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I called out Elara’s name as a sense of dread brewed inside of me, forming a pit in my stomach.
She was here just a minute ago. Where the hell could she have gone?
Too many of the women here were wearing the same type of metallic mask Elara had on. I grabbed the nearest woman and pulled off the mask. The stranger screamed. I grunted and let go of her, returning my gaze to the crowd as I darted my eyes back and forth.
In the far distance, I spotted Ryrik looking at me from a raised platform with a concerned expression. I signaled for him to come over to me as I pushed through the crowd.
Each person was moved in the opposite direction, so it was like pushing against a hovercar at full force. Ryrik reached the bottom floor just as I emerged from the other side.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s Elara,” I informed him. “She’s disappeared from me. Have you seen her?”
He shook his head. Cursing, I bit my hand in frustration, casting another hopeless gaze amongst the guests. I turned back to Ryrik. “Seal each and every one of the exits immediately!”
He whipped out his percomm and informed the rest of the team. I spotted some of them running along the walls, rapidly moving towards every portal door to the outside world.
“Check everywhere. I’m going to have a look at the bars.”
I pressed toward the nearest bar, praying that she went on ahead. I move from counter to counter, each unsuccessful search slowly filling the pit of dread inside of me.
I remained composed in the face of all of the guests, trying not to rouse panic as I returned a smile. Internally, I writhed with torment. I went to the final bar area where Krefir was stationed. Motioning him over, he moved with a skip in his step.
“Yes, boss? Would you like a drink?” he asked.
“I’m looking for Elara. Did she come around this way?”
“I’m not sure, boss. There’s too many people for me to see beyond the counter.”
“Fuck!”
I grabbed my percomm, radioing in the team.
“Guys, any luck?”
“Negative.”
“Nothing on the second floor.”
Shit… This isn’t happening right now.
I ran a hand over my head, thinking of where else hadn’t been searched as of yet. I snapped my thumbs, realizing that if Elara got separated from me in the crowd, she may have moved instead to my office. After all, she knew where it was and was registered as an approved guest in my security systems.
Please, Celestia, let her be there…
I moved along the walls, passing quickly past all of the guests. Their ruckus of shouting and celebrating worsened a dull headache. All the while, I kept an eye focused on the passing faces, hoping to spot Elara.
I reached my office, where I inputted the code and showed my eye to the retinal scanner. Tapping my foot impatiently, I grunted as the system took its sweet time loading.
“What the fuck!” I snapped as I was denied entry. I tried again and got the same result. It was then that I knew for certain that something far worse was at play here.
I didn’t want to believe it, but the thought of Jocelyn hacking my systems popped into my head. I don’t know how she would have snatched Elara, but my intuition told me it was a fact. She wanted to slow me down as much as possible, perhaps to give her extra time to get out of there.
Crafty bitch… I have no choice.
I had a way to get past this. On my percomm there was illegally installed software to hack even the highest-grade security systems, including mine. Havek, the tech genius for the Vinduthi family, personally installed it for me. It was a beast. It would fry the locks to my office, but I couldn’t care less. I would stop at nothing to get Elara back.
Frantically, I launched the software and typed in the serial number of my scanners. Holding it close, I looked away as a bright spark burst out from the lock, its whir ceasing to a cathartic halt.
