First| Previous | Chapter Index | Next

“Well for one thing, we were hoping that you could give us the coordinates of where you found the emergent kids so I can do some scrying myself,” Sonia said. “Not that we doubt you but–”

But two sets of eyes are better than one? Emily said. I understand. Of course I can. But Edwin could have given you that. There’s something else, isn’t there?

“I think they want to know about your situation, Em,” Sophie said.

My situation? Emily sounded quizzical. Haven’t they told you?

“They’ve told us something,” Sonia said. “But we want to hear from you.”

Emily’s projection rippled and tilted her head. I’m fine, she said. My foster parents are kind and I have lots of friends like me. Though if I wasn’t happy would I really tell you in front of Edwin and Sophie, would I?

“That’s a good point,” Sonia said. “But foster parents? What about your real parents?”

Them? Emily gave a mental snarl. I’m well rid of them. They nearly killed me trying to fix me.

“Em’s parents tried to exorcise her,” Edwin said. “That’s how we became aware of her after Social Services took her into care.”

“That’s a depressingly common scenario,” Matthias said. “There’s several kids we’ve found in similar situations.”

“It’s nowhere near as common as it used to be though,” Karen said. “Thank goodness. Our history says a few hundred years ago we were virtually pulling people out of the hangman’s noose.” She gave a little shudder. “Witch hunts.”

I can imagine, Emily said.

“But what about the other kids?” Andrew asked. “The ones who’s parents aren’t abusive jerks?”

Well, Rae’s mother is part of the project team, Emily said. But Rae is subject one. The others… I think their parents think they’re in some sort of school for gifted children and they go home for school holidays.

“You’ve checked on them all, I assume?” Matthias said.

“We did,” Sophie said. “And we brought most of them in because they’d lost one or both parents.”

“And now you’re wondering if that makes them more rather than less vulnerable,” Matthias said.

Sophie nodded. “The authorities know where we are after all.”

“But they don’t know where we are?” Matthias asked.

“Of course not,” she said. “We never told them you existed, let alone that you had that whole school.”

“But if they start digging it won’t take them long to work it out now they know you exist,” Edwin said. “They only need to pin down one of your families and they’ll pin down your school and then they can back track from there to the other families.”

“Though once they realise the numbers they are dealing with they’ll probably shit themselves and back off,” Sophie added.

“Soph!” Edwin exclaimed.

“You’re an adult, Edwin, and I’ve heard Emily use worse so I’m hardly going to corrupt her. Plus it’s true. They won’t be expecting such numbers and they’ve already learnt how many people they need to take one of us down. The idea of facing a few thousand will scare them witless.”

“Scared witless governments are generally a bad thing, Soph,” Edwin said drily. “I think we want to avoid that.”

 

First| Previous | Chapter Index | Next