Sarah was in The Zone. This is what she called the experience of her feeling like she had taken over the person she was controlling. Chases didn't happen like in the old days. Back then the chasers were literally in the car. Or on foot. Following.

Now she simply used a computer to control a person who was out there. They had tried using a drone before, but the drone would fail when encountering unexpected terrain. Or they would run out of battery. They were less creative in novel settings. The human though could figure things out. Things that didn't depend on explicit instructions from the controller.

Sarah was a controller. Along with Todd and Carl. Each of them controlled a few "units" at a time. The 

units

were out there.

The Agency didn't want controllers getting too close to the units. The latter's information was kept vague from the controllers. And there was no way for the controller to hear a unit's voice. The unit heard their controller's voice, as 

voice

was the primary source of giving commands. But the controller didn't receive the unit's voice. Instead there was a system that transcribed what the unit said into text.

Studies showed that reading another person's texts were less intimate than hearing their voice. It allowed for communication with less intimacy.

Sarah had entered the zone once the target disappeared into thin air. In the history of The Agency no target had gotten away once code

blue

had been declared. Sarah wasn't about to let herself be the first controller to drop the ball at this level.

Actually... Sarah hadn't entered The Zone right when the target disappeared. At that moment she panicked. She panicked for a little longer, imagining her career going down the drain. Sarah the failure.

It wasn't until she got a hold of her breath. Rallied the troops. Made the second extra pot of coffee. Took a sip of that light roast. That's when she entered the zone. She could feel herself becoming her units.

The units could operate on their own between commands. This allowed controllers to go to the bathroom or take a break. Sarah could feel the movements of her units even as she was in the breakroom drinking this coffee. That's what being in The Zone felt like.

She would find the target. The Purse. She knew it.