Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  Chapter 4: The Long March Begins

  The day before Lady Hawthorne went to the orphanage, Lamile had one of Lady Hawthorne’s helpers drive her home. She told Jill and Lady Hawthorne she needed to get home for a change of clothing. That was true as far as it went; but she wanted to go home so she could start her mission without implicating Jill or Lady Hawthorne. If they didn’t know what she had in mind, then when she was found out, maybe her friends wouldn’t get in trouble for what she did. It was lunch time when she got home. She found her mother eating lunch.

  “There you are,” Her mother called, it had been a couple of days since she had seen her mother. “You get tired of Lady Hawthorne’s?”

  “Hi Mom,” Lamile replied, “What brings you home so early?”

  “I’m going in late,” Her mother said. “I thought I wouldn’t see you for a couple of days.”

  “I needed to change clothes.” She answered. “If it’s okay with you I’m going to go back in the morning and stay a couple of days.”

  “As long as Lady Hawthorne doesn’t mind.” Mylea gave her daughter permission to go back to Lady Hawthorne’s. She had no qualms about Lamile staying with the noble woman. She had ran a back ground check on their special projects officer and found nothing to worry her about letting her daughter hang around Deloris Hawthorne. So far she had been a good influence on both her and Jill.

  “No, she’s cool with it,” Lamile said.

  “So what are you going to do this afternoon?” Mylea asked.

  “Run a load of laundry.” Lamile said. “I thought I might wander down to South Mall before getting someone to run me out to East Wind.”

  Mylea thought for a moment. Lamile’s school was closed down. All the schools were. Their closure was causing some problems with unsupervised children. She didn’t want Lamile to just stick around the house, but she didn’t want her to be part of the problem at the mall. Then she asked, “I’ve couple of errands to run. Want to accompany me?”

  “What sort errands,” Lamile asked. She really didn’t want to run with her mother. She wanted to plan how she was going to link up with all the children hiding from the authorities.

  “I’ve a meeting with Chief James downtown,” Mylea replied, “Then I have one with General Langtree at Fletcher. Then if nothing pops up I’m done for the day.”

  “I guess I could run around with you,” Lamile said. Although she needed to work on her project, going with her mother to Mounty Headquarters and later to Fletcher might help her plan part of her project.

  There was a knock on the door. Lamile opened the door, to find Tony, her mother’s driver there to pick them up. As they went to police headquarters Lamile asked, “Mom I would really like to know more about these kids. Any ideas?”

  Mylea thought for a moment the said, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to read the statements given to the officers. When we get in, I’ll see about letting you read them.”

  Unwittingly by letting Lamile read the statements Mylea helped her daughter prepare for her mission.

  Her mother’s meeting was in the Mounties’ Emergency Operations Center. She didn’t share what her meeting was about. When they got to the EOC her mother took her to the door of EOC’s intelligence cell. It was closed and Mylea had to push a button to get in. The door opened and a beta biowoman came out of the room. Even though Mylea was a deputy chief of the Trenaport Mounted Patrol, she didn’t have automatic entry into the intelligence cell. It was very secure.

  “Lamile, this Sergeant Lenora,” Mylea introduced Lamile to the biowoman, “She in charge of the intelligence section of the EOC.”

  “Lenora.” Her mother spoke to a beta biowoman, “This is Lamile, my daughter.”

  “Good afternoon,” the biowoman, who vaguely resembled Lisa Wilson greeted them. “How can I help you?”

  “Lenora are you working on anything sensitive,” Mylea asked. If they were working a case; then Lamile wouldn’t be allowed in to the intelligence cell. Depending on what it was they were working on; even she might be barred.

  “Mr. Kellogg is reviewing some reports,” Lenora replied¸ “There’s a hundred leader from the companions. He’s coordinating their reports with ours. No… there’s nothing we’re working on that requires a lock down. Why?”

