Edward stood next to Nate and wiped the sleep out of his eyes. The rest of the people lined up in cafeteria drew into focus. They were as oblivious as he was as they exchanged whispers and looked around the room. He searched for Olivia to make sure she was alright. He hadn't seen her since last night, and if this alarm was some kind of emergency, he needed to know that she wasn't hurt.

An Indian kid around Nate's daughter's age looked around the room, his eyes continuously landing on the guards and the exits. His curious eyes lacked the panic instilled in the rest of the room. Before Edward could ask what was going on, Olivia came by with her lips pulled back as tightly as her hair.

"Olivia, what's-"

"Please be patient, Mr. Drest. We need to complete our counts and make sure all residents are accounted for." She wouldn't even look him in the eye.

"Officer Fendson, is something wrong?" Nate asked.

"I can't discuss that at the moment. Once I call your name, you may sit."

She called through the names on the two departments' rosters and everyone was present. Another officer whistled and Olivia's attention was diverted before Edward could get another word out of her. At least she was alive. He plopped down beside Nate. The father played with something in his pocket.

"Did you see Mischa come into the hall?"

"No, but wouldn't you two have come together?"

"She stayed over at her friend April's last night to work on an assignment for their department. What if something happened to them?"

"I'm sure she's okay, Nate. This will all blow over soon."

One of the departments, likely the construction one, was escorted out of the cafeteria with a group of officers including Williams. They remained quiet and followed in a single file line. Another officer came to take Nate and the Indian boy to a separate location.

Half an hour later, Edward was called into a small room with no windows, not even facing out into the hall. The walls had been painted a dark colour and just one light was mounted in the ceiling over the metal table. An old-school interrogation room. He hoped Olivia would be the one to come in. The two of them could have a lot of fun in here. The thought was short lived as he remembered her serious face and impersonal nature. The pleasant Olivia he'd glimpsed the past few days was gone.

A stern older woman with graying hair walked into the room with her chin pointed high. She looked down at Edward with narrowed eyes before she sat across from him at the table.

"What is your relation to Mischa Hues?"

"Oh, Nate's daughter? Nothing much, she joins us at meals sometimes, and I've had a few conversations with her. Is she alright?"

"She is missing, Mr. Drest."

That couldn't be right. Would someone have kidnapped her? "Have you told Nate? Can we help find her?"

She tapped her long nails against her coffee cup. "Mr. Hues is being questioned as we speak. Have you provided Ms. Hues with any information related to the security-related projects you are working on or have worked on in the past?"

"No, she's a teenage girl. Why would she care?"

"Has Mr. Hues allowed her any special privileges or visits to your workplace?"

"She visits her dad from time to time." But didn't all kids do that, especially with home and work overlapping for closely?

She pulled out a tablet and typed in a few notes before hitting send. She flipped through a few other screens. "Are you in contact with Quinton Bishop, April Rodriguez, or Amelia Fairbrook?"

"Do you have pictures of them? None of those names sound familiar."

The woman drew out her tablet and brought up photos of each one. He shook his head as he couldn't recall interacting with any of them. She let him out of the room shortly after that. Nate was passing down the hall alongside Olivia with a scowl on his face.

"Nate, have you heard any more about Mischa?" Edward called out.

Olivia narrowed her eyes. "Mr. Drest, go back to your living quarters. You will be called upon if and when your services are needed." He studied her stiff shoulders and erect posture. The outward persona. Unless that was her permanent persona, and she was just playing him earlier. For what purpose? "Now," she said sharply. He dropped his head and walked back.

By mid-afternoon, Edward was allowed back in the lab working on completing an inventory of all their devices. It was then he realized that he had lied to the officers inadvertently. He had shown Mischa those handheld devices once, and she had never come back to follow up. Once he finished the final count, he realized why.

When Nate arrived back from interrogation, Edward brought him over to the bin of devices.

"Nate, what are these?"

Nate smoothed the wrinkled skin on his forehead. "Edward, this really isn't the best time."

"There's one missing, and I'll have to report it back. I'm fairly certain I know who has it."

His eyes widened into saucers and he shook his head. "No, she wouldn't have done that."

"Nate, it was a month ago. I don't think it-"

"Come with me for a minute. Don't send the reports in yet," he said.

They left the lab and headed for Nate's apartment. They kept their heads down as they passed officers and others in gray camouflage gear along the way. He'd never seen so many soldier-looking people around here. Once in Nate's apartment, Mischa's room was first on his agenda.

"They're going to sweep this area. I just know it."

"What's the issue, Nate?"

He leaned in to whisper, "It was a tracker. I don't who it was for, but it was most certainly designed to locate people on the outside."

"How would she have been able to...?"

"If she discovered her tracker button before she was brought in, she could have transferred it to another knowingly. Why didn't you tell me this, earlier?"

"I didn't know what they were. She said it was a surprise for you. Then I honestly forgot until now."

Nate began to pace and run his hands through his graying hair. "So she left the only safe place out there. She willingly left a place that I worked so hard to bring her into to keep her alive and happy."

Edward took advantage of Nate's distracted state and began to sneak into a few of the drawers, which still contained some clothing and personal effects. The officers would be here soon if they hadn't already, but he hoped to solve this mystery and redeem himself. He found a letter with the facility's globe in hand logo. A quick read through the letter confirmed a motive.

"Nate, she wasn't happy. She was afraid."

Edward tried to keep the letter confined to the dresser in case there were cameras. Nate grasped the paper harshly, crinkling the few sections that hadn't shown wear.

It's a rather tough process for the ones who are selected anyway. They carry the child to term and get a weekly visitation, Olivia's words echoed in his head.

