"So you want us to-" Leif said.
Megan saw the flash of annoyance in Winters' s eyes and immediately wished Leif had kept his mouth shut. "I do not want you to," Winters said. "The people we're dealing with, whatever their purposes may be, are professionals at what they do… which is staying hidden, and getting other people jailed, hurt, or killed on their behalf. Usually kids around your age… usually ones who are at least nearly as smart as you are." He glanced at Mark. "Almost all of present company excepted. I would very much prefer to let our own people continue handling this."
Then he sighed. "Except that this is the first concrete indication that we've found of the intentions and methods of the people who might actually be running the 'recruitment scheme,' and that they're actually being somewhat structured about it, enough so to keep coming back to the same places. And they've been canny about it, too… recruiting from a 'labor pool' who because of multiple run-ins with the law or a long history of 'going missing' are already either discredited as witnesses, or already given up for dead… or in a position to be. Nasty, very nasty… and I want it to stop. Not least because what Breathing Space does, when it's working correctly, helps a lot of people, and I would very much dislike to see the whole operation shut down in an atmosphere of scandal. Especially since Net Force should have been able to crack this by now, and hasn't. Results speak loudest, and the excuses would ring very hollow… especially to the parents of those kids who never came home."
Leif opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Megan simply looked at Winters. Winters looked back at her, and after a moment said, "I'd be willing to hear your recommendations."
She thought for a moment. "While they were in the report we filed with you," Megan said, "I understand that you might have concerns for Leif's safety… and almost might be concerned that he may have had second thoughts since we filed. However-" She glanced at Leif. He shook his head. "I think you should let him proceed," Megan said.
"Why?"
"Because substituting a Net Force operative for me, even one wearing an identical 'seeming' that you're pretty sure can't be seen through, has too many risks associated with it," Leif said. "What if the interviewer detects a change in 'tone' from the one I used with him? What if the substituted agent messes up some detail in the scripted history I've been working with, and with which I've had a fair amount of time to rehearse? And most to the point- what if you can't find anybody as good with as many languages as I am? Because you can't."
"You know," Winters said idly, "smugness is a big failing in our business, Leif." Leif flushed a shade of red that clashed with his hair. "Especially," Winters added, "when coupled with being right."
He paced a few steps across the worn white marble, his hands clasped behind his back, thinking. Leif gulped. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to sound that way. But if you scare these people off the nest now, it'll be months, maybe years, before they try something similar, and you know they won't try it in the same place. Drive them even further underground than they are already, and they'll just go off and pull the same number in Moscow, or Buenos Aires, or Beijing… and it'll take Net Force just as long then to get a handle on it as it's taken now, and maybe longer, because they'll have gone to a lot of trouble to cover up their tracks in some way that'll make it difficult or impossible to catch them in the kind of thing they're doing at the moment. If you're serious about stopping these people from ruining any more kids' lives, temporarily or permanently, I don't think you have much in the way of choices. Let us help you get the evidence you need to put these operatives away, anyhow."
Winters looked at him, then sighed and took a few more paces. "It's the problem with the Hydra's heads, isn't it," he said. "Cut a few of them off and five more grow back for every one you chopped. But at the same time… that's no excuse not to cut off the ones you find biting people, even if it does make other crooks elsewhere more cautious."
He glanced over at Megan. "This, of course, doesn't solve your problem, does it? Your friend is still missing."
"Yes," Megan said.
"Doubtless you're hoping that when we arrest the 'bad guys,' that under interrogation they'll let slip, or in the process of 'plea-bargaining' trade us, information about what happened to Mr. Kamen."
"I would hope for that, yes," Megan said. And she swallowed. "But I wouldn't hold my breath. And I wouldn't let it stop me from going ahead with what we're planning."
Winters stopped and looked at her thoughtfully. "Would you care to elaborate on that?"
She didn't want to.. but this particular line of reasoning had been chasing itself around in her head for many hours now, and there was no escaping from it. "I don't think it's likely that Burt is the only person they've 'recruited' in the past week, or the past month," Megan said. "There have to be a fair number of others. If these kids are seen as a safe and easy way to pass confidential information around, avoiding the Net or other methods that're more carefully policed, then there'll be a lot of them out there… and because there are potentially so many of them available, they may be seen by these people as disposable. Yeah, worrying about Burt got me into this.
I'm still worried about him. But the important thing is to stop this. It's not just Burt's safety that's at stake. Other kids are out there whose parents may really want to get them back safe. Their lives deserve to be saved as much as Burt's. And saving them may make the people who started running this particular scam think again about doing it at all any more… especially if it looks like Net Force may actually be using kids our age in iive' operations. They'll never know for sure, in the future, when they're about to be 'stung.' Strikes me as a good thing, whatever my personal feelings about my friend might be."
Winters gave her a long look, then went back to his pacing. "And you?" he said, looking over at Leif. "Do you agree with Megan's assessment?"
"By and large, yes."
"Care to poke some holes in it?"
"To what purpose?" Leif said. "The meter's running, as we say in New York. Besides, you have your mind made up already."
Winters stopped for a moment, stared at Leif, and then grinned at him. "Does it show that much?… All right, look. You're suggesting that we enact full surveillance on Leif's next interview with the 'Recruiters.' You know that, if it goes as planned and we succeed in making arrests, you'll have to testify in court, and that despite the usual precautions being taken to protect your real identities, this could possibly lay you open to, shall we say, 'recriminations' from the Recruiters' people at some later date. Or immediately."
Leif and Megan both nodded.
"Obviously you two are going to have to clear your further involvement in this with your parents," Winters said. "Better find out what the situation is with them, and do it quickly. As you say, the meter is running."
Winters turned to Mark. "I know you understand this, insofar as you understand anything legal, because, having been properly empowered by Net Force, you've already participated in such undertakings. We can safely assume that the security arrangements which already cover your mother and father can be assumed to protect you as well. Maybe someday you'll even do something to earn them." Now it was Mark's turn to turn a discordant red. "Other than constantly manifesting a wild talent with computers which could turn you into our century's version of Professor Moriarty, if you weren't so clearly obsessed with being seen to be operating on the Side of Good."
"Professor who?
Megan grinned.
"Little Philistine," Winters said mildly. "What do they teach them at these schools?"