"so is everyone ready?"
"you know it"
"then let's go find Barrel"
and so for two years they search all sorts of leads some of them dead ends, but there were a few that were good, they were only a few days late, except for one time, one time they got there just an hour after the group had left
"man we've been searching for two years and we still got nothing on them, the closest we've been is an hour late and that still wasn't good enough"
"it is definitely getting frustrating alright, but there's not much we can do"
(sighs) "I know Lan, I know"
"at least after two months we decided to split up into teams"
"yeah"
well they find a place to rest for the night which wasn't that great a place but beggars can't be choosers as the saying went but the next day they got the best lead they could have ever asked for
"hey did you guys hear what's been going on lately in this hotel?"
"no what's been going on?"
"lately in the basement people have been hearing screams late at night into early morning, I'm surprised you didn't hear anything"
"we were at the highest level of the building"
"ah that would do it then, people have found that the highest floor is best for sleep"
"so...the basement huh?"
"yeah"
"anything else you can tell us?"
"not tell...I'll show you something that I found a week ago, I'm not sure if it was meant to be found by me or not, but I've kept it safe in my room"
and so they go to his room and he shows them something they never expected
"Lan this is..."
"you're right"
"um what is it?"
"it's Barrel's PET"
"wait Barrel? I'm from Netopia I actually am a soldier of Netopia on assignment to find him"
"how did you not recognize his PET?"
"I only joined the military two months ago and they never showed me pictures of his PET, plus I think it's out of power, nothing I do makes it work, if it did I would've recognized Colonel instantly"
"think it's Barrel in the basement?"
"now that I know that's his PET I'm almost positive, I was going to leave this place in two days if I didn't have any clues to his location but now..."
"hm, I have some skills which might be useful, if I can just sneak into the basement for a look I can help devise a plan to free him, if it is indeed him there but this PET is good"
"what skills do you have?"
"well having been a prisoner myself I know what they do to places for hiding people not to mention I have photographic memory, how else do you think Netopia found the base I was forced to stay at?"
"excellent, and the two of us will run interference"
and so she manages to get a good look into the basement and actually confirms that Barrel was in there though she couldn't reveal herself to him directly she did manage to get him to think about something other than his captivity by tossing him a small piece of bread she had on her for emergencies and also managed to get a plan of the area in her head and then she left and got back to the Netopian soldiers room
"confirmation of colonel Barrel's location done"
"so Barrel is in the basement"
"yep, and knows someone knows he's there, I managed to get him a piece of bread I had on me"
and so with the plans drawn they start making themselves a plan and two days later it was time for action
"everyone knows their place correct?"
"correct, and the PET?"
"fully charged but not on, for safety reasons of course"
and so they move quick and decisively and it was decided Rachel would be the person to get Barrel out of the situation
"Rachel what...?"
"later Barrel, we're getting you out of here"
"we?"
"yep we, I'll explain later, actually the explanation won't even be long now come on we're busting out of here"
and so they get to the rendezvous point and get into the car
"go, go go go go go, move it"
"I'm moving I'm moving"
and so finally they get to a safe distance
"so Lan any problems on your end?"
"nope"
"and as you know no problems on mine, what about you soldier?"
"had to knock out a guard but we figured that might happen so no problems on my end either oh yeah, this belongs to you colonel"
and so the soldier tosses back Barrel's PET and he quickly turns it on