Zo'or did not dare to speak again. When the boys finally stopped somewhere, they roughly pulled him out of the car into an obviously abandoned building. There they tied him with his hands and feet bound to a chair, so he could hardly move. One of the boys stood in front of him. “Now tell me! What do you have to do with the Taelons?” he demanded. Zo'or looked at the boy, confused. Was this actually some kind of interrogation? There were many reasons why humans were kidnapped, but he could not imagine that he could be so important to these humans that they had to interrogate him. “I... I don't have anything to do with the Taelons.” he lied. Maybe they would just leave him in peace, if he told them he considered the Taelons as a blessing to humanity, but did not know anything more than any other human did.
“Oh yeah, really?” the human now asked, threatening, and grinned maliciously. “It's my turn now!” another boy shouted, who had just been standing aside before.
Suddenly they heard a loud thud from outside. The boys turned their heads. “What was that?” the boy who had interrogated Zo'or asked. “No idea.” the other replied. “Go, find out what happened!” he called to the other. That boy immediately began to move and left the building through the door. “We'll see, maybe we'll find someone else to interrogate.” the interrogator laughed.
Then they heard a scream from outside and the boy pulled another boy into the building, who was struggling mightily. The boy holding the other opened a door and pushed the new captive inside. Then he locked the door and turned to the others. “I think that kid was trying to spy on us.” he explained. “Is that so?” the interrogator asked, who obviously also seemed to be their leader. “We should look to see if there are others. We don't want to have too many of those idiots in here.”
“'Course.” replied the boy, who had interfered into the interrogation. “Lock her in too!” he ordered, pointing at Zo'or. Zo'or was still sitting there, quite scared; without the commonality he felt completely helpless in this situation. Two of the boys came towards him, loosened the ties he was bound to the chair with, pulled him to his feet and also pushed him into that room, which seemed to be a kind of lumber storage room. He was quite confused, when he noticed who the other prisoner was.

 
* * *
 

Liam hurriedly entered the shuttle. He had to fly Da'an to the embassy quickly and then come back. “It's a relief that you finally agreed to let me fly you back to the embassy and leave the search to me.” he said, while he navigated the shuttle towards the tall Taelon building. “You were right, Liam.” Da'an answered. “It's your world, and because of that it is much easier for you to find out about Zo'or's whereabouts. And in addition, the boy is right concerning the media. An extensive search wouldn't be a good idea.”
“But Da'an, I have to order someone to help me search.” Liam threw in. “No Major, you forget Zo'or officially has to keep away from the mothership and the Taelons. I can't allow someone to be ordered to look for him. Also, I can only ask you. But I trust, Liam, that you will find and bring him back.” the Taelon finished. “Alright, Da'an. You can count on me.” Liam answered. The Taelon tilted his head in agreement.
They arrived at the embassy and the two passengers of the shuttle disembarked. An embassy employee came towards them. “Da'an, the synod wants to speak with you!” he said. “Of course, I'm coming.” the Companion answered, before turning to Liam again. “Inform me, when you find out something new.” he ordered, and disappeared in the corridor. Liam also turned away and left the embassy the fastest way. The place Ben was at was not far away, and with the shuttle he would just arouse unnecessary attention. So he ran along the street and looked for Ben and the pizzeria. Finally he arrived there, but could not find Ben. He ran up and down the street for a short way and looked around in the backyards, but Ben still could not be found. Finally he took his global and dialed Ben's number. At that moment a group of cyclists came whizzing towards him on the sidewalk, so Liam had to jump aside, when he collided with an older lady. His global fell off his hand and hit the ground with a clatter. The older lady looked at him. “Really! It's always these young louts! They'd better watch, where they're going.” She was clearly getting worked up. “Oh, I'm so sorry that I bumped into you.” Liam apologized and bent down to pick up his global. “Damn! The global is broken!” he cursed quietly. But the woman obviously seemed to have heard him and stood in front of him. “Now, my dear young man. That's no reason to use offensive language. You're looking quite angry. Would you like to tell me what is bothering you?” she chattered to Liam. But he knew he should get back to the embassy and call Ben from there. “Um no, everything is alright. I just have to call someone.”
But the woman did not leave him in peace. “Oh, you young people are always in a hurry. Let me read your palm, so I can better understand you.” she suggested. Liam now looked at her completely aghast. What did this woman want?! “Excuse me, but I really have to go now.” He tried to get away from her somehow. “Yeah, yeah, you're in such a hurry.” she sighed. “You really have to let me read your palm.”
Liam shook his head. “That's very kind, but I have to go now.”
The woman only blocked his way. “I must insist.” she ordered.
Liam rolled his eyes. He was beginning to wonder if he would have been better off letting himself be knocked down by the cyclists. “Okay, but hurry up.” he finally agreed to the woman's suggestion. The woman smiled mysteriously and took Liam's hand. “Oh, I feel that your hand holds an incredible power. But it has weakened in the last few years.” she said enthusiastically. Liam stared at the woman in horror. Could she possibly know...? No, that could not be. “Okay, that's enough now.” he finally said and tried to pull his hand away, but the woman did not let him. “No, I haven't even begun yet.” she objected. So Liam reluctantly had to resign to her.
The woman had scrutinized every line of his hand for some time, and Liam just wanted to tell her to get lost, when she spoke again. “That's strange. This constellation of lines would mean you could be only a few years old, at the very least. I believe I have to deal with this problem more intensively.” she finally murmured. For Liam it was now getting too weird. Maybe this woman actually knew what she was saying. He did not know how this could be possible, but that was just one more reason to get away from here. “I really have to go now. It's nice that you want to help me, but I truly don't have time.” he emphasized again. “I clearly see that you will be reconciled with your parents soon.” she said mysteriously. “I consider that impossible.” Liam replied, and this time managed to pull away his hand. Well, at least she did not know what she was saying and had only had a good guess earlier; anyway, he had to get away now. So he stepped away from her, calling “Goodbye!” and kept on running towards the embassy.

