Kylian, Luc and the twin teenagers Anaelle and Marielle came into the evacuation station and saw the two pods as Dillon described, one large one and one single-man unit. Their use was obvious. Pictographic instructions were labeled right on the entryway to each pod. Evacuees entered the escape vehicle, closed the hatch and pulled a handle from inside to launch the pod. Using an alternate method, someone from the outside could initiate a launch by breaking a glass cover and punching a red button behind the glass.

Luc busied himself checking out the operation of the pod and loading the twin girls into the large one. He expected Kylian to enter, too but found him staring back through the passageway they came from. Kylian hesitated to leave. Luc called out to Kylian.

“Hey Kylian! It’s time to go. Get in would ya?”

Overwhelmed by his feelings for Viviane by the good-bye kiss she gave him, Kylian felt a pain within him that he was not familiar with and which no amount of logic and reasoning could explain away. Kylian spoke aloud to himself as was his habit.

“I can’t leave her! I may never see her again!”

Luc overheard Kylian talking to his alter ego and was speechless. Luc had not considered that possibility. Kylian then turned his ire onto Luc.

“What about you? Everyone knows she likes you. How can you think of leaving her behind? Don’t you have any feelings for Viviane?”

“Well, I sorta do,” Luc admitted, “but there’s nothing I can do to help her right now. I’m not a physicist. I don’t understand anything about teleportation. But I’m a protector. And right now, my job is to protect the girls and you because that’s all I know how to do right now.”

“But…”

“But what?” Luc interrupted. “If we go back, we’ll just be captured again or maybe worse. If I can make sure at least the three of you get to safety, then I’ll have done my duty.”

Kylian was obstinate. “I’m not going.”

Luc rolled his eyes. He thought Kylian was being petulant. “Look, I have an idea. I’ll stay behind and try to rescue Viviane somehow when I see an opportunity. But that means you have to escape with the twins and take care of them for me, OK? You know Viviane would want one of us to protect the girls, right?”

Kylian had to think this plan over for moment. He raised a single eyebrow at Luc. “Why do I have to go and escape with the girls? Why not you?”

Luc struggled to hold back his laughter. “Come on, mac! When was the last time you lifted more than 50 lbs. over your head? You’re a Brainiac! You belong in a lab. I’m the professional soldier, remember you called me that? Leave the rescuin’ to me!”

Kylian, unhappy with Luc’s characterization of him, admitted Luc did have a point. He could not remember the last time he lifted more than 50 lbs. over his head.

“You promise to bring her back, alright?” Kylian insisted.

“I promise! And after she’s back, may the best man win!” said Luc and with a touch of swagger and a grin, “I’m the better man, of course.”

Kylian scowled at Luc. “We’ll see about that. She kissed me after all!”

“Take care of the girls, alright? You haven’t seen the last of me.” Luc used his thumb to point at himself. He brimmed with confidence in the face of long odds.

Kylian hesitated for a moment before entering the evacuation pod, but did get inside at last with the girls. Luc closed the hatch from the outside sealing the entrance to the pod. Kylian pulled the ejection handle from the inside and the evacuation pod blew its safety bolts and slid down a railway, slow at first, into a tunnel cut into the rock. It soon picked up speed as it fell away into its escape tunnel. The rails made a sharp turn to the left and then the pod slid out of sight leaving only a big hole in the wall where it came from.

After a quick ride, the evacuation pod ejected from the side of the cliff and splashed down into the sea several hundred yards from the little cove entrance to the Order’s hideout. It floated and bobbed on the water’s surface. Kylian and the twins were shaken and stirred from their roller-coaster ride, but otherwise safe and unharmed. Inside the pod, the twins sat together and watched Kylian with his head drooped down, elbows on his knees. The girls think he looked awful glum and depressed. Kylian covered his eyes with one of his hands and spoke to himself for there was no one else who could commiserate with him.

“What would I do if she doesn’t come back? I couldn’t live without her,” said the heartbroken Kylain.

Realizing that they bobbed around for a while, Kylian snapped out of his malaise and opened the top hatch and poked his head outside. It was night, and the sky was very dark. Kylian looked around and saw very little, but he did spot the brightly colored Aveline Super Party Yacht a league away. A string of lights in the outline of the pop singer pictured on the side of her yacht made it pretty obvious whose ship it was.

Kylian ducked back down into the evacuation pod and pulled out a gun from a cubby inside the pod to the surprise of the two wide-eyed girls. The twins clung to each other, anxious about what Kylian might do with the gun. They knew he was feeling depressed and dejected for leaving Viviane behind. They could feel their pulses race as their imaginations reeled with anticipation watching the unstable Kylian handle the gun.

Kylian looked over the gun for a while, getting a feel for the handle and the weight in his hand. He turned it over a few times trying to get a feel for the trigger. After about a minute, he made up his mind! He squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself as he pulled the trigger.

“BAM!”

A bright red emergency flare shot through the open hatch and flew into the sky!

The twins, who held their breath for what felt like an hour but in actuality was probably only a minute, exhaled and wilted with relief.

On Aveline’s Super Party Yacht, Bastian saw the red distress flare fly through the sky and leapt up and ran to the railing to look in the direction of the flare.

“Aveline! Look! An emergency signal flare! It has to be them.”

Aveline turned to look up at the sky and she saw the last remnants of the flare fall into the water. “Go get’em, Captain!”

Bastian rushed back to the controls of the yacht and gunned it heading over to where he last saw the flare come from.