BEFORE LENA MET ZOEY

Unbeknownst to the Exchangers, they would clash with Jill Key, Joseph Key, Vera Mod, and Cambridge Downer.

Now, though, Hero remained as an Exchanger. His kidnapper status stayed in his blood, in his brain, in his bones.

The Exchangers had kidnapped.

Able Brick.

Hero and his siblings had taken one Pure to Heaven. They had to take nine more Pures to that better place.

Six people had gone into a Freeman base, and they had struggled to survive, and they had performed a kidnapping. Zoey hadn't applauded. The Exchangers had roused joy.

Still, nine more people had to be taken.

In exchange for a Bloodhound's help, the Exchangers would have to kidnap nine more Pures.

Pures had become currency. For the Exchangers, at least.

The cost to reunite with a father who was either dead or alive involved ten unfortunate Soynites. One had been handed over. The Exchangers would steal nine more.

The Exchangers were in Hawaii. Their spaceship, the universe's fastest Soynite spaceship, sat in a massive meadow. Hero and his sibling allies were in a forest. Zoey was in that forest.

"Why did I have to be blindfolded?" Zoey said, as she sat on Hero's big bed. She had gotten so comfortable in the Exchanger boy's presence. "I was blindfolded for some time."

Zoey had been blindfolded. It was the truth. If the girl learned the truth about Heaven, its people would murder her. Then they would murder Hero and his brothers and sisters. Or maybe they would murder Hero and his siblings, then murder Zoey.

Either way, it would be horrible.

It would be for the greater good. Yet Hero preferred to not be killed because of it.

"It's for the best, Zoey," Hero said.

He didn't elaborate. If he elaborated, he might reveal too much.

Able Brick.

The Exchangers had given him to Heaven's people. They had taken one Pure against his will.

Nine more to go.

Hero's siblings had gone to the cafeteria. They enjoyed post-kidnapping meals as their eldest brother stayed in his room.

A kidnapper.

Hero was one. He had earned that new status. No longer was he just a brother, but he was a person stealer.

Before rescuing and abducting Able Brick, Hero had taken a laser beam to the chest. His sister Kat had shot him by accident. Since that blue jacket had been ruined, Hero wore a new one. Because Kat's laser had ruined his shirt, he wore a new one.

The jacket he wore displayed an image of the Ascend Museum, the photographed building undamaged.

If only it looked like that now.

The Freemans had destroyed the museum like they had destroyed Mitch Shame's ability to spend time with his children. Mitch's children, his beloved people takers, would come closer to reuniting with him with each new kidnapping victim.

Fantastic.

"What do you have planned for later?" Zoey said.

"I'm going to open that case," Hero said. "It's going to be fantastic. I'm going to find out what happened to Alice Endman."

He tapped his temple.

"Memories are power," the Exchanger said. "I'm going to use mine to solve this case."

A kidnapper had tasked himself with solving a mystery another kidnapper had flung into reality. It coursed with twisted irony.

Zoey smiled. She looked past Hero and stopped smiling.

"Having fun, Hero?" Wade said. Hero faced his brother, the tall boy who had tried murdering Zoey. "You should be in the cafeteria, with me and the rest of your family."

"There's still one person who isn't with us," Hero said. "You know that, Wade."

"And you'll find him," Zoey said.

Wade stepped past Hero. As the tallest Soynite in the room advanced on her, Zoey backed away and pressed her back against the wall.

"Please, don't!" Zoey said, aiming her palms at Wade.

Hero moved. He blocked his brother's path to Zoey. Wade donned a scowl, but he didn't swing his fist.

"Back off, Wade!" Hero said. "What were you going to do to her?!"

"If you think I was going to hurt her, I wasn't," Wade said. "I was only going to get closer to her, maybe insult her afterwards."

"Go back to the cafeteria," Hero said. "You don't have to scare anyone."

"I need to scare her," Wade said. "She doesn't deserve to be with us. You're putting all of us in danger by keeping her here. I won't kill her. But I do think we should get rid of her."

