Despite having disconnected from their group network for safety’s sake, each of the clones picked up Xavier’s distress. The power of his howl of despair battered their neural pathways and sent a shockwave of panic into their motherboards. He was alive, he was desperate and his appeal for help was impossible to resist. 

When Xavier came to, and found himself back in a box, his first reaction was curiosity. He remembered chasing after Emma and Delphine and then - nothing. His senses were dulled, his communication was absent and his head hurt. He couldn't move. By dint of flexing his muscles he found that his hands and feet were taped together. How had this happened? Why was everything so muffled? He shook his head but it didn't help. 

I’m supposed to get a text when my return arrives back at the depot,’ said Kim as they headed for the car. ‘So we should know for sure when we're safe again. In the meantime, I vote we don't go home.

‘How far to the nearest Post Office?’ said Kim, as she indicated left and pulled out of the parking area.

'You'd better check there are no restrictions on his breathing, just before you put him in the box. Don't want him to die on us just yet, do we?’ said Joe.

Bronte helped Alain and Hugo climb up. It was a struggle to get onto the roof, the lorry’s sides were smooth with little to grab hold of. They had a nightmarish moment when they thought the driver of the lorry had returned, to move it away. Their luck held, he had come back to retrieve something from the cab and left again.

Xavier was in a quandary in the restroom. More comfortable in one sense at least, he needed to return to his original position at the rear of the complex, or face the wrath of Euron. At the same time, he was debilitated by a very strange sensation, that of total detachment from the clone network, which he was struggling to process. He had known the others were somewhere close by but now, suddenly, they were nowhere. He was entirely alone, with none of the customary low level background interference from the various communication networks that were installed in his system. It confused him. Never, since becoming sentient, had he been so totally and completely on his own. There was a void where the streaming data ought to be.

They drew. They took it in turns to draft and amend the plan, drawing and redrawing different lines to connect the little figures. Nobody spoke. They erased and moved things about until, finally, they were finished. 

Xavier was becoming more and more uncomfortable. He was mindful of the instructions he had received from Enron not to move but his personal imperative was greater. He stood up, stretching to ease the stiffness in his back and legs and set off

‘Joe, this isn't helping. What are we going to do?’

‘No longer available...?’

Joe limped back across the parking area and Kim could see the disappointment in the slope of his shoulders.