 
* * *
 

After the shuttle had taken off, Ben wanted to go back to the street with the pizzeria in case Zo'or came back. Suddenly, he heard loud voices behind a corner of a house. Instinctively, he pressed against the wall and listened. “Did you see that chick they caught today?” he heard a voice ask. “You mean the one with the weird Taelon look?” another laughed. “Yeah, exactly. Did you see how she moved?” Ben caught his breath. That sounded a lot like Zo'or. Had he really been kidnapped? The two voices were meanwhile continuing to talk. Now the first one spoke again. “Where did they bring her this time, anyway?”
“They drove over to that old warehouse. You know they enjoy interrogating.”
Ben thought about that. There only was one warehouse near by. So he turned away from the backyard and began his way to the warehouse. After a quarter of an hour he arrived. He went a few steps towards the building and clearly heard some voices from the inside. He stopped. Maybe he should call Liam now, because he meanwhile had to have returned from the embassy. So he dialed his number and waited. But the call seemed not to get through for some reason. Unfortunately, he did not know much about the usual technology around here, so he could not figure out what the problem was. Finally he put back the global; Liam would call him, when he was looking for him and that would probably happen soon. In the meantime he would have a look around the warehouse. He hesitated for a moment, then firmly went towards the building. The windows were set too high in the wall, so he could not look through them. But he decided not to give up so easily, and examined the walls for a way to look into the building. Finally he found an open dumpster with a ladder leaned up against it. Because the bin stood close to the wall, Ben could try to use it to look through one of the windows. So Ben climbed up the ladder, though he did not feel too comfortable about that. What if the ladder broke or one of those people in the building noticed him?
When he had managed to reach to one of the windows, he stood on the edge of the dumpster and carefully looked through the window. He was startled when he recognized Zo'or, who was tied to a chair with his hands and feet bound. Around him stood a group of boys he considered quite intimidating. One of the boys stood in front of Zo'or and was obviously shouting at him. All that Ben truly considered frightening, and he knew he had to call Liam now. He wanted to grab his global, but made a clumsy step to the side and lost his balance, so he fell into the bin.
Ben's eyes widened in horror. The fall had not been very painful, but as the bin was empty, his fall had caused a quite loud thud. Panicking, he tried to get out of the bin and made it on the third try. Then he heard steps and pressed as hard as possible against the wall of the refuse bin, but the steps were coming nearer. Suddenly a strong looking boy jumped towards him and grabbed his arm. Ben yelled and the boy did not let go of him, but dragged him along to the entrance of the warehouse. Desperately Ben tried to free himself from the boy's grip, but it was futile. The boy opened the door and pulled him in. Then he opened another door and pushed him inside that room. Ben saw he was in a kind of lumber room now, but he was still afraid - what would happen to him now? Calming down, he remembered that he wanted to call Liam. He took his global and dialed the number. But by this time his global did not respond at all and now he saw it looked bent. It must have gotten broken when he fell. Ben put the global away hurriedly. Then the door opened again and someone was pushed in. It was Zo'or. The Taelon stared at him, confused. “What are you doing here, Mr. Bring?” he asked. “I was looking for you.” Ben replied. “And considering our situation, you can call me Ben.” he added. “If you wish.” Zo'or said. “Did you inform Major Kincaid?” he then wanted to know. Ben looked at him desperately. How could he possibly explain that? “I wanted to...” he began, “But the global link didn't work and then I fell on my global and now it's broken.”
Zo'or gave him a blank look. “But didn't you try to call the embassy?” he asked. Ben rolled his eyes. He should have done exactly that, but now it was too late.