"My mother won't hurt you," Zoey said. She fiddled with the comforter beneath her. "And if she wants me to go with her, I will."

"Your mother isn't the source of Wade's fear," Hero said. He aimed a new glare at his brother. "Step back, Wade."

Wade teleported two feet back.

"Funny," Hero said.

"Please, don't hit him, Wade," Zoey said. "I know loved ones hurt each other sometimes, but you don't have to hit him."

"What?" Wade said. "He's my brother. I'll never hit him."

"Really?" Zoey said. "But you're mad at him."

"You don't hit the ones you love," Wade said.

"But-" Zoey started saying.

"Did you hit a loved one?" Wade said. Zoey shook her head. "Did a loved one hit you?"

"Just forget what I said," Zoey said.

"No," Wade said. He approached Zoey, who didn't flee. Able Brick hadn't fled the Exchangers. "Who hurt you? Your mother?"

Zoey stood. She went beside Hero, grabbed his arm with both hands.

"It's okay, Zoey," Hero said. "You don't have to answer the question if you don't want to."

"My mother hits me," Zoey said. "Sometimes."

Hero averted his gaze to the circular window. In a different place, he had carried a girl who had been abused.

"That explains why you got scared by my hand earlier," Hero said.

Zoey released Hero's arm and rubbed her own arms.

"It's okay," Zoey said. "It's all right. My mother loves me. She doesn't hit me all the time."

Regardless, Hero would rather get bit by a bellma than reunite Zoey with her less compassionate mother, Misty Windsore.

They couldn't let Zoey see her mother again.

"Still, she hits you," Wade said. He tapped Hero's bicep with the back of his hand, a friendly tap. "We can't let her mother see her again."

Wade had been in the wrong when he tried killing Zoey. Hero didn't see him as a wrong boy now. Misty was wrong. That lady was in the wrong.

"I was thinking the same thing," Hero said.

"You can't keep me here!" Zoey said. "She's my mother! I love her and she loves me. You don't even like me, Wade."

"I don't like this mother of yours," Wade said.

"I do," Zoey said. "She's my mother. I love her more than anything in the universe."

"You shouldn't," Wade said.

"Hero, can you get him to leave the room?" Zoey said. "Please?"

"He isn't going to make a person who's right leave," Wade said.

"No, I'm not," Hero said. "Zoey, we can't take you back to your mother. I don't want to cause anyone more pain than necessary."

Zoey grabbed his jacket. She tugged, pulling clothing that had come from a long gone museum.

"I thought you were good!" Zoey said. "You can't do this!"

"It's all right," Wade said.

Zoey took a step back.

"Both of you don't know what you're doing," Zoey said. "Crammer is going to find us. He's great at finding people. If you don't get me back to my mother, he'll hurt you."

"No one can hurt me," Wade said.

Crammer Cole.

He was Misty Windsore's best friend. Zoey had mentioned him to Hero. That had been before Able Brick's kidnapping. It was a kidnapping Hero and his siblings had performed, and it wouldn't be their last.

"What's going on?" a voice said.

Hero, Zoey, and Wade turned.

Sydney Shame stood in the doorway. She stepped into the room, not wearing her blue employee jacket. The smiley face on her white shirt belonged in a better place. Yet it remained in a room where two brothers struggled to convince a girl not to return to her abuser.

"Zoey, what's wrong?" Sydney said.

"Her mother abuses her," Wade said, adopting hard bluntness. "We're trying to convince her to not go back to her."

Sydney headed past Hero and Wade. She hugged Zoey, who returned the embrace. Tears dropped onto dark blonde hair.

More people entered the room.

Macy.

Kat.

Everett.

"Should I kill your mother with a sword?" Macy said. "Or should I use a gun?"

Kat bowed her head.

Everett made no joke.

"We can't let you go back to her, Zoey," Hero said. Zoey and Sydney stopped hugging. "Stop defending this woman. I don't want you to get hurt again."

