The Descent

Chapter 56 - Pursuit

Denton's chin hit his chest, and his eyes widened. He felt his heart start beating faster and he held his breath unconsciously. Out of the shadow, a humanoid robot emerged, its eyes glowing a pale blue, the faint light of the observation room reflecting off of the shiny metal skin. He scrambled backward until his head hit the couch behind him.

The robot leaned forward and reached its hand out towards Denton. "Denton, are you alright?" it said.

Denton tilted his head and squinted as he examined the form in front of him. What was this thing? How did it know his name? Was this another one of Jarell's tricks?

"Who's asking?"

The robot pulled its hand back and straightened up. "I'm offended," it said. "Surely, I don't look that different."

"Tanner?" Leah's voice came from the opposite side of the robot.

"Who else?" Tanner the robot said. "Who did you think it was? Denton, should I be offended that you did not recognize your partner?"

Denton got back onto his feet and dusted off his pants and the arms of his shirt. "Eh, Tanner, nice to see you, buddy," he said hesitantly, still not convinced it actually was Tanner. "How did you find us?"

"You told me where to find you, of course."

"No, I didn't."

Tanner tilted his head and put his hands on his metal hips. "Sure you did. You said you were heading straight north from the resort. It took me some time, but eventually, I was able to find the blueprints for this facility in the corporate archives of Forsythe Industries."

"Oh, you did?" Denton said, feeling more at ease. That's exactly what he had said. In fact, it was exactly what he had hoped would happen. "How did you get down here so fast?"

"Did you forget? I'm a virtual construct as it is. With some obvious exceptions, I don't need a vehicle to travel from one location to another. I simply transferred the aspects of my consciousness I deemed necessary into an available physical form at a base here on Proxima b. Arranging transport from there was the easy part."

"Well, I for one am glad that you are here," Leah said.

"As am I," Denton added quickly. "But, to be honest, I wasn't expecting to find you down here."

"Oh? Who were you expecting?"

"Jarell."

"Why would he be here?"

"He's the perpetrator. He's the brains behind the kidnapping."

"He kidnapped himself?"

Denton laughed and put his hand on Tanner's metal arm. "No, of course not. He staged it all to look like a kidnapping. In reality, it was an attempt to get revenge on Jonythan and his family."

"Revenge? Carter was not involved then?"

"That's correct. He had nothing to do with it, he was simply one of the many moving parts that Jarell put in motion to make it all happen."

"I understand."

"Speaking of," Denton said and looked around the observation room, "You haven't seen Jarell, have you?"

"Negative. He was not present when I arrived."

Denton looked at Leah. Jarell was still at large, missing in action.

"We've got to find him," Leah said, urgency in her voice.

Denton closed his eyes and rubbed the corner of his eyes as he tried to focus. Jarell was not in the module. They already knew he wasn't in the control room area or the arrival room of the escape pods. If Tanner hadn't seen him when he arrived through the garage, that could only mean one thing.