When Donald and I return to the research station, Louie and Webby are talking in low voices. They stop their conversation as soon as they notice us. Webby shuts Eddy's journal. I feel my anger flare up again at the sight of it. But no- now isn't the time. I walk past Dewey, who's laying on the floor with a file in front of him, to get to the other two. Mrs. Beakley and Uncle Scrooge are beyond them.
"Did you find anything that might cue us in to what Eddy wants with Huey?" I ask the two kids.
They exchange confused glances. Webby opens the front cover of the journal to reveal a sticker: "Property of F.O.W.L. Archives File #45,910".
"I don't think Eddy was behind this." she says cautiously.
"This shows that the journal was in the F.O.W.L. Archives." Louie explains, "Huey probably found it and smuggled it like he smuggled the other files."
I shake my head.
"Why would Huey smuggle files?" I challenge.
"Well, Dewey did secretly research you about a year before you got back." Webby motions to the triplet on the floor.
"Yeah, but Mom didn't purposely abandon us." Dewey glares at her.
I flinch, but shake it off. Dewey's right- Eddy abandoned us on purpose. He hadn't even been committed to us in the first place. He'd committed to F.O.W.L, so he'd left us. Huey was fully committed to us. Someone had attacked him and brought him to the Library of Alexandria.
"Well, if it wasn't Eddy, then who took Huey?" I ask.
Louie glances at Webby, who has turned to the board and doesn't notice his look.
"We don't know. There's not enough evidence." she flips the board to show the other side and grabs a dry erase marker.
"All we have is the study." Webby draws a rough diagram from the picture Louie took of it, "The chair is flipped and cracked, the leg is broken off and probably thrown at the chair, the files are everywhere- but no feathers, no other mess at all."
"And no Junior Woodchuck Guidebook." Louie gives me a significant look.
Donald and I both stiffen, and Donald looks over at me. I can't believe it. But I'm too frozen to argue.
"It's like it was staged." Mrs. Beakley walks over to us, "Huey was probably captured somewhere else and whoever did it messed up the study to throw us off."
I start to breathe again as I realize that Mrs. Beakley is on Donald and my side. Louie folds his arms.
"Right, they found F.O.W.L. files Huey had covered in notes and kept hidden without tearing the rest of the study apart," Louie's cynicism drips from each word as he folds his arms.
"Well, what do you suggest?" Mrs. Beakley challenges.
"Huey did it himself," Louie says, "He wants us to find this out. He's been more reserved and nervous than normal for the past year or so."
I break from my shock and turn on him.
"And you didn't say anything?" I demand.
Louie flinches, but holds his ground.
"Say what, exactly?" he questions, "'Huey's really quiet today'? 'Looks like working in the lab is making Huey stress more'? How was I suppose to know he was hiding something? Huey's Mr. Junior Woodchuck!"
His eyes bore into mine, challenging me to argue his angle. I feel nothing but trembling rage, rage at Eddy, rage at Huey, rage at Louie's smug expression and logical conclusion-
I yell at nothing in particular, then stalk off to the end of the plane. Louie's right, of course. Even if he'd mentioned that Huey seemed off, none of us would've thought much of it. We'd ask him if a project was stressful, if we asked anything at all. Huey would tell us if there was something wrong. What a naive thing to think.
"This is your captain speaking," Launchpad's voice rings out over the speakers, and I turn towards the front, "We are now approaching the Librar- lasers!"
He isn't given the time to finish his sentence before the plane rocks back with the impact of the first blast. I'm thrown back, and my head cracks against something. I'm out before I can register what happened.