"You're with us now," Everett said. He bit into the piece of fruit in his hand, chewed. He swallowed. "No one gets abused in this home."

"Exactly," Macy said. "Zoey, we're not like your mother. Hero told you about Lock Tannis and Bane Sinister. We're not like those Soynites, either. We're a family, and you're our friend. You can stay with us."

Hero had informed Zoey about what Bane Sinister had informed him and the other Exchangers.

Lock Tannis was a Soynite.

As brutal as that truth was, it was honest. Bane had erected his Lock Tannis-worshipping cult, a group that had caused more than enough problems for Hero's family.

Zoey pointed at Macy.

"You wanted Wade to kill me!" Zoey said. She pointed at Wade. "You shot at me. You tried to kill me. That was what you did, Wade."

"Right now, I'm not aiming a gun at you," Wade said.

"Right now, you're trying to keep me separated from my mother!" Zoey said. "I don't even know who you people are. Why did you blindfold me? Why do you have backpacks with yellow circles on them?!"

Hero inhaled. He exhaled hard.

"You know me," Hero said. "I saved your life, Zoey. My brother here tried to kill you, remember? And I flew you outside that Freeman base. We know each other."

"Do we really?" Zoey said.

She bent over and pressed her hands against her knees. She breathed like a person who had finished running away from six Freeman warriors.

"Everyone, give me some time alone with Zoey," Hero said. "She needs space."

Sydney put a hand on Zoey's back, then left the room. Macy, Everett, and Kat left. Wade went near the door, stood. He glanced at Hero, then looked at Zoey, and he frowned. The boy left.

"Who are you?" Zoey said, still bending over.

A friend. A brother. A kidnapper.

An Exchanger.

"I'm someone who wants to protect you," Hero said.

That was the truth. Hero would take nine Pures from wherever they hid, but nothing kidnapped his need to protect Zoey. The need stuck.

"My mother can do that," Zoey said. She straightened. "She's not the monster you think she is. I need you to know that."

Hero needed his friend to know her mother was a monster.

Misty Windsore wasn't a bellma with horns, but she was a woman with an abusive personality.

"There are better people than her," Hero said. He pointed at the photograph taped to the wall. "My father over there is a good man. He never hit any of his children. Never. The woman who raised you might as well be a Freeman. If you can't live without hitting your child, that means you don't deserve one."

"My mother deserves me," Zoey said.

"And you deserve better."

Hero gestured to the space around them. He sighed.

"This is where you deserve to be," Hero said. "You don't have to be with someone who hurts you. Back in Washington, you followed me and my siblings. Yes, Wade tried to kill you. Yes, Macy wanted him to kill you. But you're here. You're still here. Right now, I want you to stay here. I want you to be with us. Stay with us. Stay with me."

The Exchanger took a step closer to the girl he had helped. Zoey put her hands on his shoulders. Eyes closed. Hero's hands came to Zoey's cheeks.

With safety covering them, the two kissed.

After his lips stopped touching Zoey's, Hero toyed with his Soynite pendant. Zoey no pendant. She had care for the Exchanger in front of her.

Hero had experienced his first kiss. With Zoey All.

Wade teleported. With his heart hammering, Hero took a step away from Zoey.

"There are two Soynites outside," Wade said. "One of them is a woman. The other is a really big man."

A smile reached Zoey's face. She wore it without shame, like how Hero wore his museum employee jacket with no shame, as if it listed his ten greatest deeds.

Had saving Zoey been one of Hero's ten greatest deeds?

"That's my mother!" Zoey said. "And her best friend, Crammer!"

"Come into the hall," Wade said.

Hero and Zoey followed Wade outside the room. Macy, Everett, Kat, and Sydney stood in the hall, positioned not far from each other.

"I'm going to teleport all of us outside," Wade said. "We're going to see Zoey's mother and her friend."

Wade teleporting, taking his siblings and Zoey with him.

Sunlight greeted their skin.

Hero saw Misty Windsore. He saw the woman in person, the boy looking at a horrible abuser. He had seen a photograph of her.

