She wasn't running on impulse.
She was running like she'd already made peace with the consequences.
"Dogs tracked her northwest for approximately two and a quarter miles," Callum reports, his voice carefully neutral. "Trail goes cold at Boulder Creek. She either followed the water to break the scent or crossed and continued on the other side. We have teams searching both directions now."
Smart girl. Using the water to confuse the dogs.
I taught her too well.
Gave her too many books about survival, too much information, too much access to knowledge she could use against me.
"How much ground have the teams covered?"
"Three-mile radius so far, working outward in a grid pattern. No visual confirmation. No signs of her. But it's dense forest and she's small enough to stay hidden if she wants to."
"Expand to five miles. And pull traffic camera footage from every road within a ten-mile radius. If she somehow made it to the pavement, if she flagged down a car, I want to know."
"Yes, sir. Already in progress."
He hesitates.
I can feel him wanting to say something.
"What?" I snap.
"Sir, it's going to be dark in approximately three and a half hours. Temperature's already dropped to thirty-nine degrees. If we don't find her before nightfall, if she doesn't have shelter?—"
"We'll find her."
"But if we don't, if she's caught out in the open overnight?—"
"We. Will. Find. Her."
Because the alternative is unthinkable.
The alternative is Eden alone in the woods in below-freezing temperatures with no shelter, no warmth, no way to survive until morning.
The alternative is finding her too late.
Finding her cold and still and gone.
No.
Absolutely fucking not.
I won't let that happen.
Can't let that happen.
Won't survive if that happens.
"Get me a thermal imaging drone," I say, my voice harder than I intend. "If she's out there, her body heat will show up on infrared even through tree cover."
"Already ordered from our security contractor. Should arrive within forty-five minutes."
"Good. That's good. What else?"
"I've notified the local hospital to be on standby for possible hypothermia treatment. And I've got?—"
