Either there were no other buildings around, or they were spaced just far enough away that they couldn’t been seen through the vantage point the window offered Caspian. He clicked his tongue softly in disappointment when he conceded that the only sight he could glean was that of the cloudy sky overhead. Although it probably didn’t matter anyway. If he’d been taken somewhere outside the capital, he wouldn’t be able to recognize any landmarks in the area. He’d never left the border walls before, because the high born district was vast enough to keep him occupied as a child, and when he was older, the war against the Scourge had kept all upper class citizens barred to their home city for the most part. Since Regis had appeared once, he was pretty sure he wasn’t in the capital anymore.

He glanced at Iris and merely shrugged when she warned him that she was going to be covering up the window again. That didn’t matter either. The brief glimpse he’d gotten of the outside world had helped him orient himself at least a little, so he could stand to sit in darkness for another day. Plus, just knowing that there was a window in the basement was enough. Now he had an exit point to use when he made his escape. He wouldn’t have to risk running into any other rebels in the house because he could just climb out of the room and make a run for it once he got outside. Just the thought of it hastened his heartbeat with anticipation, and he had to look away from Iris to keep from giving away his eagerness. Only when the basement was bathed in darkness did he risk looking up at her again.

[color=#b97703]“Okay,”[/color] he said noncommittally when she told him she would bring more water later. The part of him that had been raised to say please and thank you squirmed at his lack of appreciation for what she was doing, but he needed to keep an emotional distance so he wouldn’t be duped again. Even if it meant dropping his manners for a while, it was the safer thing to do as long as he was unsure who’s side she was on.

The prince tracked Iris with his eyes until she left the room. The instant he was alone, he reached into his pocket to retrieve the screw he’d hidden away, continuing his work on the rope around his wrists. Now that he knew he only had two days left before the rebels would kill him, he needed to act fast. [color=#b97703][i]Just a little more…[/i][/color] he thought urgently, biting down on his lower lip as he sawed at the threads. [color=#b97703][i]Once these are off, all that’s left is to figure out a way out of this cell, and then I’m out of here.[/i][/color]

--

Jacob paced drummed his fingers restlessly against the arm of his chair, watching the surveillance team sift through thousands of live camera feeds. It had been one day since they had discovered their prince was missing, and they were making steady progress on narrowing down his location, but every second that passed was another second their enemies had to torture or even kill the heir to the Aspirian crown. They needed to track him down as quickly as possible or King Atlas would veritably massacre his own security team in outrage.

Yesterday, they had obtained the footage from a camera on a building near the forest, which showed the prince and his company exiting the vehicle and venturing into the trees. At that point, he still appeared to be in good health and acting on his own free will. However, as expected, the angle of the lens hadn’t caught what had happened after they had wandered off. On a hunch, Jacob had requested the reel from a camera on the other side of the woods, one that belonged to the border guard who monitored activity at the edge of the city. Lo and behold, the footage revealed their missing link, and he and the other guards had watched in abject horror as the two missing terrorists carried the unconscious body of their future king to the trunk of a car.

What was even more frustrating to Jacob was the fact that there was always a soldier on duty to keep watch of the forested part of the border, but no one had raised any alarms when the kidnapping occurred. He dug a little deeper only to find that the man who had been tasked to monitor the woods had been asleep on the job. Naturally, he fired him on the spot.

Now, fifteen hours since then, he had been working with the surveillance team to pull up footage from the cameras that had been installed throughout the rest of the kingdom. They were searching for the beat-up vehicle that the rebels had used to escape, hoping to use it to narrow down the district that Caspian may have been taken to. It was the best lead they had so far, but after going through camera after camera for hours on end, Jacob was starting to get impatient. If nothing turned up in the next twenty minutes, he intended to leave and—

“I’ve got a hit!” an excited voice interrupted his thoughts. One of the soldiers had frozen his screen on a camera, on which the car they had been looking for could plainly be seen. The plate number was a match. “The vehicle is in the Bel Bicis district near forty-third street and fifty-second avenue.”

“Good work, soldier,” Jacob said, his eyes widening as he stood up from his chair. Reaching for his com device, he began barking orders, “We’ve narrowed down Prince Caspian’s location to the Bel Bicis district. I want scouts heading to that area immediately to figure out which building the prince is being held hostage in. Focus search parties around the intersection at forty-third fifty-second, but don’t limit yourselves. We’re getting close, men. We can’t let them slip away.”