kid, where would I go?
Two hours earlier, Tank was stymied by the vastness in front of him. The passage behind the hatch was labeled EEAV-0099, meaning that it was the ninety-ninth Emergency Evacuation and Air Ventilation system on Salvation. From where he was standing, he could count at least two dozen vents, doors, and tunnels in the dim light of the passage, each capable of holding a small adult. He couldn’t see the end of the passageway from where he stood.
Another mystery—why is this area on emergency lighting? Why didn’t the Badges fix things or get a Tech in here to fix the lights?
The other complication, Tank acknowledged, was that he wasn’t doing anything that hadn’t been done before. From the report, the Badge said all available hands searched this area “thoroughly” in hopes the missing child encountered a medical issue that made her unable to communicate, but they came up with nothing.
Tank figured he needed to think outside the norm, and he dropped to his hands and knees and crawled forward. The new perspective revealed a separate set of vents he hadn’t seen while he was standing up, and more than a few looked large enough to admit a kid.
Using a light torch from his belt, he examined each vent within range of the hatch, figuring a kid wouldn’t want to stray too far from the sight of home. Every vent was covered with a grill, and each was locked and secure in place no matter how hard he shook.
Except the last one. It was uncovered.
Aha! Tank dropped to his chest and shined a light into the interior and saw that it stretched off into the distance.
A shoe lay beyond his grasp.
Bingo!
Tank got to his feet to assess the situation. The floor vent was just shy of a passage to the left, and like EEAV-0099, it was dimly lit with doors and vents. The major lighting, in fact, was one emergency bulb blinking intermittently, casting more shadows than light. The difference between EEAV-0099 and this passage, he saw, was that it grew in width and height in the distance with large piping for sewage and other functions.
The shoe bothered him on many levels. For most Burners, footwear was attached by zippers to the one-piece suit they wore. If the shoe was off, then… then… Well, Vina had no good reason to take her shoes off.
His mind went to the worst-case scenario. Perhaps Vina was fighting for her life and the shoe was kicked off or pulled off, and it went into the vent during the struggle. Her attacker couldn’t retrieve it because the shoe was out of reach.
The hairs on the back of his neck rose. His common sense said he should turn around and get help because he wanted to do all he could to get Vina home, but he had a personal stake, too. Within the ship’s law enforcement community where promotions were slow in coming, he was among the lowest of the Badges. Finding Vina and solving the other disappearances might get him elevated to Investigator, where he would be judged on his brains versus his biceps.
An improved position might lead to larger quarters, and maybe he could seriously talk Enrique into leaving Beverly Hills and living with a guttersnipe like himself.
I can hope.
Tank brought up the ship’s diagram on his pad, and he learned he was standing at the junction of EEAV-0099 and EEAV-0104, and the latter had far more branches as compared to the former. Tapping through the diagram, he saw EEAV-0104 held long pipes for transporting waste and garbage to the hydroponics levels. Salvation wasted nothing. He tried hard not to think about what he was digesting when he ate manna.
Tank shook grates and doorknobs as he tapped along on his pad. Nothing gave way as the passageway grew darker and larger, the ceiling fading far above his reach into darkness above.
Wait.
Tank paused in front of a door that wasn’t on his diagram, baffling him. He’d never seen a significant landmark like a door not appear in his maps, and he’d been using them constantly over his thirty-something years as a Badge. He zoomed in on the diagram to learn what should have been behind the wall, but the gray space indicated storage that should be accessible via a door on the other side of the gray space.Curious.
Tank saw enough and was about to back out of the passage when the last emergency light blinked out.
A rope dropped over his head.
The noose tightened and yanked him up hard. He tried to loosen the thin rope but found no room, no matter how deep he dug his fingers. He grabbed the rope above his head and tried to gain some slack.
Something—someone—dropped to the deck and tackled him at the knees.
Tank kicked out as he reached for his blade, but his attacker refused to give way and slapped the blade from his hand.Tank tried to expand his neck muscles, but the rope only cut deeper. Last chance! He began thrashing with all his great strength.
The attacker pulled him down. The rope cut deeper and deeper still.
A second before his windpipe and carotid artery were severed, Tank wished he could have said goodbye to Enrique.
See you on the other side, my love.