"No. They'd love it if I signed up for another stint."

"Why are you here again?"

"Well, I was upset with the King of Karathia. After I was upset with Norian Keef. After I was upset with Teeg San Gerxon. After I was upset with Torevik Rath, Lendill Schaff—I guess that's all of them. I'm not upset with Aurelius."

"You just named the Director and Vice-Director of the ASD."

"Yeah. But I'm only married to one of them. Inadvertently, of course."

"You know, I'm not even going to ask which one. And the King of Karathia?"

"I was only engaged to him. That may be off, now."

"Teeg San Gerxon?"

"Also married to him. Inadvertently, of course."

"All right." Plovel breathed a calming sigh. "Shall we get back to it?" We both started reading records of child disappearances again.

"We're quite happy with your progress, Lok. You may be sent out soon on an assignment, just to see how it goes," Lendill nodded to his newest and best Falchani recruit.

"Good." Lok seldom smiled—Lendill was getting used to that.

"Reah, I know your comp-vid came from here and it has a blocking chip in it—the local government doesn't want the people to get feeds from United Bardelus or anywhere else, for that matter. Since you mentioned Teeg San Gerxon earlier, I thought you might be interested in this." He handed his comp-vid over. I stared at the headline for the longest time.

"The Strands escaped?" I think my voice squeaked, I was so shocked.

"Yes. It says here that several were killed when the Strands managed to break out of their prison. With help, obviously."

"Does it say who got killed?" My heart was suddenly doing triple time.

"It doesn't mention names—it just says six. Probably guards and such."

"May I use this?" I didn't wait for permission, I was busily clicking keys, working my way through password after password to get into ASD files. Lendill hadn't locked me out. Yet.

"Here it is," I whispered, scanning the list of names. I breathed the biggest sigh of relief—I hadn't recognized any of them. I'd been terrified that I'd find the reptanoids listed. That would break my heart.

"Nobody you know?"

"No." My heart was stuttering toward a more normal rhythm. I erased the information and handed the comp-vid back to Plovel. "So the local government is looking to control their masses by preventing them from seeing that life elsewhere might be much better?"

"The news vids tell them lies—that life is actually worse in other regions. If Bardelus has a sphincter, Grithis is it."

I hadn't bothered to watch any news vids except those regarding missing children. I was going to pay more attention from now on.

"Somehow, they managed to find the locating chip we planted and deactivated it, but that was after they found their way into this sector," Gavril pointed to the spot on the map. He'd worked this out in advance with Norian and Lendill. They suspected that others might be involved, but even Gavril's compulsion hadn't been able to penetrate the elusive information in Lersen Strand's mind before he'd escaped. Something very powerful had blocked it.

"What's there?" Norian studied the map.

"Hilfri and Bardelus," Lendill said.

"I saw a kid crying in the park on Clover Street," Harne walked into the restaurant yawning. He had a new girlfriend and stayed up late the night before. Figures.

"What was the problem—was he lost?" I asked, ignoring the yawn and the reason behind it.

"No—his mother was with him, taking him to school. He said he didn't want to go by the playground. He said there were ghosts there."

"Ghosts? Really? That's odd," I said. The few times I'd been by the playground, it was usually full, with mothers more watchful now than at other times. The playground seemed a safer place than letting the children run in the streets.

"I couldn't figure it out, either," Harne shrugged and went to get eggs out of the cold-keeper.

"Have any children been snatched from the playground on Clover Street?" I asked Plovel later as he ate his breakfast. I'd pulled the pot of coffee and went to refill his cup myself.

"None that I've run across," he buttered his breakfast roll before spreading it liberally with fresh-made jam.

"Harne said he saw a child crying as he went past it this morning. The child was telling his mother that the playground was haunted."

"That's strange—that playground is generally full when school is out."

"I know."

"I'll go by there today and look around," he said.

"Good. Let me know if you find anything." He nodded, so I took the coffeepot and freshened up other customers' cups as well. Never hurt to play it safe, by paying attention to all the customers as equally as I could. I was trusting Neidles less and less as time went on, and I'd never trusted him from the beginning.

Chapter 4

"There's trouble in Grithis." Lendill passed the comp-vid to Gavril.

