“What’s with you?” Sharron asked as I gently smacked my head into the wall.

“Helen is gone,” I replied quietly. “Or at least, the samurai the family sent down here couldn’t find her at the Guiding Light compound, and she didn’t have the skills to track Helen, so I’m back at square one.” I sighed, and stopped smacking my head against the wall for a minute to look at Sharron. “The conversation was made way worse, because the samurai I was talking to, Stalking Shadow, was kind of a stuck up bitch.”

Sharron gave me a kind of crooked smile. “Yeah… I can’t imagine you two would see eye to eye, since she’s one of the corporate liaisons.”

“Wonderful. I’m glad she dragged her ass down here, only to bitch at me because her target wasn’t handed to her on a silver platter,” I said. “Fuck… I just want this shit to be over with.”

“I take it you haven’t been able to find Helen, ever since she called you yesterday,” Sharron said, gently rubbing me on the back.

“No… I think she literally disconnected her augs from the network to prevent anyone from finding her, and my head is killing me from trying to monitor all the southern sectors,” I sighed. “I don’t think I’ve eaten since yesterday either.”

“Then it’s time for food and family time!” Sharron said, grabbing me by the arm and forcibly dragging me towards the residence.

“Put me down! I’ll just have Nyx deliver something to me,” I said, trying to squirm out of her grasp. She just tightened her grip and continued pulling. “When did you get muscle enhancements anyways?”

“Back in Seattle, for the situations where I had to be out of my suit,” Sharron replied. “Don’t think you can distract me, so you can wriggle out. You’re stressing out again.”

“Of course I’m stressing out! It’s a stressful situation,” I mumbled back as she shoved me into the residence.

As I stumbled inside, Jane looked up from the tablet she was studying at the table. “Welcome back. Did you solve your samurai issues already?”

“Nope, but Evelyn has not only pushed herself to the limit again but forgotten to eat for awhile,” Sharron replied.

“Hey! Don’t tell her that. You’re supposed to be helping me look after the family, not the other way around,” I said, elbowing Sharron.

“We take care of ourselves, unlike a certain someone who’s always thinking about other people and never herself,” Jane said, putting down her tablet and gently pushing me into a chair. “Since you’re here, it’s a good time to have lunch anyways. I’ll call the others.” She sat down, closed her eyes for a few seconds. Within moments, there was a squeal of glee as Issi came blasting down the hallway, followed by Eddie and Jennifer.

“Hey Evs, you look like shit,” Jennifer said as she sat at the table.

“And you have grease on your face. I thought you worked on machines with your hands, not your forehead,” I replied. “How’s the learning going? Any issues?”

“Plants are fun, I just wish I could plant more,” replied Issi, her head just barely poking above the table.

“Well, I still intend to provide you all with additional space once I actually have the time,” I told the little ones.

Jennifer just nodded, Eddie wasn’t paying attention, like usual, and Issi cheered, “More room!”

“Yeah, I just need to wait for the beavers to finish,” I told her. The room fell into a comfortable silence for just a moment before I asked, “Where the fuck is Alan?”

“I messaged him with everyone else,” Jane said with a shrug.

“Fuck… I’ll get him. Nyx, please provide a meal for everyone,” I said as I got up from the table. I could hear Issi squeal in delight as I made my way down the corridor to Alan’s room.

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I knocked on the door politely… once, then slammed my fist into the door a few seconds later when he didn’t acknowledge me. “Yo, Alan. Get off your ass and come to dinner, or I’m coming in to get you.” I waited for a couple more seconds, and when I didn’t hear anything I kicked the door. “Nyx, open it.”

The door silently slid open, revealing a dark, and surprisingly empty room. I poked the bed, just to make sure he wasn’t under the slightly lumpy blankets, before heading back into the hallway. “He’s not in here,” I yelled down the hallway, towards the kitchen. “He wasn’t with any of you before dinner?”

The kids all shook their heads. “Has anyone seen him at all this morning?” Again, everyone shook their heads. “Well, where the fuck did he go?”