Misty stood beside a man who was as tall as the typical Freeman man. He had black hair and brown eyes, like Lock Tannis's natural form. Crammer Cole wasn't the monster known as Lock Tannis, but he supported one. He had befriended Misty Windsore.

The woman Misty was tall, six feet tall. She had the height of the average Freeman woman. Crammer was beside her and stood a foot taller than the lady.

Misty wore black. She had black clothes, but Hero didn't see if she had sincere love for Zoey.

No hug, no kiss on the head, no sweet words.

But she might hug Zoey. She might kiss the girl's head. She might direct sweet words to her. Still, Hero preferred for Zoey to stay next to him and not approach her mother.

"Mother!" Zoey said.

She took a step toward her personal monster.

Wade moved forward, blocked Zoey's path with his big arm.

"Wade, let me go to her!" Zoey said.

"Let my daughter come to me," Misty said. She opened her thin arms. "What kind of cruel boy refuses to let a mother embrace her child?"

"I don't remember telling the child abuser to speak," Everett said. He clenched his fists.

"Be silent," Crammer ordered.

He stood taller than Misty. If he desired it, he could make his fist clash with the mother's face. But he aimed his intense anger at Hero's brother, the Exchanger who had called Misty a child abuser in her presence.

"Who are you?" Misty said.

"He's not you," Wade said. "He never hurt Zoey."

Misty aimed her finger at his face, but she didn't scowl.

"Let my daughter come to me," Misty said.

"No," Wade said.

"I carried this girl through the air," Hero said. He placed a hand against Zoey's back. "I flew with her. I kept her safe. I can't fly with Boris Endman, but I did fly with Zoey."

Misty's glare almost made Hero take a step back.

"Hero, no," Zoey said.

"Don't ever mention that name!" Misty roared. "Don't ever say that man's name!"

So much rage.

Crammer stroked Misty's brown hair with his big fingers. The woman's shoulders rose and fell while rage swept through her. She bent over and placed her hands against her knees. Several breaths left her, then the monstrous mother stood.

"We don't want Zoey to go with you," Kat said.

"You're just as bad as the Pale Monsters," Sydney said.

Zoey moved in front of Hero, held onto his arms. She shook him as her brow furrowed. Hero witnessed her worry, her unwanted frustration.

"I have to hug her!" Zoey said. "Tell your brother to let me go to her!"

She had begged. Even though Misty had hurt her, Zoey yearned for the woman, as if that monster would give her all the universe's love. Hero had hugged Zoey more than once. Their hugs had been warm. But seeing Zoey put her arms around her unfair mother would be almost as awful as a vicious virus that could kill Soynites.

Misty hadn't gained the right to have Zoey's arms around her.

"It's all right, baby!" Misty said. She had heard Zoey's begging. "We'll be together soon. These friends of yours are causing quite the trouble."

Zoey's friends numbered six. They opposed two.

After his kiss with Zoey, Hero's eagerness to keep her safe had become more intense. He stood on green grass. He stood in front of Zoey. The blue sky was high above, but Boris Endman himself wouldn't descend from the sky and give Zoey and her friends assistance.

"Crammer is a Bloodhound," Misty said. Hero inhaled. A Bloodhound could find the Exchangers' father. "If you leave this area with my daughter, I will find her."

Crammer was a Bloodhound, but he sided with Zoey's harsh mother. The lady hadn't concealed her rage.

How many times had she released her bitter anger on poor Zoey?

"Hero, please!" Zoey said. She tightened her grip on his arms. Wade glared. He didn't glare at Zoey, but he aimed it at the girl's caretaker. "Let me go to her!"

"Where is your father, children?" Misty said.

The Freemans kept Mitch Shame away from his children, and the Exchangers kept Zoey away from her mother, but the kidnappers had to do it. Zoey needed to know it was for the best.

Her subtraction from the group wouldn't be magnificent. It would be cruel.

"He's gone!" Wade said. "You need to be, too."

"Right," Sydney said.

