Therefore, he had no means to find Blackbeard at the moment. Even though he could be sure that Blackbeard was somewhere close by based on the previous location, he couldn’t pinpoint the location.

As such he could only lead Bruce and the others in the direction of Blackbeard’s last known location, the point where the blip eventually vanished, while surveying the island with the help of his drones.

His drones were constantly combing the island in search of any living entity but finding Blackbeard was proving to be an impossible task. The location he was hiding in was probably in the blind spot of all his drones.

Therefore, noticing the increasing restlessness of Bruce, the pressure on his shoulders was continuously increasing. 𝒃𝒆𝒐𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝙘𝙤𝒎

Shaking off all the troubling and pressuring thoughts, Zach focused on looking for Blackbeard. He didn’t want to imagine what Bruce might do if they failed to find the whereabouts of his sister from Blackbeard.

“Have you located her yet?”

Bruce stopped pressurizing the pirates and turned towards Zach who was the last bastion of hope for him. There was no one else more reliable than Zach in Bruce’s mind. He always delivered when it was required out of him.

“Not yet…”

“How long is it going to take?” Bruce tried to hold in his frustration as he grinded his teeth before asking.

“I have only managed to find her general location up till now. I should be able to find her location after a few minutes. Until then I can only lead you to the place, she was at a few minutes ago. We can try to look for her on our own when we get there until the time, I can get a clear set of coordinates for her exact location.”

Bruce appeared to be satisfied with his explanation for now, but Zach knew that his patience was running thin. It might not be long before he would begin to blame Zach for what happened to his sister.

Therefore, Zach didn’t have the heart to tell Bruce that he had lost the location marker on the map a while ago and could only try to locate Blackbeard and Diana based on their last known location.

Since the location had been changing on the island since the time they arrived on the shore and engaged in battle with the pirates, Zach assumed that Blackbeard was taking Diana with him to run away from the turmoil of the battle that was about to take the island by the storm.

He could only hope that Blackbeard would try to take Diana with him for protection until the end. Otherwise, Zach might be unable to find Diana unless she made it out of range of whatever it was that was interfering with the signal. They would have to scour the entire island manually to locate her in that case. Moreover, there was a high chance that Blackbeard would be successful in escaping while they were busy trying to find Diana.

Just when he was beginning to sweat and no longer knew what to tell Bruce, his beautiful wife Christina’s melodious voice rang out in his ear, easing his tension and taking off all the pressure from his shoulders.

“I found him. He is down there.”

Everyone jerked their heads towards her. Just like Bruce, the soldiers were also quite keen on locating their commander who had taught them most of the skills they knew. They felt indebted to her and wanted to do anything they could to bring her back.

Zach was visibly excited that he didn’t have to come up with another excuse to keep Bruce from flaring up.

Christina was a little stunned at all the attention she received from these men, but she didn’t reveal it on her mature and composed visage. Instead, she gracefully pointed towards a well-hidden cave towards her right.

Zach hadn’t known that she was excellent in sensory magic and was capable of sensing things from quite some distance away. She could have become an excellent scout in the army, or an excellent spy based on her sense alone.

Therefore, she had sensed Blackbeard the moment she came into range and alerted the others.

Zach cast an extremely grateful glance towards her. She reciprocated his feelings with a charming smile that could have easily stolen the hearts of anyone present at the scene had they witnessed the discrete exchange between the two.

Zach immediately sent in drones through the gap in the greenery surrounding the hole and pulled the video feed on the screen in front of him.

The passage inside the cave turned out to be extremely long. With the help of the drone, Zach soon found the figure of the pirate captain Blackbeard moving cautiously but swiftly through the long passageway.

Zach looked around for Diana with the help of the drones but there was no place inside the passage where Blackbeard could have hidden her. As such he could only get that information from Blackbeard himself.

Blackbeard’s flight finally brought him to the end of the passage. There, a weathered wooden pier extended into the waters, providing a calm berth for a solitary boat. The boat, marked by years of use, bobbed gently in the sea’s embrace, seemingly unaware of the tumultuous events that had transpired throughout its life.

The passage’s terminus on the other hand felt like a tranquil pause, in the midst of the chase; a brief moment of respite before the impending storm that would be waiting for him the moment he went out to the sea. He could only hope that Zach’s men wouldn’t be guarding the shores, or this escape attempt had the potential to turn into his funeral pyre instead.

While Blackbeard was pondering whether to make his escape now or to wait for Zach’s forces to retreat before taking action, he was completely oblivious to the fact that all his actions were being monitored by the very enemy he was running away from.

“There’s an underground cave that leads to the island shore. There is a boat waiting for him there. Looks like their mighty captain is about to make his escape by himself.” announced Zach as he told them what he found through the video feed of the drones.

The last part of his words was directed towards the small group of pirates being hauled along by the soldiers.

Bruce heard Zach and his mind went into a frenzy. He failed to hear the information he wanted to hear the most and could only hope that Zach had more to say.

Every cell in his body was in the grasp of fear as he hesitantly asked Zach, “Is she there…my sister…is she there with him?”

Zach had been trying to avoid this question all along. He figured that he would first capture Blackbeard and then find out everything from him, but Bruce had been getting increasingly frustrated. He didn’t want Bruce to lose his bearings just yet.

Alas! Things didn’t always go as you planned them out to be. Since Bruce had already asked him the question, Zach couldn’t exactly lie to him since Bruce would find out sooner or later anyway.

“I am afraid not…she isn’t with him. He is escaping alone.” There was helplessness in Zach’s tone as if he didn’t want to give Bruce such an answer, but he had no other choice.

“YOU…you told me…she was here…THAT was a few minutes ago…why haven’t you found her yet?” Bruce was about to go berserk at this sudden revelation and all his anger turned towards Zach who was trying to do everything to help find her.

“Calm down first…we WILL find her. Let’s get that bastard first. Maybe he has hidden her here somewhere.”

Bruce felt a flicker of reassurance amidst the chaos of his emotions as Zach’s words cut through the darkness like a guiding beacon. The sheer determination in Zach’s voice, as he vowed to locate her, acted as a stabilizing force, an anchor to cling to amidst the storm of worry that threatened to consume him.

The prospect of confronting the one responsible, the “bastard” who might have cunningly concealed her, ignited a surge of focused resolve within Bruce. It was a moment of clarity, where purpose superseded panic, and a glimmer of hope emerged from the shadows.

Zach’s unwavering conviction held the promise of unearthing her location, and the notion that she might be hidden nearby, awaiting rescue, breathed newfound strength into Bruce’s strained heart.