Hi! This will be just a short chapter. University started again and so I don't have much time to write. I have an internship at the moment- a dissection practical. I'm happy that I'm in the first group, in which I have to dissect frogs, because the second group will dissect rats!

Thanks again to Cynlee for reading and correcting, and thanks for the reviews!

Keep Searching!

Crash!

"Damned stupid fucking device!"

"Donatello!" Leonardo was shocked. Was that his younger techno-geek brother? Don has smashed the computer keyboard with his fist. He buried his face in his hands.

"I can't find him. I just can't find anything at all!"

"Donnie." Leo laid a hand on his shoulder. "Keep cool. I'm sure we'll find him. Keep searching. Have you gone through everything?" Donatello nodded exhausted.

"The whole night and half the day. Police data, TV news channel, newspapers, everything! If someone would have found a "strange looking animal" he has not reported it."

"I think in this special case, no news good news." April had entered the lair. "I've hacked into the computer system of the coast guard. There was a report about the ship the Foot were on, but nothing about Splinter. I'm sorry."

"Thanks", sighed Leo. He looked at Don, who was nearly asleep over his damaged keyboard. "Go to bed. You have done everything you could. It doesn't help Sensei to stay awake by force. We might have to fight later, so we will need to be up to full power."

Don was too tired to protest. His brothers had searched at the beach, around the harbor and in the city with the Shellcycle and the Battleshell, but they had taken turns and slept between their rounds. Only Don had stayed awake the whole night long, though he was still exhausted from their fight with the Foot. Slowly he went to his room.

"Something new from the others?" asked April. Leonardo shook his head.

"Mikey is in the Battleshell and Raph is searching together with Casey on their bikes. They have been through the harbor district at least three times, and Raph suggested breaking into the harbor police department. I told him 'No', but you know him. He nearly got caught. Sometimes I really could kill him!"

"He meant well."

"I know, but he put us all in great danger and Master Splinter as well. What if some official bureau has him and got a report from the attack on the police department? They would move him to another, more secure, place, and it would be even harder for us to find him."

"You're sure that he is in some kind of government facility, aren't you?"

Leo sighed.

"He must have been washed ashore along the coast. The ship hadn't been that far away from it. And there was nothing in the news about a strange creature, so he must be in the hands of the government."

"Or the Foot," suggested April. "But I've hacked into their system as well. I didn't discover anything about any prisoners they would have brought in last night."

"That doesn't mean anything at all. They know you hacked their system before. I'm sure they wouldn't want the same thing to happen twice. Shredder's evil, but not stupid. You know where their current headquarters is located?"

"Yes. I can..."

She was interrupted by the return of the other Turtles and Casey. The look on their faces said everything. No sign of their Master.

"We've even been to a few animal shelters and that stuff," referred Casey, "but there was absolutely nothing, just a few normal rats."

"Sensei is so stubborn-- he's always unhookin' Dons tracking devices," added Raphael.

"Guys, we have two primary targets at the moment," stated Leo. "The government facilities and the Foot headquarters. But someone has to go to beach and keep on searching there. Maybe Master Splinter hunkered down and is too hurt to come back to us. Don and I will turn the Foot Headquarters upside down. Mikey, you and April will take the Battleshell and drive down to the beach. Maybe you can use Donatello's heat searching devices, as well as keep an eye on the harbor. Raph, you and Casey will take care of the government facilities."

He looked around at the four worried faces. Deep in their hearts they all believed that is was useless, that they couldn't find him--but they musn't give up. Father wouldn't give up and would do anything to free them.

"When do we start?" asked Casey. "Not sure if ya noticed it, but's its a bright sunny day out there. You guys can't walk around in the open."

"We will start this evening. We need the time for further information", answered Leo. "But for now, we should all rest. It was a hard night and the next one will be even harder."

They all went to their bedrooms. April went back to her apartment, but Casey decided to stay in the Lair and made himself comfortable on the couch.

A few hours later, Don awoke. He had had bad nightmares about his father who was being chased by enormous sharks.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, Don", he muttered to himself, "there aren't any sharks swimming in the harbor."

He went to the kitchen, made himself a sandwich, switched on the TV- maybe something would be on the News- and jumped over the back of the couch.

"Ahhhhhhh! You…you…you…I´ll kill ya!" Casey, so rudely awakened by a large turtle landing on him, jumped after Don and chased him through the Lair.

"Casey, I´m sorry!" panted Don. " I didn't know you were there, truly, I´m sorry, I…. aaaaaaahhhhhh!"

They both smashed in Raphael, who had gotten up because of the noise they were making.

"You two… I was sleeping!" And he threw a punch at Don, who ducked so that Raph hit Casey.

"Hey!" Casey grabbed Raph's shoulders and wrestled him to the floor. "Are you nuts?"

They rolled over the floor, wrestling and cursing, Donatello (to his relief) forgotten. Leonardo appeared behind him.

"What the shell…?"

"And that was a high-class kick by Raph "The Razor", immediately answered by a really mean looking punch from Bogeyman Casey, who…"

"Mikey, stop it," Leo said, "and you two as well. We have bigger problems. Let's see if we can find the floor plans of the buildings in which we have to search."

April arrived at that moment and came up to the boys. She had heard that last part.

"Almost done, Leo. I have the plans of the Foot HQ, especially the prison areas, and a way to get in. Their new security system is pretty bad. Good that Stockman isn't working for the Shredder anymore."

"Fine. Donatello, can you search via the Internet for the other plans?"

"Difficult. Those are government computers and they have a better security system. But I´ll do my very best."

RRRRinng!

The telephone!

For a moment they all froze. Casey and April were there; who else knew their number? Then they ran all together to the phone. Leo won the struggle for the telephone receiver and lifted it.

"Hello?"

Before he could say more, there was a click at the other end. Disconnected. The others looked at him.

"Who was it? Master Splinter? Leo, tell us!" Don tried to grab the receiver. Angrily Leo crashed it on the floor.

"Dunno. Disconnected." The disappointment overwhelmed them. For a moment they had all hoped…

"But who else could it have been?" asked Mikey. "Nobody else knows our number!"

"Master Splinter would have said were he is," said Don.

"Maybe he couldn't," Michaelangelo argued, unwilling to give up.

"Yeah, he can phone but can't talk," jeered Raph.

"Raph, stop it." Leo appeared to be calm, but inside he was seething. "Everybody knows what to do. Get busy finding the information we still need, because we will start our search at sunset!"