The Descent

Chapter 45 - The Edge of The World

"Carter's got her," Denton said again as he started walking parallel with Carter and Leah, just above and ahead of them.

"Is she a hostage?"

Denton didn't like the word hostage. It implied something involuntary, that Leah had been taken by surprise, against her will. She had never struck him as one to be taken by surprise by a suspect. Yet, there she was, clearly being handled by the suspect they were pursuing.

"I believe so," he finally replied.

"Should I alert the officers positioned by the exits? They are trained to extract hostages."

"Absolutely not. It would endanger Leah. I won't risk that, not now."

"So what's the plan?"

What did hostage takers usually do, besides taking hostages? Eventually, they all end up hiding somewhere while they wait for their demands to be met. Wait, that was it, his demands. Carter hadn't made any yet.

"Tanner, has he made any attempt to communicate through any channel?"

"Why would he? He's got her."

"Hostage takers usually want something in return for letting their captives go free," Denton said as he stepped into an elevator that would take him down to the same floor as Carter and Leah. He pressed the down button on the elevator impatiently. The doors seemed to take an eternity to close. Through the glass panel wall of the elevator, he could see Carter and Leah continue straight towards the exits.

"As of this moment, there has been no attempt by Carter to communicate."

"Tell the officers to stand down, to let them through. I don't want the risk of any other passengers getting tied up in all of this. And, I'm going to need some sort of transportation. Wherever he's going, I'm going to be right behind him."

A few moments later, Tanner acknowledged Denton's request. "The spaceport security has agreed to lend you an unmarked vehicle. It'll be parked on the far end of the passenger pickup area, on your right as you exit the building."

"Good," Denton said and squeezed through the elevator doors that seemed to want to take another eternity to open. He could still see Carter and Leah about fifty yards up ahead. They appeared to casually walk through the crowd like any other couple, as if they belonged together. Denton shrugged at the very thought and picked up the pace. He quickly decreased the distance to Carter and Leah but was careful not to get too close, making sure there were several other passengers between himself and them, just in case Carter decided to take a peek over his shoulder.

They reached the exit without incident. The couple continued towards the private parking lot, which forced Denton to back off and continued to his loaner vehicle.

"Tanner, you've got eyes on them, right? We can't afford to lose them now."

"I've got them. There's no way they can leave the spaceport premises without me knowing exactly where they exited."

Denton jogged to the end of the passenger pickup, navigating as discretely as he could through the flood of human bodies that were exiting the terminal in search of transportation. Throughout the centuries, it was hard to grasp that no-one had figured out a more efficient way to handle this influx of people, in one way or another.

The vehicle was unmarked, as promised. Denton could tell it was a high-performance security cruiser, complete with advanced armaments, stealth technology and surround surveillance cameras that gave him a view of any side of the vehicle at any time. He had used these on many prior occasions. He breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't been given what they used locally around the airport.