The Ministry was on high alert. Astro felt sadder than ever. The removal of those he loved most in the world had been carefully prepared, with nothing left to chance. The kidnappers were very knowledgeable and had chosen their time well.

 

Astro Boy felt like a caged lion. The colonel had asked him not to leave his room, but he couldn't bear to stand idly by while Zoran and the professor needed help. He was boiling with impatience and felt quite able to participate in the investigation. After all, he could fly faster than any aircraft, his vision was exceptional, and it was he who discovered the disappearance!

 

Astro sat on his bed and hugged Zoran's favourite toy. If he could cry, tears would come to him. Where was Zoran? What did those kidnappers want with her? Provided they didn't want to do wrong to her, or to the professor...

 

Astro got changed, deciding. It was time for him to take the lead. He inspected his clothes to find his monitoring badge. He discovered it sewn into the hem of his pants, and pulled at it with a small knife. He watched, amused:

 

“So it's thanks to you that Professor O'Shay could follow my travels...well, for once, don't let me down. I'll put you in my bed like that, and the colonel'll believe that I'm napping. Meanwhile, I'll help my family... "

 

***

 

Astro Boy had no difficulty in slipping through one of the windows. He took off as quietly and quickly as possible. For him, the investigation should start where the clothes were found in the park.

 

Six seconds later, he landed the large bush and studied the ground.

 

“They certainly have been captured here,” he reflected through a magnetic surveyal and a high-precision visual analysis. He eventually gathered some clues: Fibers from a rope, microscopic fragments of dark fabric, and notably some sand very different from the earth that could be found in the vicinity.

 

Astro approached the beads of sand and activated his microscopic vision. He analyzed the grains from all angles – colour, shape, composition – and compared it to the sands of which his computer memory had knowledge.

 

“Silica Quaternary,” he concluded. A very fine old sand, which was only found in the desert Tamusu, several hundred kilometers east of Metro City.

 

Suddenly Astro heard footsteps near the thicket he was in. Without moving, he activated his X-ray vision and saw the security men. Like him, they were certainly studying the site...without a sound, the child robot backed away in the opposite direction and hid behind a clump of trees. When men began to search the premises, he flew eastward.

 

 

Flying over the outskirts of the city, Astro reviewed what his discovery meant. The name of the desert Tamusu had made him remember something, but he could no longer remember exactly what. He launched a search in his memory banks. Suddenly his mind panicked as a name came to him: Dr. Tenma!

 

This scientific nemesis of Professor O'Shay, he was known to have stolen many inventions to make weapons. Tenma could have become a brilliant scientist, but without any morality, he had chosen to use his talents to rob, steal and try to satisfy his insatiable thirst for power. The police were looking for years without success, and many thought he had built a secret base somewhere in the Tamusu Desert...

 

If Dr. Tenma was behind the kidnapping of Professor O'Shay and Zoran, Astro was going to have a tough opponent. What was the reason for this kidnapping? Prisoners of an individual as dangerous as Tenma, the two relatives of Astro were hugely at risk. There was no time to lose...

 

***

 

In less than an hour's flight, Astro arrived over immense stretches of sand surrounding the rock masses of Tamusu. To the eye, the sunburned landscape stretched to the horizon. It was very hot, the climate not at all like that of Metro City. Not a tree on the horizon, not a single bird, just the wind waving through rare tufts of dry grass.

 

Even microscoping his vision to the smallest scope, Astro could distinguish nothing but sand and rocks.

 

“Hmm,” he thought, “If Tenma's secret base is hidden in this area, I'm going to use all my resources to find it. I see no trace of a vehicle on the ground, or suspicious movement. The police themselves have already searched the area several times, and never found anything either. But something tells me I'm on the right track.”

 

To be sure he was not mistaken, Astro compared the pinch of sand he found near the clothing gathered from the ground.

 

“No doubt, those are the same,” he said. “Those who kidnapped the professor and Zoran certainly came here. I need to get a better look around.”

 

Astro began to methodically inspect each relief in the desert. In this hot and dry climate, being a robot was a real advantage, because it meant suffering from thirst or lack of energy. His new batteries allowed him to fly, not to mention the fantastic precision. He reviewed the faults, pits, and cliffs, looking for the slightest clue that could confirm the presence of a secret base.

 

Daylight declined, and Astro had still found nothing. Still, he was more and more convinced that Tenma was hiding in the area, and there was no way for him to give up.

 

The night was soon to fall. Astro sat atop a hill and ordered his systems begin their maintenance. All children wash and brush their teeth before going to bed; well, Astro had the robot equivalent: he had to check circuits, perform micro-lubrication of his internal mechanisms, and all sorts of little maintenance. His robotic system managing it all on its own was a bit straining, but everything seemed to be in a good state.

 

Looking at the stars, Astro tried to guess where he could find his sister and teacher. He wanted to be near them, and to protect them. At the Ministry, Astro knew his disappearance was soon to be discovered, but that did not worry him too much. If the security men were doing their job properly, they would eventually arrive in the area, too.

 

“I never noticed that there were so many stars,” said the little robot looking up at the sky. “There must be billions! It's really beautiful.”

 

Suddenly, his warning systems captured a radio signal. It was neither a voice nor a code, but a launched electronic order from one machine to another. Astro sat up, all sensors on alert.

 

In front of him, on a rocky hill, a few hundred meters, he thought he saw something move. In the moonlight, he thought he could distinguish a sort of panel standing on top of the hill.

 

“This is proof that the base is not far!”

 

To avoid detection, Astro preferred to move on foot rather than by flying. He went down the hill by sneaking through one rock relief to another, and approached the strange panel. He was just a few meters away when he suddenly caught other signals.

 

“Other panels are being deployed on all the hills around me! These are probably antennas. The base is around here, this time for sure, and it is certainly huge.”

 

More determined than ever, Astro Boy climbed the rock and reached the foot of the mysterious panel. He slipped underneath and saw that the metal base of the structure plunged into a huge pit, of which he could not see the bottom.

 

Astro knew that to discover the secret lair of Dr. Tenma, and to have a chance to rescue his family, he absolutely had to enter the base. Without hesitation, the robot child fell into the pit.