Unlike Misty, Mitch Shame carried compassion for his children. He was gone as Misty Windsore stood in the meadow, her dark shoes touching grass as Mitch shoes touched what Hero assumed was a prison cell's hard floor.

Why couldn't a Freeman kill Misty already?

The woman deserved to die.

"Hero," Zoey said. "I'll be fine. Let me be with my mother."

No.

"My child wants me," Misty said. "You all hear her begging."

"Go get killed by a Freeman," Wade said.

"There's a Freeman base not far from here," Misty said. "Freemans kill Soynites. If you delay my embrace with Zoey, maybe she would never hold me again. Is that what you want?"

"You're not a person who deserves to be embraced," Macy said.

"Hero!" Zoey said. She shook his arm. "Let me go!"

The girl's sour stubbornness would bring her more pain, but Hero shoved emotional agony into her life by despising her plan to be with a monster.

"Okay!" Hero said. "Okay! Zoey, be with your mother. Just go to her."

"Don't," Wade said.

Zoey headed past Wade.

"It's okay, Wade," Hero said. "We have to let it happen. Zoey wants it to."

"This isn't right," Macy said, as Zoey walked toward the tall woman who had hurt her.

Zoey quickened her pace. Moving fast, running, she charged toward Misty. She wasn't a Soynite running toward a Freeman warrior, but she advanced on a monster.

The mother and daughter embraced. Misty grinned as she spun Zoey around. When her shoes touched the grass again, the Exchangers donned scowls. Zoey put her legs around Misty and they continued clinging to each other. Hero held the yearning for Zoey to have her legs and arms around him.

Big and menacing, Crammer averted his attention to Hero and his family.

"Don't look so upset, kids," the big Soynite said. He didn't smile. "None of you are dead."

Zoey put her feet on the grass and the embrace died.

"Are you okay?" Misty said. She pressed her hands against Zoey's cheeks. "Did they hurt you? If they did, you know what me and Crammer will do to them."

Zoey turned her head. She looked at the boy who had tried shooting her.

Wade clenched and unclenched his fists.

Misty traced Zoey's gaze. She put a hand against the back of the girl's head and narrowed her brown eyes. She looked at Zoey.

"What did he do to you?" Misty said.

Zoey looked at her.

Wade had tried murdering Misty's daughter, and Misty seemed like she would unleash pain on anyone who had harmed the girl she had hurt. Hero wasn't like Misty. He cared about his loved one as much as he should.

As for Zoey, would she tell her mother what Wade had done to her? Would she order Misty to kill her friend's brother?

Wade's desire to kill Zoey had shuffled into nothingness.

The girl knew that, right?

"Nothing bad," Zoey lied.

"He's a good person," Zoey said. "His brothers and sisters are good people."

Misty kissed Zoey's cheek.

"I love you, baby," Misty said. "But these good people did something bad."

"Here we go," Everett said.

Sydney produced a fireball in each hand. Wade clenched his fists. Hero, Macy, and Kat took breaths. The Exchangers prepared themselves.

"Which one of you is in charge?" Misty said. She inspected each Exchanger. "Well?"

Hero raised his hand.

"I am," he said. "I'm the eldest. I'm taking care of this family while our father is away."

"You and your siblings kept my daughter away from me," Misty said. "I wanted to hug her so badly, but you all made me wait. It wouldn't be wrong for me to hurt each of you."

Hero's nostrils flared. He fiddled with his Soynite pendant.

"It wouldn't be wrong of me at all," Misty said.

Crammer held his fist. Zoey leaned against her mother.

The Exchangers stayed prepared.

"I love all of you!" Misty said. She smiled and opened her arms. "Embrace me, eldest child."

Sydney extinguished her fireballs. Wade unclenched his fists. Hero, Macy, Kat, and Everett lost their scowls.

Hero approached Misty and they hugged. Foul disgust slithered into the Exchanger. Hero and Misty separated.

Fantastic.

"Hero and his brothers and sisters took care of me," Zoey said. "They made sure that I didn't die in a Freeman base, Mother."

