Copy, (An Astro Boy Story)

Chapter 20: The Real Machine

In a rush, the emotions were back and Cora didn't know what to do with them. For a second, she just stared at Toby with her mouth agape, observing the frantic flashes of raw terror and jumbled calculating in his eyes that she'd become so familiar with in her own.

She swallowed thickly, momentarily forgetting how to speak. "What do you mean 'missing'?"

"I mean missing, Cora!" Toby exploded, waving his arms around in meaningless motions as he attempted to use his fear-driven energy. "He's gone! Kidnapped, dead, I don't know – "

"Hold on, hold on," Cora tried, putting a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to ground him. For once, she found herself as the rational one. Weird. "Get a grip! How do you know he didn't just go out, or isn't just at the Ministry?"

Toby leveled a glare at her that wasn't really warranted. "He said he was coming home to see me," he hissed. "You heard him. No way he'd go back to the Ministry, and anyway, I checked, and he hasn't been in. And the house was unlocked when I got there, and it never is, and his desk has been ransacked and it's always pristine and the window was open and it never is and – "

"Yo!" Cora interrupted him, shaking him furiously to get his attention. Was this what she was like when she was crazed? "Slow down! Maybe he was just upset. I mean, he should be, considering he just fu – "

"This has nothing to do with Astro!" Toby erupted, correctly predicating what she was about to say and seeming furious Cora would ever consider that as a possibility. "Cora, my father has been kidnapped! Even Orrin thinks so! He detected foreign substances in the carpet, and he's running them now, but he said he thinks it might chloroform."

Chloroform. Even Cora could hardly convince herself that it might be a remnant of some sort of experiment. Chloroform meant someone wanted Tenma, alive and uninjured. But why?

She could see the panic rising in Toby's eyes and forced herself to keep her head.

"Was any money missing?" she asked, keeping her voice calm. "Anything expensive?" The Tenma's easily had the wealthiest penthouse in the city, and if the kidnappers had wanted Tenma to ransom him for money, they'd probably not hesitate to nab any valuables they could locate.

But Toby shook his head. "The only thing that was touched was his desk. Everything else is pristine, and Orrin checked the house vault. Nothing's missing."

Cora frowned, trying to keep her facial expression neutral for Toby's sake. Inside though, her mind was whirling. She might be a newbie to the city, but she had had a heck of a lot of experience with human nature and she knew that nobody did anything as drastic as abduction without motive. If someone had really kidnapped Tenma - and not for his wealth - the reason could not be good... not for the city, and certainly not for Toby.

Ten bucks said if someone wanted Bill Tenma, it was either because they had a serious grudge – something in which Cora could relate – or for his brains, and Cora doubted to use them for recreational purposes.

Although she highly doubted either of these harsh truths were really revelations that should be conveyed to Toby right now. The teenage genius looked to be at about the point of hysteria and Cora really questioned if he was thinking logically. That she could understand, at least. Panic does that to you.

Unfortunately, she also knew there was really nothing she could physically do. This one might be out of their hands.

She took a big breath. "Call the police," she instructed him firmly.

Toby blinked, the craze leaving his eyes for a moment in surprise. "What did you say?"

"Call the police," Cora repeated, leveling him with a serious look. "If your dad has really been kidnapped, that's the reasonable thing to do."