Bungle

‘That’s not going to work.’ said Hugo. ‘Just telling us to go back for the inevitable. Not likely to persuade us, is it?’

‘Severe consequences? What does that mean?’ said Brontë.

‘I take it we will ignore this?’ Adrian searched the faces of the others. The clones all nodded. Jean-Claude opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it.

‘But what about Joe?’ wailed Kim. ‘I’m going to look for him.’ She climbed into the car and started the engine. Blinking back tears, she reversed out onto the road. 

The weather seemed to reflect her mood - it started to rain, huge drops splattering onto the windscreen and raising dusty puffs on the roadway as they fell around the car.

‘The rest of you wait here under cover and I’ll go with Kim,’ said Xavier, running to catch her up.

They drove steadily down the road towards the warehouse complex, peering through the rhythmically thumping wipers to try and catch a glimpse of Joe.

‘When did you last see him?’

Xavier reviewed his memory of the frantic escape from the warehouse. Hugo and Alain had managed Jean-Claude between them and hustled along at considerable speed, while he and Brontë had followed behind. He had been concentrating so hard on keeping the  GPS disrupter at the high energy level required to mask them that he hadn’t really been watching for Joe.

‘He definitely came out of the warehouse with us.’ 

‘ You left him behind, didn’t you?’ Kim’s worry was morphing into anger. ‘You bungled it. You lost the man who was trying to help you find the others.’ She slapped the steering wheel in her distress. 

‘Careful,’ said Xavier, reaching across to bring the car back on track. ‘You’ll have us off the road.’

Kim smeared her cuff across her wet eyes. ‘I can’t believe you just left him.’