Inception - Ascension Paradox, Book 1
Copyright© 2023 by L.R. Thornton
Chapter 35
Daniel longed for a pastrami sandwich if only to calm his nerves. Yet, he pushed aside his hunger to focus on the matter at hand: try to find some clue as to who took Jillian Foster from the university. He rubbed his eyes and then searched some more through the footage of the past several minutes. There had to be something they had missed. Something that—
“Professor!” Mark’s voice intruded on his thoughts. “Stop!”
He paused the feed with a command. “What is it?”
“Dino, magnify the lower left-hand corner.”
Dino did as he was instructed, his mechanical ape-like features benign. The large scene monitor built into the table began to magnify the image. The lettering blurred the larger the magnification but they were able to make out three characters: Z, K. and 4.
“Let me go get the others.” Mark squeezed his shoulder, his dark brown features taut with tension. Daniel could hardly blame the man. Jillian and Jackson were like his own son and daughter since he had raised them when their own father passed away years ago.
Ray, Amy, and Jackson all crowded around him a moment later, leaning against so that he felt slightly suffocated by them. But he understood their urgency. Jillian had been taken and they had to get her back.
“Were you able to get any more footage than just this right here?” Ray asked.
“No,” Daniel rubbed his forehead. “That’s all we’ve been able to retrieve is that.”
“Well, it’s better than nothing,” the former officer muttered. Daniel watched as his eyes traveled over Dino. “Can that thing scan for things like fingerprints, stuff like that?”
“Yes. Rudimentary though. I had initially programmed Dino to be a lab assistant for—”
“Yeah, I get it,” Ray interrupted with a dismissive hand. “Will it follow me back to where Jillian was taken?”
“Yes. Just ask Dino to do just about whatever you need.”
Still, Daniel noted the way Ray eyed the mechanical ape. Dino wouldn’t harm a fly, much less a human being. But Ray’s incredible story about being attacked by a war bot had given rise to the man’s fear of robotic machines. But it seemed as if finding Jillian was going to be impetus for the man to control his fear.
And right now, they needed all the help they could get.
“Dino, do as Ray commands.”
Suddenly, Dino’s eyes glowed a bright blue. Then, without warning, he jumped up into the air and landed across the room in a single leap. Before Daniel could say anything, the ape robot had gone.
“Professor, what the hell just happened?” Ray’s eyes were wide in his face. The rest of them looked back and forth between themselves.
“I’m not sure,” Daniel murmured as he went over to the computer console that was connected to Dino. “But I have a feeling...”
His voice trailed off and he typed in a command. A feed from Dino came through on the monitor. Daniel studied erratic footage for a few moments before his mouth dropped open. “I don’t believe it.”
“What?” Everyone said simultaneously.
Daniel pointed to the monitor. “The vehicle that took Jillian. It’s back.”
Ray was the first to get close to the monitor. His eyes narrowed, reflecting the bluish light. “What idiot comes back to the scene of the crime?”
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