"Why didn't she tell me?"

Edward didn't have an answer for that one. He could understand if she was already pregnant and didn't want to tell him. But if this place would be doing the job, then she should be blaming them and confiding in Nate.

"I bet she blamed me," he muttered. "I brought her here. I thought this place was so safe and put her through this. She thought she had to deceive me to be happy. She never wanted to change jobs because she was depressed by her lack of progress. She wanted a fresh look at an escape route. Look at her partners in crime."

"You can't blame yourself."

"Why would they do this to her? She's not even old enough to consent as an adult."

"Did she sign an agreement when she entered?"

Edward had, but hadn't bothered reading it as long as it came with food and a bed.

"No I..." Nate's face crumbled into a sullen mess. "I signed away her rights. It was the only way to get us in here, to sign those forms and agree to their cryptic conditions. Given what the organization had promised they would protect us from, I hadn't even considered. You spend so long protecting your child that you forget those protecting could have malicious intent."

"So what do we do now?"

"We... hiding the note won't do any good as they already have that information about her. I feel I should have been informed as her legal guardian and that they should have done a better job of making sure she was handling the information well. Clearly, this set her over the edge."

"It may have just been another push. This date is later than when she approached me."

"How could I be so blind to her suffering?" He paced back and forth before he settled on her bed. "Edward, I need to ask a big favour of you. Just listen and take some time to reflect on it. But not too much, as the window will close." 

That was how Edward found himself at a moral and personal crossroad in the small apartment he had come to call home over the past month or so. Was he prepared to give up everything to help Nate and his daughter? He knew he'd hardly survive out there. The first few weeks had taught him that and things were only bound to get worse. But if this facility was forcing its people into situations so unfavourable that they felt their only salvation was to brave the broken world, it said a fair bit about his future.

But Olivia, could he leave her here after everything she had been through? He couldn't tell her. Nate had absolutely forbidden it. She had lost everything, and he was all she had left. She had told him that, otherwise he wouldn't have believed it himself. But she wouldn't leave. Her loyalty to this place ran too deep.

Nate came into his apartment and pulled two uniforms out of his bag. One was large enough to fit Edward. He also had sun protective goggles and hats.

"They're sending out teams every three hours. I'm going before your lady friend comes back for a follow-up interview tomorrow."  

"Why don't you wait until we're asked to go?"

"Because they intend on bringing her back. I trust her decision enough and don't intend to counteract it."

"But what if you talked to them and negotiated Mischa's role in this whole repopulation project?"

"They went behind my back to target her once. I know they won't hesitate to do it again."

Edward ran his hands over the heavy gray material. "So that's it then, it's all or nothing?"

"Edward, I understand where you're coming from and how you have absolutely nothing to gain from this situation. I'm asking you, one human being to another, to help me find and protect my daughter, who has been targeted by these mad people. I need to gather a few supplies. If you could look up the location that tracker's last known location, I'd be eternally grateful."

"Okay, that I can do."

"It's likely the only one still active, and it will link back to Albuquerque or not far out of it. She'd go back for her friends." 

They both headed for the front door and before he could open it, Nate added, "And Edward, be careful."

Edward finished up taking down the GPS coordinates of a tracker out in New Mexico. It was far enough that it had to be the one Mischa went after. The security officers had been going through other boxes of trackers all morning and had been sending them out with various teams so they could be retrieved if there were issues. It made his job of covering up the missing one easier. He went into the advanced settings of the program and found a way to make the New Mexican dot disappear from the system. Someone would be tracking everyone's movement soon and one out that far would raise a red flag.   

The lab door flew open and he quickly exited the program and turn off the screen. Olivia stood at the front door in a similar uniform to the one that Nate had brought into his apartment. Gray jumpsuit.

"What can I help you with, Officer Fendson?" Edward asked as calmly as he could.

She flinched a little at his strong words and looked over to the trackers on the table. "How many are charged and ready to be sent out?"

Edward took the opportunity to distance himself from the computer and his incriminating actions. He picked up three tracking units. "Just three for now."

"Find a place to charge more so we aren't wasting our time." She took the three devices from him and turned on her heel. He exhaled loudly and her motion stopped mid-step.

"Do you have a problem, Mr. Drest?"

"No, carry on, officer." He shook his head once she headed for the door. "You were always going to anyway," he muttered.

She employed some sort of supersonic hearing to respond to the statement. "Are you annoyed that I'm not here to hold your hand through this whole morning? There are more pressing matters than your feelings."

"Right now my feelings are that there's a young woman missing and instead of letting us help, you're handling us with investigative gloves. Nate wants nothing more than to find his daughter, and he's confined underground."

"We can't authorize suspicious people to leave the colony. There are risks involved."

"What if she's killed out there, and he could have saved her?"

"She made her choice and will have to face the consequences," Olivia said. Her voice wavered like her trembling grip on the table. Great, he had nearly got away with a clear conscious, but he knew the woman too well to let those betraying actions go. Damn it, why did anger always mask her intentions?

"You didn't do anything wrong, Olivia."

"I am on the security team and four people escaped last night. Perhaps your family praised every effort in your upbringing, but here nothing but success is acceptable. Distractions always lead to failure."

"So that's what I am: a distraction." His hands found old pieces of isolated wire to fiddle with.

"We were clear on those terms in the beginning. Don't act offended when the truth doesn't conform to whatever fantasy you had running through your mind."

"If you're so concerned about the project, you'd better get going on the retrieval mission. Wouldn't want to waste any more of your precious time."

Edward refused to raise his eyes until the door clicked shut. He sighed as he looked down at the mangled wiring in his hands. At least she had made his decision easier.