"Perhaps. Perhaps not. I've been doing some paper work, and unless he came to the desk, I might not notice him."
The boys nodded their thanks and hurried up the stairs to Tony's room. They tried the door, then knocked loudly. There was no answer. They knocked again, waited, then stared at each other bleakly.
"Now what?" Rick had a feeling that Tony was in danger. He didn't know why he felt that way when the only news they had was that he had gone off in a sedan with three men. The workmen hadn't said that he had fought, or that he had been pulled into the car. He voiced his thoughts as he followed Scotty to their room.
"That means nothing," Scotty pointed out. "He probably wouldn't argue with a gun pointing out the window at him. The workmen probably wouldn't have noticed a pistol barrel."
"You're right, as usual. Well, what now?"
"Call the cops?"
"What would we say? Tony hasn't been gone more than an hour or two, so far as we know. That's not reason enough to call the cops. We couldn't tell them about Chahda and what he said. They wouldn't believe any such stories about their Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and if they did, they'd probably be afraid to do much about it. If Tony doesn't show up in another hour or two, we probably ought to call the police. But not yet."
Scotty had worn a jacket because the morning was cool. But now the room was warm, and he went to the closet to hang it up.
"Hey, Tony must have taken the earth scanner with him."
Rick was in the act of sitting down on his bed. He bounced up like a rubber ball. "What? He couldn't have!"