"These kids are all right," Misty said. She moved an upturned palm close to Zoey. "Give me my invisibility bracelet, Zoey."

"After I lost it, I got it back," Zoey said. She moved her hand into her pocket, turned invisible. The invisibility bracelet landed on Misty, who turned invisible. She soon turned visible again, the invisibility bracelet unseen. "I'm glad to see you again, Moth-"

Misty slapped her.

The Exchangers moved. Zoey blocked their path to Misty, aimed her palms.

Hatred for Misty shot escalated within the kidnappers.

Misty's happiness had sloughed away. She had discarded it, but the Exchangers, Zoey's friends, hadn't tossed away their desire to abuse the abuser.

Birds perched on tree branches, Earth's animals indifferent to raw Soynite-on-Soynite violence.

"Wait," Zoey said. "Wait, wait, wait. I deserved it. I shouldn't have misplaced her invisibility bracelet."

She deserved a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

But she had gotten a slap on the cheek. Zoey's mother had inserted pain into the bloodstream of her daughter's life. Like when Hero had forced Vamp into Able Brick's vein.

The big man approached Wade, the Exchanger nearest to him. Crammer, towering and muscular, looked down at Wade.

"Move aside," Wade said. "Or I'll just teleport to get past you."

"Back away, Crammer," Misty said. Crammer backed away. Misty kissed the cheek she had slapped. "I don't want anyone to harm my daughter's new friends. I punished my daughter. It made them upset. It's an understandable reaction."

"That's not punishment," Macy said. "It's abuse."

"Crammer parked our spaceship nearby," Misty said. "I would love to see you in it, girl. You and your siblings took care of my Zoey when I couldn't. I'm grateful. Come. I want to see all of you in my home."

The Exchangers joined Zoey, Misty, and Crammer in their home.

Like the Exchangers, Zoey, Misty, and Crammer lived inside a huge Soynite spaceship. They gathered in a room that had various sofas, the furniture pushed against four walls.

The sun's light streamed into the room through a circular window. Zoey sat between her mother and Crammer. Seated between Sydney and Macy, Hero held a cup as he made eye contact with Zoey. The Exchanger boy sipped water into his mouth. He swallowed.

They sat on blue sofas. Hero's dislike for Zoey's mother didn't escape.

Zoey held no cup. She rubbed the spot where Misty had slapped her. Rage bolted into Hero, tossing aside contentment. Regardless, the boy sat without lashing out at Misty. Not doing it was a struggle.

"What exactly happened to your father?" Misty said. She stroked Zoey's long hair with her hand, touching Hero's friend with what seemed like genuine love.

The boy frowned.

He had seen Misty slam her hand against Zoey's face, unveiling cruelty. The woman could touch Zoey's hair. Yet she could slap her. She could make her daughter hurt.

"The Pale Monsters took him," Sydney said. She stroked her cup with her thumb, rubbing its round blue. "He's my biological father, but he adopted my brothers and sisters. We were at the Ascend Museum when the invasion happened."

"Clearly," Misty said. She gestured to the only person who wore an employee jacket in the room. "Hero is wearing a jacket of an employee of the Ascend Museum."

"The Pale Monsters still have our father," Sydney said. She wore a shirt that displayed a smiley face. But she didn't smile. "We're doing our best to get him back."

"I'm sorry you're away from him," Misty said, sounding like she pitied what had happened to Mitch Shame. Hero's yearning to slap her weakened. "Zoey here lost her stepfather. I lost him too. We don't know where he is. His name is Boone Windsore. His daughter is one of the six Highs."

"Zoey told us about her," Wade said.

Misty leaned forward.

"If you meet Boone during your travels, be good to him," Misty said, speaking in a pleading tone. "Be good to him, please."

"We will," Hero said.

Zoey had spoken about Boone as if he were the universe's best Soynite. The possibility he was a good man was real. He had to be good. He had to be. Hero would be kind to him.

"I still find it shocking that Lock Tannis is Reed Pisces," Misty said. "You told me and Crammer what that cult leader told you."

