There was no answer on Sam's cell phone. She must still be asleep, Tucker thought. It was nine in the morning. He felt guilty for needing to wake her up but there were more important things at the moment than sleep.

He called her house phone. A female voice answered.

"Manson residence, good morning."

"Good morning, Mrs. Manson." Tucker spoke trying to be as polite as humanly possible. "This is Tucker. May I speak to Sam, please?"

"Samantha isn't up, yet."

"Well, um. Would you mind waking her up? See, it's kind of important."

"Did you two have plans today?"

"Er, yes!" Tucker's mind raced trying to think of a convenient lie. "We were supposed to go to a college fair this morning. I'd like to get there before it gets crowded so we can get out of there as soon as possible."

"Oh! Well, it's about time she got up, anyway. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Mrs. Manson." Tucker heard her set the phone down and walk away. He waited, amusing himself by whistling into the mouthpiece. Mrs. Manson took even longer getting back to the phone than anticipated- and Tucker knew how long it took Sam to get out of bed.

"Samantha isn't here." She sounded upset and a little agitated. "Does this have anything to do with that Fenton boy?"

"Danny? No!" Tucker denied it before what she had said fully sank it. "Wait, you mean Sam's not there?"

"That's what I said! I looked all over the house. She's nowhere. I am going to give those Fentons a piece of my mind..."

A chill ran down Tucker's spine. Danny disappeared two days ago, well sort of, and now Sam is gone, Tucker thought. This is bad news.


The decision to look for Clockwork wasn't one that came to Tucker lightly. He hated the Ghost Zone, he hated the idea of going there alone, and Clockwork wasn't exactly one of his best friends. Their first introduction, which had sent Tucker ten years into a dystopian future and involved the abuse of his best friend, wasn't exactly a good first impression of the ghost. Tucker did know, however, that Danny trusted Clockwork and turned to him for advice or help. If Danny could put his faith in Clockwork, then Tucker could put his faith in Clockwork for Danny's sake. And Sam's.

At least he hoped.

Tucker also wasn't sure what other options he had. The Boooomerang had been gone for years and another poorly named tracking device that might have led to Danny had never appeared. The research he and Sam had done had proved fruitless and there were hardly any clues in Danny and Sam's disappearances that might point him in the right direction, or any sort of direction for that matter.

Sam's bedspread was missing along with some of her clothes. This made her parents assume that she had run off somewhere (despite the fact that she hadn't take her wallet or her cell phone) and they were actively blaming this on the Fentons. The Fentons, meanwhile, were increasingly upset and distraught at their missing son. The police had been notified the day before but had turned up nothing in their investigation. Jack and Maddie were currently spending every moment either fending off the wrath of the Mansons or running through every ghost based explanation that might explain why their son had vanished.

The map of the Ghost Zone that they had begun years ago had been fleshed out, detailed and repeatedly corrected. Tucker had uploaded the information into his PDA and combined it with a sort of GPS of his own invention (the GZPS as he called it). It seemed to work most of the time. In the fluctuating world of the Ghost Zone, however, things were always never quite where you expected them to be and none of the teenagers involved in making the map could exactly be said to have degrees in cartography. This meant there was still a certain amount of guess work, unless of course, Tucker thought bitterly, you happened to be Danny. The teenage ghost always seemed to have a better idea of where things were than either he or Sam did. Whether this was a result of him being a ghost inside the Ghost Zone or if it was simply because he had spent more time there, Tucker couldn't guess. Either way, Tucker didn't like the idea of going there without him.

Which was exactly what Tucker was about to do.

To do so, of course, Tucker would need the Specter Speeder. Stealing the Speeder was another thing Tucker didn't exactly relish. If he got caught, or as soon as they realized that it and he were gone, there would be more questions, more worries and things would get much worse.

Tucker went over to the Fentons' late that morning, the latest edition of the Ghost Zone map downloaded into his PDA. He gave the pretense of being worried about Danny and just wanting to be there for the Fentons, which was so close to the truth, it wasn't hard to fake. It wasn't until early afternoon and living through what Tucker felt were a few of the longest hours of his life, that Tucker finally got his chance.

They were sitting the living room, rehashing the same ideas for the hundredth time when the phone rang.

"Jack it's the police."

"Did they find anything? Do they know where Danny is? Is he okay?" Jack Fenton responded, his usually exuberance channeled into tension and hope. Maddie shook her head.

"No, they want to ask us some more questions. Things they think it would help them to know."

"All right then."

"Tucker?" Maddie looked at him sweetly.

"Yes, Mrs. Fenton?"

"Would you mind staying here? Just in case Danny or Sam or anyone else tries to call?"

This was just too easy.

"Of course. You guys take your time. I'll have everything under control here."

"Thanks, Tuck." Jack smiled at him warmly and a wave of guilt when through Tucker. He managed to smile back weakly.

"I'll have my cell phone, so call me if you hear anything." Maddie said, hastily grabbing her purse and her keys. Tucker got the feeling she liked having something to do, even if it was just go answer questions. Sitting around in an emergency was something she didn't do well.

"Absolutely."

"All right, Jack. Let's go."

"I'm right behind you!"

And with that they were off in the Fenton RV and Tucker was down in the lab.

Driving the Specter Speeder wasn't an issue for Tucker. He'd been doing that since he was fourteen; he'd known how to drive the machine before he'd known how to drive a car. Opening the Ghost Portal wasn't a problem either, despite the fact that it was keyed to only open to members of the Fenton family. A quick hack into the security system fixed that.

The rockets flared as the engine roared to life and the heavy door in front of him parted to reveal a sea of shifting green light, dancing and pulsing before his eyes. Tucker gulped and adjusted his glasses. He was Tucker Foley, he told himself. He could do this. Tucker Foley could do anything he put his mind to.

Tucker linked the Speeder's on board computer with his PDA, programing a route which he hoped would take him to Clockwork's tower. And with a press of a button the boy blasted into the phantasmic sea before him and was gone.


Bravo and cookies forDragon Queen Dreamer for getting Tuck's joke in chapter 5! In binary notation, which only uses 1s and 0s(also known as base 2) 2 is written 10. So there are 10 types of people in the world- those who understand binary notation and those who don't.

That just strikes me as a very Tucker joke.

-Daphne