" argument out of that and I would have to sit through it. not the sixth. the sixth means one of two things and I have stopped pretending there is a third: either my spontaneous route got predicted before I picked it, or the coverage is bigger than five sightings ever let on. bigger. I have been saying that part for weeks and nobody adjusts their thinking until the geography breaks for them personally.

He was on the phone. Not talking -- I watched for long enough to be sure of that. Ear against the device, mouth still, occasional small nod that could have been a response or could have been an affectation. At eighty meters, in the light conditions at that time, I could not resolve the device clearly enough to confirm it was a phone and not something smaller. I wrote it down as phone in the notes because phone is the most plausible interpretation. The less plausible interpretation is that he was holding a receiver or transmitter of a kind not commonly used by civilians.