“Dammit.”
“What?”
He jumped at the voice, turning to see Pain standing by the door. “He’s gone!”
“What?” Her voice rose a couple of octaves, and she strode forward so she could see for herself. “How?”
“I don’t know. You were the one who was supposed to look after him.”
She spun around, eyes big in protest. “I did! He said he was sleeping.”
Chad opened his mouth to yell another accusation but snapped it shut. Instead, he took a deep breath and looked around once more. Yelling at each other wasn’t going to help.
He took out his phone and called Dave’s number, only to hear it go straight to voicemail.
“So, I guess he wasn’t in the canteen?” he asked after a moment.
Pain shook her head, looking calmer herself. “Why would he leave?”
Chad lifted his shoulders but stopped when his eyes fell on the empty bottle again. He grabbed it and held it up. “He ran out of booze?”
“What, the whole bottle? By himself?” She stared at him.
“I don’t know. Does alcohol even work on him anymore?”
“I don’t think so…” Pain frowned, before something flickered in her gaze, and she looked down.
“Pain?”
“Yeah?” She kept her eyes on the floor a second longer, but when she looked up at him, her face was blank once again. “No, seriously, I don’t know.”
Chad pushed down his anger, knowing there was no time to argue with her about what she possibly did or didn’t know, or the reasons why she’d lie to him.
“Let’s check the rest of the building before we jump to conclusions,” she suggested. “I’ll call the control room.”
She dug into her pocket for her phone, then turned the speaker on once Rooney picked up. “Hey, can you see Dave anywhere in the building?”
“Gimme a second,” Rooney said. “Hmm. There’s someone who looks like him in the hall… Nope, not him. Why?”
“No time, Rooney, please just find him.”
The hacker fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “Don’t see him anywhere.”
Pain gave Chad a worried look. He grabbed the phone from her before she could hang up.
“Can you check the logs from last night? Maybe someone saw him leaving?”
“Okay, one minute,” Rooney said.
A minute seemed like a very long time, and Chad paced the room as he listened to the rustle of papers on the other end of the line.
“One-twenty-eight, Post One. No record of him coming back.”
Chad closed his eyes. “Thanks.” He hung up and tossed the phone back to Pain. “How did he just walk out the front door at two in the morning? Why didn’t the guard stop him?”
Pain frowned, turning the phone in her trembling fingers as she looked at him. “Because he didn’t have the order to stop him? We’re kinda trying to keep this whole thing about Dave a secret, remember?” Chad shoved his fingers into his hair. “Besides, it wasn’t like we expected him to leave. It seemed like he just wanted to be alone.”
“So you’re telling me that last night, when the Commandos were all out there looking for him, he was out on his own, God knows where, with a bottle of vodka in him?”
Pain winced. She put the phone in her jeans pocket and sat on the bed.
“And why did he leave through the front doors? Why not use the tunnels or even the window?” He waved at the window before crossing the room to look outside. “If he was drunk, and he decided to go after the Commandos…” The words died on his lips as his gaze slid over the half-empty parking lot. “Son of a bitch!”
“What?” Pain was at his side in a heartbeat.
“He took my truck!”
“What? Why?” She leaned forward, peering at the lot.
It took Chad one second to realize exactly why. “Because Skull had taken his car to draw out the Commandos, and he didn’t have another one here.”
“Wait, wait,” Pain said, gesturing for him to calm down. “If he needed a car, then he had a specific destination in mind. He said he couldn’t really use his power, and he’s not a fool to go after the Commandos with nothing. And if he did figure it out, he wouldn’t have taken the car. He would’ve left through the window, you’re right. But if he really did drink this bottle by himself, and he could still drive after that, then I think there’s only one reason for him to leave. He was either going to a bar, or—”
“His apartment,” Chad finished for her. “He wouldn’t want to go to a bar. There’d be people there.”
“Yes. But we should inform Peter and gather a search party anyway,” she said, heading to the door.
“What for?” Chad’s words made her pause. “It’s not like they know where to look for him. I’ll go and bring him back. Peter’s got enough on his plate as it is.”
“You sure?” She followed him with her eyes as he pushed the broken door aside and stepped through the doorway.
“Yes. I’ll call if I need help,” he said, only to halt as he stepped out into the hall. “I need a car.”
“Take Marco’s. He’s in the gym!” she called after him even as he darted to the elevator.
He swung by his room to grab a jacket, and as he rushed outside, he bumped right into Marco’s shamelessly bare chest.
“Good, you’re here,” he panted. “I need your car.”
“Why? What happened?” Marco’s eyebrows crawled up. He dabbed at his forehead with the towel he was holding, as if trying to put them back in place.
“No time, man. Keys?”
“Inside. Not a scratch!” he yelled, pointing a finger at Chad.
“Thanks!”
Chad ignored the curious looks as he
