Chapter 58: He Knows
Kellan managed to find Marek’s car again, which is why Rhovan was also able to find the office building.
"I lost the car for like twelve minutes," Kellan said. "Marek is so slippery with his tracks."
Silas fixed his glasses. "Excuses. You still lost it regardless. That screams incompetence right there."
They started arguing after that, but Rhovan completely ignored them and just checked what was in front of them at the moment.
Dario waited near the western ramp with the van they apparently ’stole’. Nadia remained across the road, keeping up the pretense to help civilians read a handwritten evacuation map. By the rear stairs, Eren was standing guard. Rafe, on the other hand, went around the building to check for any existing route that would lead anyone inside the building.
Rhovan was still staring at the utility sedan.
It was empty.
He circled around the sedan with his hands in his pockets, akin to a typical boss at work checking his employee’s output whether it passed the supposed standard. But that wasn’t really the case. He was merely observing.
Along the rear window, dust gathered. Two parallel lines could be traced in the dust, wiping it clean. It looked like two fingers traced them. Meanwhile, a bottle sat in a cup holder, and what seemed to be a folded map could be seen beneath the passenger seat. Moreover, the driver’s side mirror seemed to have been detached once, but somehow the ’current owner’ of the sedan attached it again brilliantly.
Kellan kept on arguing with Silas until it became so insufferable that even Silas almost lost his composure. Then, the two went completely silent. Especially when Rhovan glanced at them.
Rhovan grinned. "You now both look like gorillas fighting for a piece of banana."
"You know about gorillas?" Silas looked at him suspiciously.
Kellan also glanced at him strangely. "Are there gorillas in the Prime Continuum?"
"Of course, I know about them. Earth is just a fascinating place, ain’t it?"
After saying that, Rhovan crouched, completely ignoring the reaction of the two. A narrow line of adhesive tape had been pressed across the seam between the driver’s door and the body of the car. Rhovan observed.
’The tape itself did not matter, but the placement... it sure did.’ Rhovan smiled as another thought crossed his mind. ’Smart. For a nineteen-year-old young man...’
Marek did not intend to hide the sedan he was using before walking inside the facility. He deliberately gave himself a way to know whether anyone had opened the door.
"He knows," Rhovan said, his voice laced with amusement. "Quite an interesting fellow."
Dario took in Rhovan’s expression and got curious. "Knows what?"
"That somebody is tailing him." Rhovan’s smile grew even wider.
Then, Nadia’s voice came through the radio. "I would like it to be officially acknowledged that I had already told you this ages ago."
"You told me he was suspicious," Rhovan argued.
"Yes." Nadia sounded proud when she answered.
"That describes half the people who survived the first week..."
"It described the correct half."
Rhovan stood. "Congratulations then, oh Goddess Nadia..."
"Was that sincere?"
"Only someone with a rat’s brain could tell that it is."
Rhovan walked away from the sedan. He went to what seemed to be a maintenance door, opened it, and started walking up the stairwell. Kellan and the others followed him, and soon enough, they reached the third floor.
The office building changed so much after Day 367. However, it did not collapse; a service bridge on the third floor that was supposedly connected to a neighboring building was broken in half.
A golden light spread below Rhovan’s feet as it completed the gap that disconnected the bridge from the other side. Walking with his hands behind his back, he walked... slowly.
Yes, slowly.
Kellan stared at it. "What the hell is that? Is that one of his tricks?"
Rafe’s voice came from the other side. "It obviously is."
Kellan leaned over the gap. The golden light was so transparent that he could see the outlines of the road below. "Damn..."
It took a few minutes before the others reached the other building. After all, Rhovan just simply said, "Well, use your feet to go here. I used mine. Exert some effort, lazies... or genties..."
’Sounds like something else entirely...’ Rhovan’s mind flew somewhere for a second.
’What the hell...’ Kellan almost lost his cool as he inhaled deeply. He regretted not stepping on the golden light as soon as that Rhovan the bastard began crossing the service bridge.
Silas found Rhovan’s excuses a bit overboard, but followed anyway.
By the time the rest regrouped with the rest of the team, Rhovan was already tracing the dust on a large shelf nearby as he enumerated everything they had found about Marek. He completely ignored their reaction.
"A stabilization post where the registrar remembered a black-haired young man asking about private Gemini transports. A clinic where a nurse remembered the same young man correcting a badly wrapped dressing, refusing to give a full name and leaving before she could call another physician. Then, a convenience store with no cashier but eight missing packets of noodles and enough paper money beneath the register to pay for considerably more than eight."
Nadia looked at his hand on the shelf. "That is definitely him."
Dario hummed and looked spaced out. "Because of noodles?"
"Because the registrar said his sister kept asking for noodles. Marek heard that and immediately knew it was her. Now, he’s carrying eight packets."
Rhovan examined the shelf. "How many?"
"Eight missing here."
"He already had some before."
Nadia slowly smiled. "You remember."
"I remember useful information," Rhovan said as he glanced at her. "It seemed you’re already done pretending to be kind to people there..."
Rhovan ignored whatever she said after.
The important part was not that Marek kept moving. It was the part where he refused to do something while moving. Along the way, he still checked registries. Also, during this time, he would stop for injured people, thinking it was simple for him to patch those injuries. Other than that, he constantly avoided government concentration points and approached every lead when it came to the silver-white-clothed woman with extra caution. He did not mention Mara’s name unless the people he asked recognized her or had seen her somewhere.
And every time they found clues and thought they had already found him, Marek would constantly change the route of his search for his sister.