As he headed to the building's exit, Grady pulled out his phone and dialled Darbinian's number.
When she picked up, he took the direction of the nearest closet which he opened before closing behind him.
He put the phone on the shelf and as he checked the state of his rifle and the number of bullets he had, he asked her about the whereabouts of InGen Security's forces.
"Ok, Nataliya. What is the situation of InGen's troops?"
"The Slayers and the bulk of the mercenaries seem to have gone south. We think that they are heading to the southern summit of the Misty Mounts and planning to wait there for an extraction team."
"And Hoskins? His vehicle hasn't returned?"
"No. Claire and your intern are the last people to have seen it. We are controlling the gorge's bridge and watching the cordillera road but we didn't see them pass there."
"They must be still in the Reserve...," he concluded.
The closet door opened suddenly, revealing Sembène in the doorway.
The latter widened his eyes when he saw his colleague put a bullet in the magazine of his rifle.
"Owen, what are you doing?"
"I'm going to hunt Hoskins and make him pay for all of this!" Grady answered with anger.
"Alone in the Reserve in the middle of darkness?"
Sembène closed behind him and asked gravely in a low voice:
"Do you intend to kill him?"
"He or one of his men killed Charlie. I will not leave this act unanswered!"
Sembène shook his head, aghast to see him yield to a desire of revenge.
"It's tragic but they killed people, Owen!" He reminded him.
"And? There were just mercenaries! They knew in what they were involved and it wasn't like I didn't warned them..."
Sembène suddenly grabbed the rifle to put it aside. He then grabbed Grady by the shoulders to shake him.
"Do your hear yourself?! Would you say the same thing it they had been defenceless civilians? If it was Leon? If it was me? If it was Claire? She had a narrow escape!"
Grady did not answer right away.
He was exhaling through his nostrils and he had shifty eyes for a moment.
"You don't understand, Barry. I have raised them since they hatched. I... We worked so hard to establish a stable relationship with them... And Hoskins screwed everything up!"
He struck one of the shelf's supports with the palm of his hand.
"They're my girls! I love them more than anything," he added, on the verge of tears. "And now, they are out there, in the middle of this apocalypse."
"I love them too," Sembène said, "but remember that the love you had for Andromeda nearly costed you your life! Do you love them more than Claire? What would you have done if she had been killed instead of that mercenary?"
Grady grunted.
"It didn't happened so let's end this conversation!" He replied coldly.
Darbinian, who still was on the other end of the line, dissuaded him from embarking on this madness.
"I am aware that you seem to have a thing for women who have or ended up having taken a human life but don't become a killer yourself when someone else, trained for this, can do the job! Don't worry about Hoskins, we ordered some guys to search for him. I promise you that you will have a moment with him once we will find him. In the meantime, listen to Barry and have some rest while you can. Well, I have to hang up. I got things to do."
