Free The Foundling Saga: Revelation by S D Bowring Page A

a fatal strike.
    Given the conversation that the Scouts had eavesdropped on, they considered that this town was a likely place for the two men to hide away.
    Consequently, they approached the city with some caution and set up a temporary base in a low ruin on the outskirts. They set up various detectors which could be carried relatively easily. They included heat and sound detectors. They would first try to locate a heat source significantly close to that of a human for the distance detected. This was off-world exploration equipment. The Scouts used sophisticated tools like this to retain what they referred to as SQO; the remit of the Scouts was often boiled down to the loose instruction of keeping the Status Quo and maintaining Order. This acronym was used when signing for, and checking out, equipment from the governments closely guarded stores.
    The heat and sound scanner equipment would be set in position on a stand and would turn full circle to identify the target scanning area. It would identify and confirm the type of environment (desert, sea, towns, forest etc.) and change its’ operation accordingly to scan intelligently, for example to exclude a body of water. It would locate a satellite for the purposes of pinpointing the exact geographical location to the nearest three metres and would then build up a 3D model of the visible environment subject to applied limits, for example to limit the scan to two miles. The second pass of the scan would then investigate within the set boundaries.
    The scanner would need to be relocated more frequently when it was on lower ground. Heat signals can be masked or degraded through obstacles, buildings and so forth. The Scouts scanned their immediate area on low ground to confirm they were alone in the vicinity. They then made their way to a mound that appeared to be an ancient manmade structure. It was probably used for a castle keep or lookout tower but the structure that must have sat on top of this mound was long gone. All that remained was simply an exposed perfectly round hill with a flat top covered in brambles.
    The scanner was left to operate itself whilst the Scouts made themselves comfortable out of sight. They had detached the screen so that they could see the progress of the scanning from their hidden position. The screen displayed the outline of the scanned area at such a speed it gave the impression that the viewer was being taking on a fast ride through a series of skeleton structures. The viewer would be breaking through walls and turning back and forth at such speed it would leave a distinct feeling of nausea if watched for too long.
    Eventually, they picked up a signal - two signals in fact. The screen display paused and started to buzz, showing stills of different depths and identifying two moving targets.
    The Scouts knew this didn’t conclusively identify their missing Outsiders, but they were in a confident mood as they identified the location. In an unhurried manner, two of them gathered the supplies and equipment from their temporary base whilst the other two continued to monitor the ‘heat sources’. The scanner continued trying to discern if there were any more heat sources in the target environment. After 30 seconds the scanning would automatically return to the first two heat sources. The Scouts could see that they were moving slowly in an area of large ruins.
    Once a heat source was identified it triggered the sound scanner. Residual sounds such as birds, rain, etc. were stripped out. Quite clearly the scanner identified occasional human voices. With sophisticated analysis it would feedback a relatively good quality recording of the words spoken and the voice patterns.
    The scanner paused and the Scouts could pick up the conversation, "…. unless I happen to have a problem with mine. Tuck it into your tunic. If you think you are going to fall, make sure this light has a soft landing.... probably more valuable than the two of us put together.”
    They