Here's the next chapter. I hope you like it. I'd hoped to end it differently, but it kept getting longer so i decided to cut it here and have the next chapter end where this one was supposed too. Enjoy.
Zane had tried to sleep that night; he knew it would take Zoë a while to get a flight to Oregon from Boston. He knew that wherever Andy was coming from it would probably take him a while to get back to town as well. So Zane had tossed and turned all night. He'd been surprised at how fast he had gone from completely pissed at Jo to being completely overwhelmed with guilt and worry. He could think of nothing else but her, if she was ok, if she was even alive. He thought of only her and how to get her back. Soon enough it was morning and he knew the town would be tearing itself apart without its leaders and law enforcement there to hold it together. Zane just wanted to stay in bed, the bed he shared with Jo, the bed where her scent still clung to her pillow. He was jolted out of his reverie by a sharp knocking on the door. He staggered out of bed to answer and found Andy standing there.
"Hello, Mr. Donovan. You look terrible this morning." Andy said, with that eerie persistent smile and cheery voice. Zane simply scowled at him and motioned for him to come into the house. As Andy settled himself on the couch, Zane went to the bedroom to change into regular clothes and freshen up. When he returned to the living room, Andy was sitting in the exact same spot. Creepy.
"Andy." Zane said, getting the robots attention. "Have you thought about what I told you last night?"
"Yes, I have Mr. Donovan. And I am happy to aid in the search for your missing colleagues. When was the last time they were seen?" Andy asked, watching Zane as he moved to sit in the chair across from the couch.
"All of them were seen yesterday morning." Zane answered. "They weren't all seen in the same place, but all around the same time."
"I see. Which of them did you see last, Mr. Donovan?" Andy asked. Zane was starting to get annoyed by this robot calling him by his last name. It made him feel like he was being interrogated again.
"I saw Jo and Carter in the Sheriffs Office. And call me Zane."
"Ok Zane. Did anything strange happen while you were talking to Deputy Lupo or Sheriff Carter?"
Zane hesitated at this question. He wasn't sure if it was considered strange that Jo hadn't said yes. Then again, he really didn't want this AI knowing about his personal life.
"No, nothing strange, exactly. I got in a fight with Jo and Carter walked in afterwards, when I was leaving." Zane replied, it wasn't exactly a lie. They hadn't fought, really, but the truth was too hard to explain.
"Do you know of anyone else who might have seen them after you, Zane?" Andy asked and Zane sighed. He knew that he'd have to go back into town and he knew who he'd have to talk to.
"Vincent might know who saw them all last. He told me about how Henry never showed for his speech yesterday. He seems to know the most about the goings on in this town." Zane replied. Just as he finished his phone rang. It was Zoë.
"Hey Zoë, did you get a flight?"
"Yeah, I'll be in Portland at 11, and then I'll catch a bus to town. Any news about my dad?" She asked
"No, nothing so far. Let me know when you get to the bus station, I'll come get you." Zane replied, hoping like hell he could have some answers for her when she finally got her. He glanced at his watch; it was only 8:30. He sighed and ran a hand over his face. People would be showing up for work at GD soon, if not already there, and they'd be wondering where the director was. He turned back towards Andy.
"Alright. Andy, can you go talk to Vincent at Café Diem and find out what he knows? Maybe he can help us pinpoint the exact time everyone disappeared. I'm going to head to GD, maybe someone there was working on an experiment that caused all this and I can figure out how to fix it." Zane said, surprised at how well he took charge of the situation at hand. He had never thought of himself as a leader, he'd always liked being on the outside, mostly relying on himself to get what he wanted, what he needed. Then he smiled, that was all until he'd come to Eureka, until he'd met Jo. She really was the best thing to happen to him, and he knew that he could wait forever for her to be ready to marry him. But first, he needed to find her. He watched as Andy headed off to Café Diem and then Zane got into his own car and headed for GD.
Once he got there, he noticed that nothing seemed wrong. A few people were in their labs or milling around in the rotunda. Zane figured they all must just be thinking that Dr. Blake was running late. She did have two kids to take care of, after all. He went to his own lab, and started flipping through the files he could access on the different GC projects. Sure, he didn't technically have access to most of these, but once a hacker, always a hacker. He stayed away from Section 5 projects and anything too classified. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention to himself or the town. Then he'd have to try to explain the disappearances to the DOD and Mansfield. None of them seemed to be anything that could cause five people to just disappear with no one seeing anything. Zane considered checking the section five projects, but he decided against it until he found it necessary to tell General Mansfield about the situation. He checked his watch and saw that it had taken him almost 3 hours to review the projects. He knew that Zoë would be landing in Portland soon and decided to check and see what Andy had found out.
Arriving at Café Diem, he found Andy waiting out front for him. It was impossible to tell if he had found out good news or bad, the robots expression never changed.
"Find out anything from Vincent?" Zane asked as he got out of his car.
"Yes, Vincent was quite helpful. He said that from what he's heard, they all seemed to disappear around 9 o'clock yesterday. If I remember correctly, that is somewhat late for Sheriff Carter to go for his morning run." Andy said. Zane nodded, knowing that whatever had caused this must have happened only minutes after he'd left Jo in the Sheriffs office. "Beyond that, Vincent says that no one in town has been acting strangely and that it appears only the five people you mentioned are missing. Any luck with the Global Dynamics projects?"
Andy's voice dragged Zane from his thoughts, he was thinking about how Jo probably didn't even have time to process his proposal let alone try to find him. He immediately felt guilty that he had been so angry with her and that he had wasted precious time in finding out what had happened to her.
"No, absolutely nothing. None of the projects I have access to have anything to do with making people disappear." Zane replied. "But I haven't looked into the section 5 stuff. I don't want to involve Mansfield until I have to."
"Maybe it's a kidnapping plot." Andy stated; his voice too merry for such a statement. Zane simply turned to stare at him in disbelief. He didn't care that Andy was a robot, how could he be so happy when there were people missing. Just then his phone started ringing. It was Zoë.
"Hey." Zane said as he answered the phone.
"Hey, find my dad yet?" Zoë asked; concern evident in her voice.
"Not yet hut we're still looking. You at the bus station?"
"They said the bus'll be there in a few minutes." Zoë answered, worry evident in her voice. Zane felt bad for her, she was only seventeen and she was living on the other side to the country on her own at college, and now her dad was missing.
"Ok, I'll lave now for the station, meet you there." Zane replied, then turned to Andy. "I'm going to pick up Zoë at the bus station, try to keep anything else that happens under control." Zane said as he got in his car and drove off, seeing Andy wave to him as he left. Zane drove in silence the entire way, thinking about what Andy had said, how maybe this was a kidnapping. He understood that kidnapping the Sheriff, the Deputy, the Mayor and the Head of GD was something a lot of people would want to do. The more he thought about it, he guessed that kidnapping Fargo was a big deal too. The guy had something to do with almost every major project going on in GD, much like Zane himself. Only in Zane's case, he was usually brought in when the project went wrong and someone needed to fix it before it destroyed the town. Now Zane was mad, if whoever had done this had thought to kidnap Fargo because he worked on a lot of projects, then why the hell didn't they kidnap him too? Zane stopped think about it as he pulled up to the station, seeing the bus pulling in behind him. Hopefully with him, Andy and Zoë working on the problem they could figure everything out before the DOD caught wind of what was going on.
Please R&R, thanks.