Chapter 15

“That is a Solomon-controlled machine,” she said, pointing at the red dot.

“A what?” Zark asked.

“Ellis. Built by Fenix, yeah?” Colin asked.

Zark nodded his head in agreement.

“Even if we don’t catch it on the cameras, anything that passes beyond our perimeter with that parasite in them, we see it.”

Zark considered his statement. He remembered coming across the Solomon operating system when he was examining Ellis’ functions. It was a new implementation into a Fenix OS. And he had been unable to access it, unsure of what its purpose was. But it explained how they found him and Ellis in the woods. They simply had to look for Ellis’ Solomon marker and track it. He must have crossed this barrier when they were on the bike. Lena had come to this area, and she had a guide android with her. Perhaps that’s also what happened to her? Apprehension almost held Zark back from asking a dreaded question.

“I’m looking for someone,” he said dimly. “She came up here a few days ago, and never returned. Do you know what happened to her?”

“Oh yeah, she came through,” Hauki, the young girl, said excitedly.

“She did!? Where is she? Is she ok?” Zark was ecstatic at the news.

“She’s gone,” Colin informed.

Zark distressed. “What? Where did she go?”

“She left. On a mission. She was with two of our most skilled scouts,” Kenny assured.

“You mean she was taken.” Zark shot back. “How do I know any of you are even telling me the truth?”

“You’re right.” Colin broke in. “She wasn’t given much of a choice,” he said dully.

“What do you mean by that!?” Zark yelled. He stood, his fist clenched in anger. “You people murder and kidnap synths. I wouldn’t put it past you to silence anyone who came upon your little hideout!”

“Oh boy,” Hauki rolled her eyes.

Colin looked at Zark over the top of his glasses. “Zark, sit down. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Zark challenged him, but Kenny interjected, attempting to ease the tension. “Zark, Lena’s ability to drive is invaluable. They left for Vogt a short while ago. I promise that the people she’s with I would trust with my life.”

“Why would they go to Vogt?”

“To finish my mission,” Kenny admitted.

Zark could sense that they were either the best liars he had ever spoken to, or were honest in their claims. He sat down against the wall, defeated.

“You don’t understand,” he said quietly. “We’ve been on a ship our entire lives. This world, it’s...it’s terrifying.”

“You’re telling me,” Colin said. “Zark, she’s safer with them than she is in the city.”

Zark felt as if they were keeping something from him.

“Did you find the android she was with?” Zark asked.

They were silent at this, but Colin spoke first. “No. They mentioned an android, but we never saw it. It must have remained outside of our perimeter since no signal ever appeared. She entered the woods alone, and I tracked her on our camera network. It was rather easy, actually.”

“So, then how did Ellis know she was here?” Zark asked.

“We found a tracking device on her bike. It must have followed her here,” Colin said.

“Excuse me, I found it!” Hauki added, congratulating herself.

“But why? Why would he come here? Was he trying to rescue her?” Zark asked.

“We assume that the LSP followed the tracking device to make sure she didn’t return,” Colin responded.

“To make sure she didn’t return?” Zark was getting frustrated. Nothing they were saying was making sense. He was unsure if he heard him correctly. “Why would Ellis be hunting Lena?”

Kenny laid it out for him. “Lena apparently took a shady deal to plant some surveyor posts around our base. But the android she was with was instructed to make sure she didn’t return. We found her bike, and her tires were punctured by a blade. Likely, whoever assigned her the job, wanted the missing person to be attributed to us. The android delivers the mapping info, and there’s one more missing person case against Verus.”