  “I need to park Lamile for about an hour,” Mylea answered, “While she’s here I want you to share any and all intelligence you have on the children we’re finding.”

  “Do you want a briefing,” The biowoman asked.

  “No,” Mylea replied, “She is going to prepare a briefing for Lady Hawthorne”

  “Okay,” the police officer replied thankful she didn’t have to do it herself. “Let’s get you signed in find you a place to work.”

  She led her to a work station and powered it up. sShe worked the keyboard for a bit before allowing Lamile to sit before it.

  “I’ve given you a temporary clearance.” Lenora told her, “If you try to research something besides the reports on the kids the station will lock up and you will be arrested. So don’t surf!”

  “I understand,” Lamile replied. She hadn‘t even thought of surfing.

  “You are going to hear and see things that you are not to repeat. You may make notes, but you are not to take them and any reports out of here. We’re not as secure as the Mountain; but there is a lot of sensitive material that could harm a great many people if the wrong people see them.”

  She hadn’t realized how sensitive the information she was that she was going to see was. She felt a little guilty using her connections to see the reports.

  She read through the various reports on the children the authorities had found. She wanted to see what the authorities actually knew. It wasn’t much. More importantly she wanted to see if there was any pattern to the kids they were discovering. Were the children avoiding the police, or seemed to be walking towards the space port. Although the Companions and the Mounties were trying to pick up as many children as they could, they were being hard pressed to do anything more than report contacts. Many of the children were for one reason another avoiding the police. She was beginning to see where someone was telling them that the crown wasn’t going to evacuate them!

  She saw more than one interview where the kid being interviewed reported a mysterious adult who was telling the kids that God would take care of them. That they had nothing to worry about. That the authorities were lying to them about the need to evacuated. The adult, a man named Father Pierce, continued to be named in the interviews. Some of the kids believed it, many didn’t. Still it was something to share with the adults. She was about to go and find Lenora to share what she had found when her mother spoke to her.

  “How’s it going,” her mother asked.

  Startled Lamile replied, “Better than what I expected. I think I may have stumbled upon something.”

  “What did you find,” Mylea asked.

  “I’ve been reviewing the interviews from the children that the Mounties and Companions have been finding. There seems to be one thing that is common in all of them. This man who is being described like that theocracy priest that Uncle Mike and you are trying to find has been trying to get the kids to stay where they are. What do you think?”

  She looked at what her daughter had discovered, then crossed checked some things she could get into that Lamile couldn’t and said, “Good call Lamile! I’ll get this up on the net. Sometimes it takes a new set of eyes to see connections. Are you getting anything else on those kids?”

  “Not much. The interviews lead me to believe that most of the kids are walking this path,” she showed her mother the map she had been working on, “There seems to be something about walking this path towards the space port. Even though, the priest is doing a good job of trying to prevent that, most of the kids have been picked up here.” She pointed to couple abandoned towns, “Everyone assumes there are not many. But I don’t know. As part of my review I read statistic there might be as many as seven hundred thousand h
omeless children.”

  That number astounded Mylea, she had no idea that there were that many homeless children. She was surprised that there were that many on a world as prosperous as Trena. “Are all these children orphans?”

  “No,” Lamile replied seeing the worry on her mother’s face, “many are homeless because their parents are. There may be only a hundred thousand or so kids who are homeless and orphaned.”

  That was still a lot of children. She wasn’t certain they had the resources to find them and evacuate them. She made a note to talk to Lady Hawthorne about Lamile’s findings, and see what she needed to find and rescue the kids. The first thing she needed to do was find more housing for all these kids. The old boarding school might be able to handle two thousand. The problem suddenly got much bigger.

  “Of those hundred thousand,” Mylea asked, “how many are in the cities?”

  “Maybe ninety thousand,” Lamile replied, “Mom. That’s just an estimate based on demographics. We could have much less.”

  “Where did you get this estimate,” Mylea asked.

