Henry put the phone number in the reverse look up and it only took a moment for the information to come up. Alicia Montrose's name had rung a bell when she said it and her voice had sounded familiar, but it was only when she mentioned Maurice's class that he placed her.

Her address came up, she live in Student housing. He hacked the Harvard computer to get more information on her. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but her reaction to his orientation really hadn't been good, even if she did seem to take his points during the class seriously. And now she was contacting him saying Maurice was in trouble; something didn't sit quite right with him.

The search through the web didn't reveal anything suspicious. Her family had money, but not enough for them to avoid needing grants and loans. Alicia's grades had allowed her to go mostly with grants.

After looking all the information over he went to the kitchen to get himself a coffee. He could have used the coffee machine in his lab, but he wanted the time to think. If Maurice was in trouble, why was *she* the one calling him instead of Maurice himself.

He nodded to Katherine as he walked by her office, and then to Bishop as he passed him, carrying a tool box. Henry stopped in his track and looked over his shoulder at the black man's broad back. When had the man's presence in the mansion become so common place that he barely noticed it anymore? Even Scott didn't react with startlement anymore when he ran into Ororo's lover by accident.

Henry shook his head and chuckles softly at his own reaction. If anyone here was smart enough to know change was a constant it should be him.

He made a new carafe of coffee and tried to think things over. He wanted to think on Alicia, but found himself thinking about Bishop instead. The man hadn't moved in yet, and it didn't look like he was going to but he was spending a lot of time here with Ororo.

He was helping around the mansion, visibly sweet on Ororo, and now that most were polite with him he was polite in return. If Henry met him today for the first time, he would never believe anyone describing how he used to be.

Large cup of coffee in hand he headed back to his lab, he'd decided that if someone like Bishop could really change, then he had to give Alicia the benefit of the doubt.

He dialed the number and sat back.

"H . . . hello?" he recognized Alicia's voice.

"Could I speak to Miss Alicia Montrose please?" Just because he knew it was her didn't mean he couldn't be polite.

"Speaking." He voice was weak and Henry couldn't shake the feeling she had been crying.

"This is Henry McCoy, you called me yest. . . ."

"Oh thank God you called back," she interrupted him. "I was afraid you wouldn't want to talk with me"

"No, no," he replied, feeling a small amount of guilt over delaying. "I'm sorry for not taking your call yesterday, but I was in the middle of something"

"That doesn't matter now, look I need your help, Maurice didn't show up for class this week and no one's seen him for four days now. I don't know what to do. I really need your help."

"All right Miss Mont . . . Alicia, I need you to calm down. I won't be able to help you until I know exactly what happened. Take a few deep breathes and tell me what happened, slowly."

"I'm sorry, I'm just such a wreck over this." She took the breaths Henry recommended. "On Monday Maurice's TA taught his ethic's class. I didn't question it because it sometime happens, but then he didn't show up for dinner. I called his house but he didn't pick up. On Tuesday I checked with his TA. Maurice hadn't shown up at all on Monday, he hadn't even brought in the papers needed for the classes. I went to his house but he wasn't there. Nothing looked out of place, but it didn't look like he'd been home in a few days.

"At that point I called the police. It's been four days now and they still don't know anything. I thought of you. You're a mutant, and your boyfriend works for the government I thought maybe you could help out or get the police to work harder, I don't know, I just want something to be done to bring him back." She ended with her voice cracking with sobs.

Henry gave her time to calm down, impressed that there had been no hesitation when she said 'boyfriend'. "How did you enter his house?"

"I have a key. He gave it to me after we'd been going out for a month."

"You and him?" Henry stammered, not quite able to wrap his head around it.

"I know what you're thinking, he's forty-two years older than I am, but after your lecture we started talking, well debating really, and we did it more and more and I started realizing how smart, kind and handsome he was, and well, we started going out."

Henry stopped himself from making a snarky comment. It wasn't his place to judge them, but handsome? There were many words he could use to describe Maurice, but handsome wouldn't have been one he'd use.

"It isn't my place to comment, but it does explain your current state."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Please don't be. I know the police have already asked you this, but can you think of any reasons Maurice might have had to just leave?"

"No, I can't. Monday was our two months anniversary, that's why we were having dinner together."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"On Friday for his class, I went home after that for the weekend since it was my dad's birthday."

"Can you think of anyone who might want to kidnap him?"

"No, I can't, but I don't really know much of what he does outside of the school and our time together."

Henry nodded to himself. Maurice did have a bunch of private projects for himself and some private investors. "Ok, I'll look into it and let you know what I find."

"Thank you, thank you so much."

Henry spent some time collecting information and putting it in an email before calling Katherine.

"Hi, you busy?"

"Not really, just testing a client's security with a heuristic attack," she replied, sounding bored.

"ok, I'm emailing you some stuff. When you have the chance can you hack the city's camera network and see if you can find the man in it?"

"Sure. You don't want to do it yourself?"

"I'm pursuing another line of inquiry."

"Ok, I'll let you know what I've found by dinner time."

"Thanks."

Henry wrote down three names that came to him as people Maurice had either worked with or were currently working with him. An internet search gave him five other names, so he started making calls.

Of the eight, he was unable to reach four, and two of those he was able to confirm were also missing. That made three geneticists at the top of the field who were missing. Searching through the news media he found two more, although he was surprised to find that one name was missing.

"V.D. enterprises, how may I direct your call?"

"Victor Von Doom's office please."

"On moment."

"Victor Von Doom's office, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to speak with Victor please."

"I'm sorry, but Mister Von Doom isn't taking any calls at the moment."

"Could you tell him that Henry McCoy needs to speak with him."

"I'm sorry, but he left instructions not to be disturbed."

"Please, just tell him I'm on the line and let him make the decision."

There was a moment of hesitation. "Hold a moment."

Thirty second later Victor was on the phone.

"Henry, I'm surprised that you called."

"To be honest Victor, I'm surprised that you're there to take my call."

"What do you mean?"

"Five geneticists have been kidnapped; I had expected them to try to kidnap you too."

"No one is stupid enough to try that with me, but someone did try to kidnap Susan."

"Is she ok?" Henry had met Victor's wife at a conference a few years before. She was a lovely woman and very bright, it hadn't taken him long to understand what Victor saw in her.

"She's fine, her bodyguard hardly had to do any of the work."

"Do you think they went after her to get to you?"

"It's possible, but remember she's one of the top biochemist in the world, it's just as probable that someone was after her for her set of skills, after all geneticist on their own can only get so much accomplished, at some point they need a biochemist to continue the work."

Henry nodded to himself. He hadn't considered that. "When was the attempt?"

"Last week. She was in Switzerland for a conference."

The time frame did match. "Can you forward me all the reports on the attempt?"

"I can arrange it."

"Thank you Victor."

Henry hung up and found himself surprised at someone else's behavior. He'd gone into the call fully expecting Victor to give him a hard time. Could it be that he had started assuming the worst in people at some point?

He filed the question to the back of his mind for later and started doing other online searches, he needed to know if more scientist had gone missing.