When she walked out of the Granite Shelf that morning, she turned left and walked along Main Street.
“I’ll see if I can get some more video files,” Raina said. “But a lot of the surveillance cameras in Kintore are cloud stored, especially the civic ones covering the streets. Hacking them is going to be a little more difficult.”
“Do what you can,” he told her.
He left the Granite Shelf and turned left, just like Savi. The next café along was Alcides, serving Portuguese food. He sat at a table and showed Savi’s picture to the waiter. A clothes printing store next. Then a food printer. Bugez mart. A bar. Didn’t bother with the finance house. Another café.
The sky was shading down to a rosy dusk when he left the café. Streetlights were coming on, blue-green cones of light revealed in the dusty air. More people were walking about now, not that the temperature had dropped. He could feel the ground radiating its daytime heat at him.
“I think I’ve got her turning into Rosewalk,” Raina said. “That’s about a klick from where you are. It’s not the best image.”
“You’re doing better than me,” he said. “The food store owner says she may have been a customer. Couldn’t say when.”
“There’s not much camera coverage down Rosewalk. It’s more residential down there.”
“I’ll take a look.” Apollo threw up the navmap, and he started walking.
Three men came out of a bar just ahead of him. He moved to avoid them.
“Internet connection is dropping out,” Apollo said.
“What?”
“Network signal lost. Unable to reconnect. My reception is being subject to access overload.”
“How’s that—”
The three men from the pub shifted to stand directly in front of him.
“Oh, shit,” Callum grunted. He spun around fast. Two men right behind him, one dressed in a smart suit holding up a taser baton, and grinning in anticipation.
“Wanna make a break for it?” the suited man taunted.
Callum had only ever been in a couple of bar fights, and that’d been with people his own age at university—boozy shoving matches with added swearing. The bouncers had stepped in fast and closed it down. These five men looked like they could chop those bouncers apart as a warm-up routine.
“I’ve not got much cash on me,” Callum said, wishing his voice wasn’t shaking so much.
“Down here, pal,” one of the group from the pub said.
Callum saw the narrow street he was indicating and started to panic. “Look, I’ve got a smartCuff. I can wipe the universal code and the trackme app. It’s top of the range, worth plenty.”
“If only we wanted you for your money.”
“Or your body,” another sneered.
“Move.”
It was his last chance to attempt a run. He was too frightened of the pounding they’d probably give him. Being put into hospital wasn’t going to help Savi. But then, being forced into a dark alley wasn’t exactly promising…
A hand shoved him between his shoulder blades. He tensed. If he ran to the right he’d be going directly down Main Street.
The taser baton poked him in the back of his knee. It must have been a reduced charge. He yelped at the fast burst of pain, but didn’t quite fall as his leg jerked about.
“Don’t run,” the voice warned.
Humiliated and fearful, he went with them.
They turned down another street, then made regular turns after that. Apollo’s navmap tracked every turn, plotting their route. He could trace each footstep he was being forced to make.
After seven minutes, thirty-eight seconds, they finished up at a roller door in a sleep-pod hotel that was being refurbished. It slid up, and he was shoved into the dark cavern beyond. The door rattled as it rolled down again. Then the lights came on.
It was a storeroom, with empty metal racks on the walls and plenty of dust on the rough concrete floor. The air was hot and stale. Right in the middle was a sturdy wooden chair with four handcuffs, two hanging off the arms, two on the front legs.
Callum took one look at it and—
The taser baton hit him, full power this time. The only muscles he could make work were in his throat, so he screamed as he tumbled over. The baton struck again, and the universe dissolved into terrible pain. His body jerked about and he howled, all sense leaving him.