Chapter Three
When Cora Curious was abducted over twenty years ago, she thought her father had abandoned her. Now she knows the truth and is on a mission to find him. They are in the same town, same hotel, so why can they not find each other? A mysterious stranger who befriends Cora may be able to help, or maybe not...
As darkness fell over Starlight Shores, the Star Watch began. This year Pascal was sure he would find the ship that took him and shoot it down with his laser. As the brothers focused intensely with their telescopes Vidcund suddenly let out a huge growl...
"We are never going to find her!!!" he bellowed as his brothers continued to look through their own telescopes.
"Just keep looking Vidcund, it can't hurt!" Lazlo mumbled.
Pascal ignored his brother's outburst and continued to focus, "Stick to the plan brothers!" he replied chirpily.
"It is no good, she is not up there, I know this for a fact! I've known for twenty years!" Vidcund sighed and looked out towards the ocean.
Pascal and Lazlo stopped what they were doing and turned to face their brother...
Vidcund couldn't face his brothers as Pascal asked him sternly "How do you know Vidcund???"
"I just know, she isn't on another planet brothers!"
"Vidcund? Answer Pascal! You owe him that at least!" Lazlo's voice was low but forceful.
"Very well!" Vidcund sighed, "I will tell you, but I fear you will not like the answer I give you!"
"It's my fault that Cora disappeared...and it's a burden I have carried for twenty years!"
Cora had fallen asleep outside her father's room when the sound of footsteps awoke her. Standing in front of her was a young man no older than 30, he was handsome with his ears and left eyebrow pierced. He smiled at her and asked her "Well well well, what are you doing down there?"
Cora stood up and began waving her hands about, "Oh you startled me, I must have dozed off! You really mustn't sneak up on people like that you know!"
"I'm sorry!" he chuckled and looked at her attire in a puzzled manner, "Again I ask, what's a pretty girl doing sleeping in a hotel lobby?"
"I'm looking for my father, I've travelled quite a distance! I'm so tired, I just want to find him, it's been twenty years and..." Cora ran out of steam in mid sentence. The fair haired man smiled and pressed his index finger to his lips, then he spoke, "What's your name?"
"Cora, Cora Curious!"
"I'm Oliver, nice to meet you Cora!"
"So why do you think your father is going to be in this hallway?" he looked amused.
"This is his room, but he's out at the moment. So I've been waiting here for him to return!"
"Listen, I'm staying here for a few days and my room is just around the corner, why don't I get you some warm, clean clothes to borrow and you can have a nap?" Cora raised her eyebrow warily at this stranger.
"I don't know..."
"I promise I won't bite!" he winked and took her hand.
Back at the hotel, Pascal had sat his brothers down so that Vidcund could explain his involvement in Cora's disappearance. "It was that billionaire..." Vidcund began, "...Frederick Bane!"
"What about him?" Pascal demanded sternly as Vidcund sat back awkwardly in his seat.
"He offered to fund my research if I gave him access to Cora. At first I said no but..." A tiny bead of sweat dripped down his face and landed on his shirt as he wiped his brow and breathed heavily.
"Then he offered me more money, I had no way of getting my project off the ground without his money and it was a ground breaking subject! Being able to harvest cow plants and other hybrids! So I...just told him her sleep patterns, your routine and Lazlo's routine...it was easy, he just...took her in the middle of the night!"
"And you let me think all this time, that she was up there! With her own people?" Pascal's voice broke at the mention of her own race. "My baby daughter Vidcund! Your niece! How could you???"
"What purpose does your cow plant serve anyway Vidcund?" Lazlo shook his head disapprovingly, "Our niece was not worth losing for that!"
"I know, don't you think I've suffered all these years???" Vidcund wept, and looked his older brother in the eyes, "Please Pascal! Forgive me!"
"Forgive you? You talk of suffering? She was MY DAUGHTER VIDCUND!!!" Pascal's shouting startled Lazlo.
"Pascal, calm yourself, our brother did a terrible thing I know! But the main thing now is to get Cora back! And he's the only one who can help us!"
"Where did he take my daughter?" Pascal demanded and Vidcund wriggled in his seat finally mumbling,
"Bridgeport!"
"What are we to do now brother?" Vidcund called to Pascal as he headed to his room.
"I need to be as far away from you as possible at the moment, you make me sick!!!" Pascal muttered bitterly.
"Pascal, you can't shut me out! I said I was sorry what more can I do?" an enraged Vidcund stamped his foot and clenched his fists in frustration.
"Right now, we will get some rest. In the morning, Vidcund will show us where this Frederick Bane lives in Bridgeport! And we will find Cora!"
"No more Star Watch, no more telescopes! We find my daughter and we are leaving first thing!" Pascal's brothers nodded in agreement and they went to their own rooms. Cora was in that very building, round the corner, and her family were leaving in the morning unaware of how close she was!
Decked in a polo shirt, jeans and trainers belonging to Oliver, Cora yawned loudly as she sat on the floor of his hotel room. "Thank you for the loan of your clothes!"
"Hey, you're very welcome! So tell me, what's your story?"
Cora lay on her stomach and stretched out her arms lazily, "I was raised in a prison!" Oliver's eyes widened,
"Oh shoot, that's...wow!"
"I was abducted by a bad man, I was only months old at the time. I spent the past twenty years in a white room, locked in there. I was taken from my father and now...I need to find him!"
Oliver sighed and looked into her eyes, "I can relate. My father is a control freak! I was never allowed to go out as a child, had to study all the time. As a teenager it was the same, until I got into University and even then my dad was on the board of directors so he was constantly on me you know? Then he made me go work for him and that's what I'm doing right now so..." Cora cut into his speech by gasping and sitting up.
"What's that symbol...on your arm? It's so familiar!"
"This?" He pointed to the middle tattoo on his left arm, "It's code, it's...personal!" he looked down at the ground.
"Well..." Cora whispered, "It looks like the markings on..."
"What?" This time Oliver cut in,
"N-nothing!"
She shot up and looked down at him shyly, "I really am tired, may I sleep?"
"Yeah, go ahead, you can have my bed I'm not tired!"
It didn't take long for Cora to fall asleep. When Oliver was sure she wouldn't wake up...
...he took out his phone and dialled a number.
"Yeah it's me. I found her! She's at the hotel in Starlight Shores! No, she hasn't found Pascal! Look I did as you asked now I'm done and I don't want any part of it! I'll keep her here until morning then I'm out!"
As Oliver hung up his phone roughly, he thought about what he had just done...
...he'd tricked a pretty, kind and gentle girl into thinking she was finally free!
To Be Continued...
