Brought Down

6. The Search

Garrett

Each screen shows a different place. On some, small figures are walking, on others, loaders move materials; yet others display empty rooms and corridors.

I stare at them with sinking feeling. How are we going to find Julian? I mean, with all the people searching for him now, we will find him eventually, but who knows what damage he could do in the meanwhile? He could take a child hostage, or perform some other act of sabotage, and it will all be because of me leaving that stupid pen on that stupid table. It's hard to believe that I felt any compassion towards that little piece of shit just recently. I could strangle him with my bare hands right now.

"You know what?" says Dan, and I look at his back hopefully as he does some magic with the keyboard. "If I check the thermal sensors history, and combine it with the tags input, then, possibly..."

He trails off, but I can see where he's going. Every citizen of the underground settlement has a tag, and if we find a place where thermal activity indicates a human presence, with no tags identified, it's got to be Julian.

"We'll nail him," says another technician, one of the small group watching the screens with me.

From the corner of my eye, I notice Angie entering the room. She approaches me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Kano will be okay," she says in my ear. "They stopped the bleeding."

I nod, keeping my eyes on the screen, pretending I don't feel any relief at her words.

"It's not your fault," she says. I do not reply to that, either. There're too many emotions entangled in my stomach right now to trust myself to speak.

"The process has finished." Dan leans forward and squints at the black screen filled with green lines of what looks to me like gibberish. "The result is... nothing. Hmmm." He looks at us over his shoulder. "That means that either he's got a tag for some reason, which is—nah, impossible, or he's in company of other people, or maybe..."

The image of Julian taking a hostage flashes through my mind again. He's got Kano's gun, so such a development seems sickeningly probable. But could he really believe he could get away with it? That we would let someone like him go, just to save a hostage, even if that was a woman or a child? I'm not sure what I would do, but general Ryker is known for making tough—and sometimes unpopular—decisions as long as they benefit our cause in the long run.

"Or maybe he went outside," says Dan, turning back to his keyboard. A couple of chuckles come from the rest of the spectators. "Checking the whole log would be heavy...let's start with the history from the last hour, around the exits...and, you know what, the exits into the mines as well, in case he decided to go down there..."

"In either case, he'd be an idiot," someone says, bringing more chuckles. I wish I could see some humor in the situation, but given how much it's all my fault, I can't force a smile.

"Bingo," says Dan after another minute. "Take a look."

We crowd around the central screen and watch the black-and-white grainy footage of a lone figure of a man fumbling with the safety mechanism by one of the doors.

"He went through the maintenance exit. I wonder what he did to disable the signalization." Dan looks at me. "Got to send someone there to lock it again, before any of the thingies get in. Should I report to the general, or do you want to?"

"I will." I start walking. "We'll also need to send someone outside to get him."

Everybody turn and stare at me.

"What?" I pause at the door. "Once he's outside, he can tell them where we are. We must bring him back."

"You know Rykar won't allow anyone to go outside so close to nightfall," Angie says. "But Maynard will never make it to his forces, anyway. In an hour or so it'll be completely dark. The things will take care of him."

"And it won't be pretty," says Dan with a grin.

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