He closed his eyes to check the hijackers’ progress. Romero and Ubogu tackled opposite quadrants, running across the roofs and double-checking the passageways. Halfway along, Ubogu jumped up a ladder to check the core. Krushkov was now opening several CCTV views at once on his screen, one of which Zak could tell was the lower maintenance zone.
Zak had survived the initial sweep, but recognised that there was only one way he could avoid being found.
He called Herbet.
‘I’m going back to the restaurant,’ he said quietly, ‘their search is too intense.’
‘Okay Zak. Better lay low till they’ve finished,’ said Herbet.
Zak dropped down the ladder again to the outer shell, in order to make the long crawl back to the restaurant. Just as he pulled his legs away from the hole, he noticed Romero approach the ladder with interest from the upper floor.
Zak needed to quicken the pace. He turned to head towards the front of the ship. But to his horror, the way was blocked. Just a few metres in front of him was a wall. If it went all the way round he was trapped. He scrambled left to follow the wall.
Romero peered down from the top of the ladder.
‘There’s a hole right at the back here boss,’ he said. ‘It leads down to a narrow passageway.’
‘I didn’t notice that,’ said Krushkov. ‘Go down and take a look.’
Heavy clunking indicated that Romero was already on his way.
Zak gave possibly his biggest sigh of relief yet, as the end of the wall came into view. He turned the corner, to be greeted by the welcome sight of ceiling and floor converging in the distance some three hundred metres away. His return was clear, whereas the wall appeared to enclose a rectangular area - the docking bay!
Overcoming that scare gave him a burst of energy, and he started his crawl home with determination. He headed diagonally to the right at first, to get the other side of the docking bay. If Romero came down to this part of the ship, he would be out of sight.
He kept his eyes closed as he crawled, using the Mind Patch to follow the search.