 
* * *
 

Quite worn out, Liam arrived at the embassy. He always kept an extra global there. You never knew when one could become useful. He went to his desk and looked for the global. When he found it, he sighed in relief and entered Ben's number, but the link could not be established. He pressed some buttons to find out what the problem was. But obviously the problem was the receiver, so something had to be wrong with Ben's global. Liam considered that to be even more worrying, so he hurriedly dialed Augur's number. The hacker's face appeared on the screen.
“What's up, Liam?” he asked. “I don't have time to explain now! Can you locate Ben's global?” Liam asked quickly. “One moment.” Augur replied and turned to his computer. “Yeah, it seems to be damaged, but one part's still working. I'm sending you the coordinates.”
“Thanks.” Liam said shortly and ended the link, before Augur could say anything.
Liam studied the data he had received from Augur. Ben was obviously not far away from here, at a warehouse which had been abandoned for a long time.
He knew he could not order just anybody to help him investigate the building, so he called Renée.
“Hello Liam!” she greeted him.
“Renée, you have to help me. Zo'or and Ben are gone.” Liam briefly explained the situation.
“What do you mean? Haven't they been at the embassy?” she asked, confused.
“Yeah, but it seems Zo'or insisted on leaving the embassy and then he disappeared. Ben waited in the city, while I flew Da'an back to the embassy, but when I came back he was also gone and his global seems to be broken. Augur could locate it, though. He seems to be in a warehouse. I need you to get into the building, Renée!” Liam announced. “I'm coming to the embassy.” she answered and cut off the link.

Liam ran to the entrance of the embassy to wait for Renée there. On his way he met Mit'gai. Liam was surprised to see him here, but did not want to waste time by asking him. He was about to keep on running, when the Taelon spoke to him. “Major Kincaid, could you tell me where Zo'or is at the moment? I can't find him in the embassy.”
This surprised Liam. Why was Mit'gai looking for Zo'or? He had to know that the synod leader was not allowed to be near the Taelons! “Why do you expect him to be here? And anyway, I thought the synod decided to keep away from Zo'or.” Liam said, dodging the question.
“You are right.” the healer answered. “But because this experiment has already been done, the synod wants to know how it is progressing. You must be aware of how important this experiment could be for the Taelons.”
Of course Liam knew of this and the synod obviously did, too. But they did not seem to want to admit it though, probably in case the press would find out about this. And had Mit'gai forgotten already that he had been the one doing said experiment?
“Alright, I will tell Zo'or that you want to see him.” Liam answered and walked away. He could not waste so much time and maybe it was better, if the other Taelons did not know Zo'or was missing.
When he reached the entrance, Renée was already awaiting him. “I thought you were in a hurry.” she said impatiently. “Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. Come on! We're taking the shuttle.” Liam replied.
The two of them rushed to the shuttle bay of the embassy. There, Liam immediately jumped in one of the vehicles and made some rapid movements with his hands. Renée followed him and sat in one of the other seats. Liam started the shuttle and skillfully navigated it away from the embassy. Then he activated the interdimensional drive.

