Panopticon

End of Watch

Who watches the watchmen?

That was Nathan’s job, really. He looked over the security staff, assessing their flaws, making sure that they were doing their job. He’d once had the quote, in its original Latin, in his office, overlooking security for a small electronics firm. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guards themselves? The question was supposed to be rhetorical, noting the scope for police corruption, but in the private sector it had a clear and definite answer. Him. Under Nathan’s watch, no corrupt guard would last a day.

In prisons, however, there was a more sinister answer. Nathan still did the same job, more or less, as he had at the firm; looking for weaknesses, including human, and finding a way to address them. Now, though, he wasn’t alone. As good as he was at spotting flaws, he could never compete with the hundreds of desperate eyes inside, constantly searching for their way out. The convicts watched everything, looking for any angle, any way to gain the upper hand.

Now that they had it, they would surely be looking to take advantage of this weakness. As imposing as the Hub looked, Nathan knew that the killer outside would eventually find a way in, and would soon be joined by many more. They had to leave as soon as possible.

That was easier said than done. With Peck lurking outside, they had to leave silently, and without being seen. The lower levels of the tower were largely glass, the architect obviously having planned for visibility. Nathan wondered if he realised that transparency works two ways; what was intended to give staff a perfect view of the surrounding area had now left them entirely exposed. At some points they had to crawl on their knees to avoid detection.

Progress was slow, the security man taking the utmost care in his de facto role as group leader. The others, clearly terrified for their lives, followed his commands without question, and it looked to be paying off. Seizing their chance as Peck walked past a windowless portion of the wall, the quartet escaped out of a maintenance door. They couldn’t risk the main exit, where the hunter patrolled the most, as convenient as that would be. He could not have missed them approaching the giant glass doors, let alone passing through them.

The compromise meant that they couldn’t use the path to the trains, and follow the tracks to the helicopter. In a straight line from the entrance, Peck would see them even four-hundred metres away. Instead, they had to divert off through the trees before it was safe to re-join.

They ran, but the group was only as fast as its slowest member. Their host struggled to keep up, and Alex was doing little better. The hunter must be used to wild animals, Nathan mused, remembering what Kate had said about his past. Creatures who fend for themselves against a predator, leaving their old and weak to die in the interests of preservation. Perhaps that was why he found humans a more engaging quarry, our tendency to support one another. If you want to kill one, you have to kill them all.

That had been his downfall, really. Any individual, no matter how strong, can always be overpowered by a high enough quantity of weaker opponents, and the human drive to work together had given us power over much more powerful beasts. There is safety in numbers, and so even the more fearsome apex predator could be caught and caged. Now, though, this tactic was backfiring. Caring for Charon, for the exact same drive, could lead to all of their deaths.

Nathan wasn’t sure how Peck caught them, but then the man was an expert. He was clearly faster than them, Charon or not, and his senses must be well-attuned to detecting prey. He had found them, and was now just metres away, gaining by the second. There could be no running. Now that he had sight of them, he could outpace the group in any direction.

They could split up, of course, and he’d catch their elderly host or another soft target and everyone else would escape. Then, though, they’d be scattered and lost, leaving him free to track them down one at a time. Nathan didn’t fancy his chances alone with the killer.