"Isaac Todd," he said, mouth almost completely dry. "Reporting in, Mr. Roon."
"It's been over two weeks, Mr. Todd. Where are you? I was just about to go to bed."
"I've been captured by the Children of Irfan."
Mr. Roon's expression didn't change, but Todd noticed his neck muscles stiffen. "The Children? Are you on Belleroph-no, you can't be. What is your location?"
"I'm on a ship docked at SA Station. I don't know the name of it-they haven't mentioned it within my hearing."
"Start from the beginning, Mr. Todd," Mr. Roon said tensely, "and tell me everything."
Todd explained and Mr. Roon listened.
"So you allowed yourself to be captured, is that it?" Mr. Roon said when he was done. "And then you let them drug you and make you blab everything you know."
"We can turn this into an advantage, sir," Todd said. He thrust the hand that wasn't holding the communicator into his pocket so it wouldn't shake. "The Father in charge-I haven't caught his name, either-said he wants to steal away his family. Mr. Roon, he's still Silent."
Roon didn't answer right away, so Todd plunged on. "He once said something about going into the Dream. I also get the idea that at least one other person on this ship is also still Silent. There may be more, sir."
"And?" Mr. Roon said at last. "I have the feeling that this is going somewhere."
"If we play this right," Todd replied, "we could grab all of them."
"Of course we can grab all of them. Your signal has already told me where you are. I can simply flood the ship with security troops. We'd get the Silent-and you."
Todd didn't miss the implied threat. "I think that would be a mistake, sir."
"Oh?"
"It would be hard to keep something like that a secret," he explained. "The moment security forces show up, the Children will shout for help and probably dump everything they know about the Collection into public-access networks-and into the Dream. I would, under those circumstances."
"To what end?" Mr. Roon countered.
"Partly to tick you off and partly because it would put every Silent in the galaxy on their guard, making the Collection harder to expand. The Children themselves would also come looking to rescue their people, and the groups we… liberated our Silent from would want their property back, so you can be sure they'd kick up a fuss. SA Station would be inundated with people trying to destroy the Collection, and someone might even declare war against SA itself. If the Collection's existence became public knowledge at this stage, the whole thing would be ruined."
"You have a point," Mr. Roon conceded grudgingly. "So what do you propose we do?"
"Nothing. That's the beauty of it. If they want to get the Father's relatives, they'll have to come to us. All you have to do is wait for them. I can feed you information from the inside, let you know when they're planning to move. The moment they try something"-Todd snapped his fingers-"you'll have them. All of them."
Mr. Roon thought for a long moment. Todd held his breath. If Mr. Roon decided to dump Todd's plan and instead take the ship by force, Todd would be in the position of "agent who needed rescue." If Mr. Roon accepted Todd's plan, Todd would be in the position of "agent who came up with a brilliant idea." The latter meant gratitude and a bonus. The former meant the recycling vats or worse.
"All right," Mr. Roon said at last. "We'll try it your way. Check in with me every two days at this time, sooner if something's going to break. Meanwhile, I'll step up security around the Collection."
"That would also be a mistake, sir," Todd said with an internal sigh of relief. "If anything, you should ease up a little."
Mr. Roon considered this. "Because it will make it easier for the Children to get inside where we want them. I see your point." He eyed Todd skeptically. "You're adept at turning your position around, Mr. Todd. I'll be watching you carefully."
And with that, he broke the connection. The hologram vanished. Todd let out a long, heavy breath. Then, whistling a little tune, he replaced his finger.
CHAPTER NINE
"Call an elephant a rabbit only if it makes you feel better to say you got trampled by a rabbit."
The parade was enormous, with elephants. Kendi leaped and capered and skipped, sometimes tripping over his enormous purple shoes and landing flat on his face, to the great merriment of the assembled crowd. At the very front of the parade marched Valeta Kalopolis, her long dreadlocks piled under a tall red hat. She wore the traditional scarlet tuxedo of the ringleader, and she often twirled her gold-topped cane like a baton. Behind her came a pair of elephants. Old-fashioned flat signs on their sides spelled out "Kalopolis Intergalactic Traveling Emporium of Wonders" in large, important letters. Then came Kendi, mixed in with a group of a dozen other joeys that included Ben and Gretchen. Ben was made up as a sad-looking hobo while Gretchen sported a fluffy green wig and a bright blue smile. Kendi wouldn't have thought that Gretchen would make a very good clown, but she was making a surprisingly fine job of it. She skipped and waved and at one point blew up a long, thin balloon. With a few expert twists, she transformed it into a dog, handed it to a small child, and continued on her way.
"I didn't know you could do that," Kendi murmured to her.
Gretchen waved cheerily at the crowd, her face unrecognizable under white and blue makeup. "There's a lot you don't know about me."
Kendi grinned and decided to lose himself in his current role. Hidden beneath the bright, happy makeup, he could pretend that his family wasn't imprisoned, that he didn't have a slaver imprisoned on his ship, even that the Despair had never happened. His only purpose was to make people laugh and forget their troubles like he was forgetting his.
Behind the clowns hovered a broad platform on which acrobats of three different species-none of them human-performed graceful gymnastics. Horse riders came next, leaping on and off steady equine backs in their bright, glittering costumes. A short, squat humanoid who bulged with muscle performed feats of strength while an animal trainer herded a troop of house cats. Calliope music from a real calliope hooted cheerful music. Acts and riders stretched farther back than Kendi could see down the wide street corridor. Even the crowd itself was a riot of color and species that almost rivaled the Emporium itself. Pnebran, the gallery curator, had been correct-the idea of a circus was something almost all species seemed to enjoy. The whole thing was glorious.
And then he caught sight of Edsard Roon. The man was standing, face rapt, in front of the crowd with his wife Annalies and three pale children under the age of ten. Kendi stiffened, then caught himself and waved as if they were any other family in the crowd. The Roon children were quieter than the ones around them, almost subdued, and they didn't dive for the candy Ben tossed their way. Kendi felt a little sorry for them as he passed.
The Emporium wound its way through the station, passing through wealthy and poor sections alike. The poor sections wrenched Kendi's heart. The wide corridor was grimy, the buildings had few windows, and the air smelled stale. Noisy machinery clanked in the background, and small scavenger animals rustled in alley shadows. Family clusters crowded the walkways, both at ground level and above, all of them determined to get a glimpse of the Emporium. Tickets, Kendi knew, would be too expensive for almost everyone who lived here. Val, bless her heart, slowed the parade down to allow them to get a good, long look. Kendi and the joeys, for their part, worked extra hard to touch the crowd before moving on.
Just over an hour later, right about the time Kendi's feet were getting sore, the Emporium arrived at the entertainment coliseum where the circus would perform. The wide corridor dove straight into a long tunnel that opened directly into a cavernous performance arena. A trio of wooden rings made circles on the floor, and an impressive array of rigging for the flyers and acrobats made a network high above them. Rows of numbered bleachers rose high on all sides, and extra seats had been placed so luckier patrons could sit mere meters from the actual performers. People already crowded the seating areas, and more were streaming in.