Chapter Five
Ed didn't show up for work the next day, and for some reason Roy wasn't surprised. He'd spent the majority of that night with a strange feeling in the back of his mind telling him that Ed was not okay. He paced his room, tired but unable to sleep, wondering why he hadn't yet called. He was paying for it now. Barely able to keep his head up, he signed paper after paper in his office, occasionally checking the time. Ten minutes until Ed was supposed to be working. Five minutes. Three minutes. Two minutes.
"Ed's not coming again." Roy murmured to himself as the clock slowly inched past eight in the morning. Sighing and shaking his head, he dialed Hughes' number, and the fellow soldier picked up right on the second ring.
"Hughes." He greeted, in an incredibly exuberant morning-person voice.
"I think we may have a problem, Maes." Roy replied, not bothering with any kind of introduction.
"What kind of a problem are we talking about here? You sound stressed."
Roy paused for a second, surprised. He didn't think it showed. In fact, he'd thought he was doing a pretty good job at hiding that fact until just then. Instead of protesting like he normally would, he just blew Hughes' comment off and continued, "It's Ed. He hasn't been to work in a few days, and that's not normal. He hasn't even called."
"Well, did he just leave on another search like he normally does?"
"I thought of that already. I'm sure that's not the case."
"How sure?"
"A hundred percent sure."
"Well…I'll get a search team, Roy, but don't blame me if he just shows up unharmed in the middle of Central sometime soon."
"Thanks, Hughes." Roy replied gently and hung up.