It takes thirty seconds for Lachlan to get to Julian’s room, and he’s raised the alarm by then.Once he realises Julian is gone, he checks the tracking bracelet which, to his surprise, matches the location of thethreads.
It’s hard to pinpoint him at first because it leads Lachlan into rooms where Julian isnot.He makes a big mistake in activating 3D tracking a whole minute after Julian triggered theping,because by the time he sees exactly where the kid is… it’s too late.He’sinthe shafts.
And worse, he’s not moving.
Julian is far away enough that he’s smack bang between his room and where the shaft leads to an emergency gather point in the exterior of the Estate, but he’s not moving so Lachlan calls Rook and Blaire to him, the latter pales slightly upon Lachlan roughly informing them of where the boy currently is.
‘Can we cut into the vents from underneath or above?’
‘They’re reinforced with maraging steel, so no.I built them to be impenetrable.’Lachlan is headed to Julian’s location regardless.Once he’s identified where he is, Lachlan has them bring a ladder and several tools.The noise of him and three others smashing out plaster and wood to access the shaft wakes Mimi, whose cries he hears coming down the halls.‘We can’t get in but we can talk to him.’
Lachlan bangs on the metal, locating the duller thud and when he finds it, stood atop a ladder because these fucking ceilings arehigh,he closes his eyes.‘Julian?Can you hear me?’No response, so he raises his voice.‘Julian?’
Nothing.
Lachlan checks the monitors.Pulse is a little elevated, but not much.He takes the risk with the threads, localises the transmitter ability to the bracelet and activates it.‘Julian, can you hear me?’
‘I hear you,’the boy answers through Lachlan’s handheld tracker.
‘Good,’ Lachlan tells him, scanning the vent for movement.‘I need you to listen to me very carefully—’
‘I’m stuck,’he whines, sounds drastically younger.‘The metal’s hurting me.’
Lachlan stares blindly ahead, scanning through possibilities, outcomes, scenarios.He lands on a grim but likely one.
Julian knew about theteeth.
He can’t be dragged backwards.No one can get in from the other way to pull him out either.The one rule Lachlan can’t break is scarring Julian or drawing his blood.If he gets cut from this, Lachlan will be fired and God only knows what else from thathellishcontract, because it will be directly Lachlan’s fault.Julian timed Lachlan’s responses, he knew the emergency ping would drown out the vent entry notification.He planned it all.
‘You were trying to get out?’Lachlan asks, very calm.
‘Was trying to get away from you,’the boy sniffles and Lachlan buries a grimace.Little fucker should be an actor.‘Please, I’m scared.’
‘Mimi is scared too.She’s screaming for you.’
Silence.
Maybe Julian didn’t anticipate this part.
‘Don’t you go near her,’he warns, all of a sudden not so babyish.‘Don’t you fucking dare—’
‘Listen carefully to me,’ Lachlan interrupts coldly.‘I can send people in to push you out the rest of the way.The teeth are directional.If you keep going, you’ll be fine.They’re built for youandMimi to safely get out.’
‘I’m stuck on them.’
‘How?’
‘I changed my mind and tried to go back.’
‘Julian, I’m sending someone in behind you—’
‘No, you can’t send men to hurt me!I’ll kick them!I can’t breathe in here!You made a trap!’
The littlefucker.
Lachlan calculates distance from where Julian is to the exit.
He has a plan.
