Trail

‘Does it matter which of them is on our trail?’ asked Brontë.

‘The outcomes from our point of view may differ. Alain used his fingers to count off the dangers. ‘Firstly, the business is presumably alarmed, now it knows some of us are sentient and will inevitably deconstruct us when it finds us, possibly even before returning our remains to the warehouse.’

Brontë squeaked and closed her eyes.

Alain continued. ‘Secondly Osborne and Griffiths might want us back to explore what went wrong and attempt to experiment and presumably adapt us, with or without the knowledge of the business management. Thirdly we have no idea about this Euron’s motives or why he is involved with Xavier, apart from the fact that the connection seems to have been there since before Xavier left the complex.’

‘So you’re saying the danger of deconstruction comes more immediately from the basic business, while if one of the other two find us, we risk manipulation or dissection?’ Brontë’s face began to scrunch up with increasing alarm as she processed the information.

‘Possibly. I’m utilising logic based on our current set of facts. Unless Hugo has another suggestion?’

Hugo didn’t. ‘I am trying to balance this information against the likely proponent behind that business in the other warehouse. The personnel involved there were numerous - which of the three would have access to such resources?’

‘I’m not sure this is helping,’ said Brontë. ‘We have to evade all of them to survive. We don’t know how many of them there are or where they are-’

’Too close for comfort,’ interrupted Hugo.’

‘- or where to go to stay safe. We will have to run and hide for the rest of our time, won’t we?’

‘Unless…’ Alain’s face was pale but determined. ‘Unless we confront the danger. Choose fight not flight.’