"Children disappearing? You think that sounds like Lersen Strand?"

"We don't know who he's allied himself with. How can we know what to expect from them? I'm assuming he's still with his rescuers, anyway."

"He has to be—can't see the Strands doing anything else besides cozying up with other criminals."

"I still don't understand how you didn't get some of this information out of the Strands. I thought your compulsion could cut through steel."

Gavril laughed. A hollow laugh. "Too bad that doesn't work very well on Reah."

"You wouldn't try, surely."

"No, but I've thought about it."

"My father says it's next to impossible for Reah to trust. He says it was beaten out of her as a child. That fucker had twenty-six other children, and not one of them stood up for her. Six other wives and not one thought to take in the orphan. Monsters walk in daylight, Gavril Tybus Montegue. Every single day." Lendill tossed his comp-vid onto Gavril's cluttered desk. Normally it was tidy and neat—now, it was littered with comp-vids.

"Reah trusts the reptanoids."

"She loves them better than anyone else, I think," Lendill sighed.

"And they've been going crazy since she disappeared. If I hadn't sent them to Birimera for a change of scenery and to check on the crops, they might have gone down with the others. I could've had them down there, guarding the Strands when they were sprung."

"We couldn't predict that," Lendill pointed out. He'd lost three of his, Gavril had lost the other three. The Strands were wanted in the Reth Alliance just as much as the Campiaan Alliance. They were now free again and likely plotting revenge somewhere with who knew what sort of criminal element. Lendill figured they'd fled to either Hilfri or Bardelus, and his money was on Bardelus.

"Where should we start looking?" Gavril said, turning toward the wide window behind his desk. It looked over the well-kept grounds of the San Gerxon estate.

"I'm for going to Bardelus. There are six boroughs there that aren't part of United Bardelus. Each borough is a law unto itself, with Grithis being the worst. Greed, kickbacks, payoffs, bribery, you name it, it's happening there. Prime territory for the Strands, don't you think? The child disappearances are just an added worry."

"How many children?"

"Hundreds. At least that's what my operatives are picking up from the secure transmissions. Could be more—it's hard to track that sort of thing."

"What's the population of Grithis?"

"Around seven million. Plenty of people to prey on."

"Could be a slavery ring. Is it mostly girls?"

"Mostly. With a few boys here and there."

"Sex rings, then."

"Could be. That's the common thought running through the ASD. We're keeping an eye on it, in case it filters into the Alliance."

"Dee!" Gavril shouted. Dee stood in the doorway in less than a blink.

"I sat on a bench in the park and watched the children this afternoon," Plovel said as he ate a late supper. "Used amps to listen to conversations."

I nodded. Amps were tiny sound enhancers utilized by spies everywhere. You could pick up a conversation from quite a distance. "Hear anything?" I asked.

"A group of little girls saying that a friend heard crying. Of course, that could be rumor. You understand how that sort of thing gets around. The scare factor." Plovel shook his head. "Did you know there used to be a building on that site? One of the mothers told me. It makes sense—the park is the right size for a building there and it lines up with warehouses on either side."

"Honestly, I hadn't thought that much about it until Harne came in with his story this morning. Now we have ghosts and crying children. This is crazy." I walked away from Plovel's seat at the counter when I heard Neidles' footsteps outside the restaurant.

"Reah, how are you?" Neidles seated himself two stools down from Plovel.

"Good," I said. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes. What do we have tonight?" I passed a menu over that listed the day's specials.

"You made beef in wine sauce?" Neidles lifted an eyebrow, no doubt calculating the cost of the wine in his head.

"It only took four bottles and it was inexpensive," I sighed. "Is that what you want?"

"Yes." I went to put a plate together for him. I served it with rice since potatoes were more expensive than the dried grain. It irked me that Neidles thought constantly of the bottom line instead of the quality of the food served.

"This is good," Neidles shoved food in his mouth. He had the manners of a Harlooni pig. I didn't let him see when I rolled my eyes.

"Reah, you may leave work early if you'd like to come walking with me," Neidles gave his mouth a perfunctory swipe before grinning at me. I wanted to cringe.