If I may, Nyx cut in. You made sure that the entire family had trackers built into their augs, just for this reason.

“Yeah, well, that was in case something happened to one of the kids. I didn’t think I’d have to use it to track down my dumbass little brother,” I replied.

“Is there a problem?” Jane asked from the table.

“No, I just need a minute,” I called back down the hallway, as I pulled up the tracer. The signal was strong, but it was also a couple blocks outside the shelter, somewhere to the south, by the lift. “The fuck is that risk averse asshole doing outside without an escort?” I muttered to myself.

Next, I pulled up the visuals of the nearest unit, which was one of the escort foxes I’d assigned before, so he apparently didn’t leave completely undefended. “So, Alan. What was so important that you left the shelter without an escort? Or, you know, telling anyone?” I said, using the fox.

The boy paused. “Teddy? Hey… I just had something to do alone,” he said, slowly turning around. He slumped a little when he realized the fox was talking. “I thought I could get out and back before anyone noticed. I forgot you could take over your bots.”

“Just get back here,” I hissed, “you have no idea the kind of people I’ve been dealing with.”

As I talked, he looked just past the fox, and turned pale. “Actually, I think I do. Not many people have fully automatic weapons and working vehicles down here.”

“Motherfucker… You start running right now, and don’t stop until you’re back inside the shelter,” I said, turning the fox around. Of course, one of Helen’s cars was here, along with a half dozen goons in plain clothes. I don’t know why they bothered, the weapons they had on them made them stand out even more than the culty uniforms.

“That’s the kid, don’t hurt him. Bosses orders,” one of them grunted. “Don’t know why he brought an unarmed bot with him for protection.”

I stepped between the first goon and Alan, then waited until he was right on top of me. “Not exactly unarmed,” I said. With a thought, I popped open the compartment in the foxes arm that contained the concealed SMG, and hosed the man down. He collapsed almost instantly, his torso completely saturated in tranq rounds. I turned towards the rest of the group, spraying wildly, I was pretty sure I winged one or two before the leader pulled out a familiar weapon. The two-stage magnum pistol. Before I could concentrate fire on his position, the first round slammed into ‘my’ head. The impact caused my connection to the bot to glitch out for a moment, I could only watch as a second round was directed at the fox's head, then I was disconnected.

“FUCK!” I shouted before I realized I was back standing in the hallway, within earshot of the kids.

“What happened?” Jane asked, “You’ve been standing there for a couple minutes. Did something happen to Alan?”

“Not if I can help it,” I replied, as I stormed towards the garage. Sharron quickly got up to follow me, while the kids just turned their heads, watching me go.

“Something bad happened, right?” Sharron asked quietly, once we reached the garage.

“Helen’s goons took down Alan’s escort. I still don’t know WHY he was out with only an escort bot, or where he went, but I’m redirecting the nearest bots to his location. The squirrels were close enough to get eyes on the car, but the nearest bears are still a minute out,” I reported, as I yanked open the door to my truck.

“I’ll keep an eye on things here, don’t worry about that,” Sharron told me.

I nodded, then quickly directed my truck out, towards Alan’s last location. It had only been a minute, at most, since I lost control of the fox, and I’d already lost track of his signal.

I could see why, through the nearest squirrel. The cultists were already in the midst of pushing Alan, and their unconscious comrade, into the back seat of the car, and Helen’s signal blocking was interfering with my tracker.

The leader stopped before getting in the vehicle, looked up at my squirrel, and then took out a piece of paper. He held it out for the squirrel to see, then walked to the side of the road and placed it under a random brick, before getting back into the car. Seconds later, the vehicle was driving away, disrupting the signals from all the squirrels assigned to watch it.

I swore softly. Without the squirrels to track them, I was practically at square one.

It only took about two minutes to arrive at their last known location. I hopped out of the truck before it had completely settled, and ran over to the piece of paper. On it was a time, and a location. A trap, or a meet-up? It honestly didn’t matter that much, I needed to get Alan back, no matter how much a pain in the ass he was. Now that Helen showed what she was really capable of, I was going to have to do the same.