Watch out for cute Rosie moments in this chapter.
...
The wind had finally died down. Robin and Ferb picked themselves up from the floor by the window and looked around. "At least that's stopped," Ferb sighed in relief.
"Yeah," agreed Robin. "We should probably check with the others."
"Yeah, and I need to find Gretchen."
They headed off round the corner and saw Esther and Zero coming the opposite way. The two pairs ran towards each other and met in the middle.
"Have you seen James?" asked Esther worriedly.
"No. Should we have?" Robin asked.
"He left us twenty minutes ago and we haven't seen him since."
Zero shot an annoyed look at the floor. If only he hadn't got himself knocked out; he could have saved Esther and she wouldn't have feelings for James. There's no proof that she does have feelings for James, his inner voice reminded him.
"He just has a history of doing reckless things," Esther added. "I really worry about him when he goes off on his own like that because I know he can get into a lot of trouble on his own."
Even Zero's inner voice had no words of comfort for that. He gave the photocopier a glare and felt glad that nobody was paying attention to him.
"Have you guys seen Gretchen and Rosie?" Ferb asked.
"Gretchen said they were waiting for you by reception," answered Zero, hiding his grumpy mood from his voice. "But when we got there, they weren't there."
"Okay…" Ferb tried to think. "So we have James missing, nobody knows where Gretchen or Rosie are, and Stephen and Ruth have been off-grid for a while?"
"Yeah, ever since they stopped the wind," said Esther.
"Hold on." Robin frowned. "Stephen and Ruth stopped the wind?"
"Ruth did," Zero corrected her. "They bumped into us just after James went missing and they told us Ruth stopped the wind. Apparently, there was a machine in the vents."
"That makes sense," nodded Robin. "That explains how the wind was distributed across the whole office floor."
At that moment, the floor began to shake violently. Esther stumbled into Zero, Ferb fell against the wall, and Robin spread her arms and legs to keep her balance.
…
Over on the other side of the office, Gretchen stumbled, still carrying Rosie. The little girl gave a wail just as the floor stopped shaking.
"It's okay, sweetie," Gretchen said to Rosie. "It's okay. We're going to find your daddy now, okay?"
"Okay," replied the small voice.
Gretchen began walking again, trying to find Stephen or Ruth or anyone else. To keep the child's mind off their predicament, Gretchen asked, "What do you like to do with your daddy?"
Rosie immediately brightened up. "Daddy takes me to the lake on Sundays and we sail on our boat!"
"A boat, that sounds nice," smiled Gretchen.
"It's called the Sweet Susan," proclaimed Rosie. "Daddy says it's named after Granny."
Gretchen felt her heart warm just a little bit. "That's really nice, Rosie."
"Granny used to make sweets for me," Rosie said, making a face as if enjoying one of said sweets. "We made them with sugar and other stuff. When Granny went to this place called heaven, she kept sending Daddy sweets and he gave them to me from her."
Gretchen's heart broke just a little at the amazingly heart-warming thing that Stephen was doing for this little girl. "That's great, Rosie."
"She hasn't come back from heaven, though," said Rosie thoughtfully. "Daddy says she likes it there so much that she's staying there. I want to go to heaven one day."
"One day you will," Gretchen said. "That's a promise. And when you do, you can see your granny again. But it won't be for many years, understand?"
"Daddy explained it to me," Rosie stated, but what exactly Stephen had explained to Rosie was never revealed; at that moment, there was a final tremor, and this one knocked Gretchen right off her feet. She hit the wall head-first and was immediately knocked out.
…
Ruth knew she had made a mistake within ten seconds. First, it was almost completely dark round the corner. She wished she had brought the night-vision goggles, but even if they hadn't been broken, she probably wouldn't have known how to work them.
Second, she came face-to-face with a huge, menacing-looking machine and a guy dressed in black.
She gave a little gasp and pressed herself against the wall. Luckily, the guy hadn't seen her. She heard him muttering to himself, "Gotta check for any tampering."
She edged closer to him while keeping to the wall, picking up a large and heavy wrench which was leaning against the wall. When she was near enough, she leapt out and hit the guy over the head with the wrench, making him crumple. Then, just as she had with the wind machine, she attacked the tremor machine with the wrench and all her strength. The floor shook one final time before becoming still.
Someone ran around the corner. Ruth tensed and clutched the wrench so tightly that her knuckles went white but it turned out to be an agent she had never met before. She did recognise him from a photo that she had been shown, though. Agent Zero.
The experienced agent had a torch, and Ruth saw the beam swing from the knocked-out guy to the smashed-up machine. "You're Ruth Summers?" was all he said.
Ruth nodded hurriedly.
"Good job."
Zero gently took the wrench from her and set it down on the ground. Then he swung his torch onto the face of the man who had been knocked out. Ruth didn't recognise him but Zero did.
"Professor Daniel Bannister."
...
THE PLOT THICKENS!
