Triangulate his position

With the tape measure and compass that you had on hand, you and Emma set about the task of trying to narrow down the exact direction that your father was in. The fact that the distance had already gone down by about a kilometre from home to the school already gave you some indication but wanted to be as precise as you could with what you had on hand.

You had Emma set up a starting point that would be constant throughout your tests, making sure you measure from the same location while she was ready to write down the figures that came out of the KDK. You measured out a 1 metre radius around that point and whenever the figure on the app changed to the lowest digit in the radius, you marked it with a stick from the nearby trees. Next was 2 metre, then 5 and finally 10, stopping there given the length of your tape measure and the fact that you didn’t want to receive any unnecessary attention from whoever might stumble upon the two of you.

The 2 marked points you had made on each of the 4 tests now gave you range to work with and if everything had worked out like you and Emma had expected, the mid-point between them all should have given you needed to get the exact direction. Doing another smaller test at home when nobody else was around would hopefully match your findings but that could wait for now.

The compass you had brought ended up being less useful than you thought and although it showed you that the direction was pretty close to the North East marker, the default compass app that Emma had on her phone gave you much more accurate results. The two of you spent a little time trying to find the best mapping tool you could find for free on the internet and eventually found one that would allow you to draw the points that you needed.

The area that it displayed, looked to be nothing more than a quiet suburb about 3 towns over, which would normally be nothing out of the ordinary but considering who you were tracking, it raised some red flags in your mind. There shouldn’t be any large business firms around that location and even if it wasn’t where he worked but where he was living, the houses were way too big for just one man to stay in on his own, more likely the place for couples or families…

Emma stayed silently by your side as you continued to investigate, not wanting to give you any false hope now that she knew your father’s earlier track record. You couldn’t see a way of narrowing it down to any one street or even a house with the method you were currently using and the only way to get confirmation would be to actually head over there and see for yourself. You’d even be able to track him thanks to the new explorer upgrade but the fact that the system suggested you would need the upgrade in the first place wasn’t giving you much hope of finding anything good either.

With a sigh, you tried to put everything out of your mind and get on with the better things you had planned for the day. Now wasn’t the time to be going off on a wild goose chase just on a hunch and you’d need maybe a whole day or two to get there and back if you were planning on making the trip. All of that wasn’t possible at the moment and given the heavy mood that was starting to set in, you wanted to make sure that the walk home had the two of you in higher spirits.

“You ready to go?” You asked Emma, getting up from where the two of you were resting knowing that she was the one waiting for you before offering your hand.

“Sure” she replied, taking your hand with a smile now that she could see your expression looking a little bit better than it was before.

You helped get her up before you set about packing up everything you had taken out of your bag, cleaning up all the markers and sticks that you had used in the process. It only took a few minutes and then the two of you set off hand in hand towards the main gate. Even though you had wanted to improve the mood by leaving the topic behind you, the silence between the two of you felt a little more awkward than usual and it wasn’t long before Emma decided to speak up.

“Wanna talk about it?” she asked, giving your hand a light squeeze as you exited the school grounds and out into the streets.

“I’m pretty sure you know what's going through my head at the moment. I don’t know why I’m so angry at the moment to be honest. He hasn’t taken much interest in what happens at home these past few years and even when he is there I wish he wasn’t.” you started explaining, stopping yourself when you felt like you were about to start rambling.

“Trust me I get it. You can’t stand them but the fact that they're off enjoying themselves like you don’t mean anything makes it even worse” Emma replied, making you feel a bit guilty about not realising she had been through the same with her father.

You expected there to be another awkward pause but a smile appeared on Emma’s face as if she had come up with a plan.

“It doesn’t mean we can’t have our own fun though. If we go and figure out exactly where your father is then we might as well make the most out of it” she declared with a grin.

“You’re gonna come with me?” you asked, looking a bit puzzled at her suggestion.

“Sure!, We can have our very own road trip for the weekend. Go on a drive and just hang out, getting something to eat… maybe stay over somewhere.” she explained, blushing slightly at her last comment.

“I don’t think any good hotel around here would let two 18-year-olds have a room for just one night” you replied with a chuckle, getting a little too invested in her story.

“Who said anything about just the two of us. We can bring my Mom along with us. I’m sure we can work out some sleeping arrangements between the three of us” Emma continued, letting you see a fire in her eyes as she started to fantasize.

Your eyes widened at the thought of what she was suggesting and you were happy to imagine a scenario of the three of you sharing a bed, but making it anything more than fiction would probably be far off in the future. That was unless Emma had a plan in mind that she was willing to share.

“I don’t think Grace would be onboard with what I think you're imagining” you responded, breaking Emma out of her thoughts.

“Well not everything but I’m sure we could at least pull off some of it. If you can get her up a level by this weekend then I’m sure she’d be a lot more open to some advances” she replied, nudging your arm as if that would somehow convince you.

“She’s got a little under an hour's worth of time until her next level-up so it would be cutting it pretty close given what's happened so far” you admitted, trying to consider Emma’s proposal a bit more seriously.