 
* * *
 

Ben and Zo'or sat together in the small room in silence. Ben did not really know what to say. After he had failed to inform anybody of their whereabouts, he probably shouldn't annoy Zo'or any further. “Do you have any suggestions about how we could get out of here?” Zo'or suddenly asked.
“Maybe we should try to open the door.” Ben said carefully. But Zo'or looked annoyed, anyway. “I already thought of that. I wanted to know if you had an opportunity to pick the lock.”
Ben was starting to get fed up with all this now. It wasn't like he could just take some wire from somewhere and work on the lock with that, until it opened. At least, nobody had ever taught him to do something like that. “Why don't you kick the door open?” he suggested.
Zo'or looked at him. “How dare you talk to me like that?” Zo'or snapped at the boy. But Ben suddenly noticed what he just said and that the door, although they were in a warehouse, was just made of wood. Maybe it was not that stupid to try to kick it. Without a word he went to the door to watch it more detailed. When he turned around again, he caught Zo'or's icy glare. Ben stopped dead, when he realized he had just ignored Zo'or completely. Still, things could not get any worse right now, anyway, Ben thought. “Don't look at me like that!” he said, asking himself, if he maybe should not have said this. “I was just thinking that maybe it could be possible to actually kick the door open.” he then added quickly. Zo'or obviously was still angry, but just stayed silent and sat somewhere on the ground. Did Zo'or really just want to sit there now and sulk? Ben shook his head and approached the door once again. He then took a short run-up and kicked the door with full power. The door did not move an inch and Ben fell to the ground, rubbing his now aching foot. Zo'or threw him an arrogant look. “As you can see these primitive methods are leading nowhere.” he noted. Ben looked at him, angry. “Maybe you should come up with an idea then, if you're so very advanced.” he let out. At that, Zo'or got to his feet without warning, lunged at Ben, and grabbed him by the throat. Ben screamed desperately and clawed at Zo'or's arms. Finally he managed to at least turn his head a bit and bit into his opponent's wrist. Zo'or screamed and loosened his grip a little, but did not let go, and tried to keep Ben's head away from him.
Suddenly they heard a loud bang, the door flew open and Liam and Renée stormed inside. When they watched the scene, they were confronted with they first stopped where they were, before Liam regained his composure and went towards the two quarrellers to separate them. He grabbed Zo'or's arms and pulled him away from Ben. Zo'or tried to resist, but did not have a chance against Liam. “I think we should get back to the embassy immediately.” Renée said. “Indeed.” Liam noted. “But I first should take Ben home.”

 
* * *
 

Zo'or was still seething with rage when they arrived at the embassy. How had this human dared to talk to him like that, although he had known whom he was talking to? And then he had also bitten him and this time he had no healing Taelon energy, which made his injuries more bearable. In addition he was so weak that he even had failed to defend himself against Kincaid.
They entered the room, in which Da'an was. He looked at Zo'or for one moment, startled, then he went towards him. “Zo'or, what happened to you?” he asked. The younger Taelon looked into his eyes. “I was kidnapped by a group of young humans.” he said with disdain in his voice. “And that human, who was supposed to protect me, behaved extraordinarily impertinent towards me.”
“Please leave the room.” Da'an said, turning to Liam and Renée, who were still standing there. The two of them nodded and went away.
“You're injured.” Da'an noted. “I should call Mit'gai.”
“No.” Zo'or said, still quite aggravated. “I'm okay, and in this case it would probably better to consult a human doctor.”
Da'an nodded, hesitating. He did not seem to know, what to think of this whole situation. “Well then, I must ask if you have gained any knowledge about the humans. That was your intention, wasn't it?” Da'an reminded him. Zo'or sighed, and it startled him. Since when did he use the modes of expression of the humans? He tried not to let anyone notice and threw Da'an a disapproving look. “I had enough to do with me being kidnapped. But my opinion of the human's will to live was only raised by the experience. I will go now, Da'an.” Zo'or said, and left the room. He went to Major Kincaid and ordered him to bring him back to his apartment. The Major pointed out that Ben also was there, but Zo'or did not let himself be put off. If that boy insulted him again, he would face the consequences.