In this case it wasn't a conscious decision to exclude Junior - habit, perhaps; as children Ben might have been the mastermind behind most of their trouble-making but was always the first to take the blame when possible, if only because this was what older brothers were meant to do - but the fact was that he had no idea what he was going to do. Only that he had to do something and soon, or they'd both be in serious trouble.

"Review the channels, see if anything can't be traced." Find something, anything, to justify a need for further investigation. They were blind, so it stood to reason that their guest (captive) be brought along to assist in ferreting out whatever information they needed.

Plenty of things could happen that far out of range.