"Bane Sinister worships Lock Tannis," Hero said. "Of course he wanted to tell us all about him. Bane wanted us to join his cult. We didn't. Beware of him. And beware of his wife, Summer Sinister."

"What is Bane like?" Misty said.

"He acts harmless, but he isn't," Hero said. He shook his head, sighed. "And he can turn invisible. He can see the past and the future."

"I can see the past and the future," Misty said. She put a hand on Zoey's shoulder. "The power to see the future has given me so much. Fate. You can't fight it. You have to make the future happen."

"The future is going to be fantastic," Hero said. "I wish Boris could see it. He can't, though."

"What do you mean?!" Misty said. She got to her feet. "Did something happen to him?!"

"Boris Endman is dead, Mother," Zoey said.

Misty launched her cup. Water rushed out of it and the object bounced against the floor.

Don't hit Zoey. Don't hit Zoey. Don't hit Zoey.

"No!" Misty yelled. Her cup rolled, hit a wall.

The woman kneeled and covered her forehead with a hand. Water had spilled.

Tears spilled.

Misty stood and scurried out the room, as if her guests had morphed into hulking Freemans.

Zoey left the sofa. Crammer grabbed her arm and forced her to sit. Hero almost flung his cup at Crammer's face, but he drowned that desire.

"Sit," Crammer said. "I'm going to talk to her."

The tall man exited the room.

When Crammer had been gone for thirteen seconds, Everett said, "Misty acted like someone broke her invisibility bracelet."

"She clearly loved Boris Endman," Kat said.

"Maybe," Macy said.

"I don't care who she loves," Wade said.

"Be careful when you walk," Sydney said. She pointed at the fallen cup. "I don't want anyone to slip and fall."

"Wade, teleport me back to the spaceship," Hero said. He stood. "Take me to my room. While Misty is gone, I want to do something. I still have that kidnapping case to solve."

Wade left the sofa.

After he teleported Hero to his bedroom in their own spaceship, Wade left by using his power.

Familiar comfort blanketed Hero, the boy away from a woman who had struck her daughter, the Exchanger away from anyone who could harm him.

Misty wasn't near.

Crammer wasn't near.

Hero closed in on the wooden dresser. He took a notepad and pen from one of its drawers, then closed it. The Exchanger sat on his bed.

Zoey All's hero perused his memories, reading details in his mind's imaginary library.

He could uncover the truth. He could.

The Exchanger could do it for the late Boris Endman. He could help Holly and Archer reunite with their daughter.

Hero clicked the pen's button. The tip emerged, black. It was black like big Crammer's hair, but Crammer had gone away, so he could comfort Zoey's grieving mother.

Where are you, Alice Endman?

"The details of Alice Endman's kidnapping," Hero said, as he wrote. Dark ink met thin yellow. "Alice Endman was kidnapped on February 1, 2,000,006 Sixteen years ago. That's year 2006 in Earth time. Alice was born on the first of January. Her father is Archer Endman. Her mother is Holly Endman. Her grandfather is Boris Endman. Alice has brown hair and brown eyes. It could be dyed now. She was one month old at the time of her kidnapping."

Hero took a breath.

"The kidnapper should have the power to go invisible," the Exchanger said, writing. "They snuck into the home of Archer and Holly. They did by using a Save. Or by using an invisibility bracelet. Alice's Soynite Box wasn't taken. Her Soynite pendant was. In order to prevent anyone from recognizing her as Alice, her kidnapper wouldn't let the girl wear her pendant. The kidnapper possibly kidnapped Alice because they hate Boris Endman, who was a famous public figure. The kidnapper possibly abuses Alice. In order to prevent anyone from uncovering the truth, the kidnapper might have raised Alice alone. At least for some time, anyway. They probably weren't married at the time of Alice's kidnapping. If they learned of Boris Endman's death, they might become upset. Because they weren't able to kill him."

Hero's breath shook.

"Alice Endman is Zoey All."