Thimble

The office door opened and Joe rose quickly, ready to try and defend himself. He was relieved to see who it was, but surprised to see the clones bringing a stranger into the room. Xavier pushed the man into a chair and loomed over him. Pitching his voice several tones lower than usual, he questioned him in a strange monotone. The others saw the man’s eyes widen in apparent terror before he shook his head, muttered something and then nodded, before lowering his chin onto his chest.

‘There are two more, outside in one of the vans,’ said Xavier. ‘We have all those inside.’

‘So now, we find Jean-Claude and get out of here as quickly as we can - agreed?’ said Alain.

‘Agreed.’

‘Do you have any idea where they took him?’ Joe asked Xavier.

He shook his head. ‘This man doesn’t know.’

‘We have to sweep the whole place until we find him,’ said Alain. ‘Hugo, help me put this one with the others.’

And so began a tense form of Hunt the Thimble, where the prize was a man’s safety and there were no clues as to whether they were growing closer or farther from their target. The whole exercise seemed surreal to Joe as he watched the robots carrying on with their work, trundling along the aisles and deftly avoiding the four clones. The searchers worked methodically, each taking a section and calling to each other as they cleared the areas.  It took them twenty minutes before they found him and when they did, he was in poor shape.