  “The Royal Library,” Lamile replied surprising her mother how into it her daughter was, “There was a book written a while back about homelessness. There was a chart based on population how many homeless families there might be. I took a rough number and didn’t plug in any variables. I didn’t factor in such things as our economic status, family types which all had an impact on the real estimate. I could have asked for help; should have; but I haven’t had the chance to!”

  “What’s the name of this book,” Mylea asked. Lamile turned to the work station and brought the title of the book up. A holograph of the book floated above the work station.

  “Frazer I need your help,” Mylea spoke calling for the Artificial Intelligence that supported the Mounties.

  “Yes Chief Atomi,” the AI materialized next to them. He presented himself as a typical Mounty in a day to day uniform.

  “Please retrieve the book, ‘A Discussion of Homelessness in High Tech Societies.’,” Mylea read the title of the book Lamile had found, “Please read the book and apply any calculations the book may contain using the variables from Trena. I am interested in an estimate of our homeless populations and an estimate of orphaned children.”

  The AI reached for the book and appeared to read the book. Shortly, the AI’s image changed to that of him standing before a black board working an equation. It appeared to check his work and turned to them.

  “Based on this book’s equations,” The AI lectured them, “Based on actual number numbers; I believe we may have twenty thousand people homeless. That represents maybe seven thousand families. The calculations estimate, possibly four thousand orphans, planet wide.”

  Mylea breathed a sigh of relief, and ordered, “Make sure Lady Hawthorne is aware of your results.”

  “I’ve sent it to her,” Frazer responded.

  “Thank you, Frazer,” Mylea spoke to the AI, “Please package up the results of Lamile’s research and create a report for the command team.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Frazer replied. He began looking at what the chief’s daughter had discovered. He was quietly impressed. The girl had organized the reports by geographic location and had even started a map of where the children had been seen. He even saw where Lamile had flagged any report that mentioned the Theocracy priest Father Pierce. Frazer quickly read through the reports and mapped where the priest had been sighted and forwarded it to the team searching for the agent. As he finished up the package he was amazed. Lamile had spent maybe ninety minutes and had analyzed and organized some one hundred reports. Something he could have done far faster, the connections she had made the AI wasn’t certain he would have made though. Like any experienced investigator he would have discounted them; but when presented together they jumped out at him. He did some research on his own and added his results to the girl’s work and published the report as directed putting Lamile’s name as its principle investigator on the report, with his name second.

  After they left patrol headquarters, Mylea asked, “you can come with me to the palace or I can take you home?”

  “I thought you were meeting with General Langtree?” Lamile asked.

  “I am,” Her mother replied. “He’s at the palace waiting on me.”

  Lamile thought for a minute, “I think I’d like to go home. I need to think about what’s happened today.”

  Mylea nodded and drove her daughter home.

  As they pulled into their drive, Lamile’s tablet beeped telling her she had received mail. She got out of the car and went into the house. Once inside the house she took her tablet out to see who was sending her mail. She was surprised to say the least when she saw who the email was from, Frazer. Even more surprised when she opened the attachment it was the report on what she had researched. She spent the rest of the afternoon digesting the report and making plans to find and rescue some children. She soon had her target, a small group of kids who were walking to Trenaport. Theyre couldn’t be more than twenty. So far the authorities had done nothing to gather them up. She wondered why until she read a couple incident reports. The kids had ran and hid from the cops. The cops hadn’t tried too hard to find them as they were walking in the right direction. The cops thought they would be picked up eventually. She now had her group. She only had to find a way to get to the group.

  This turned out to be easier than she thought. There were advantages to being a military brat. The next morning Lamile took a bus out to Fletcher.

  She knew that General Langtree was at the O club getting lunch. He always walked over to the club figuring he needed the exercise instead of having Hoi driving him over. It was his lunch time habit. Lamile knew about it, as she sometimes hopped a ride out to the base to share lunch with the general. He had given her a standing invitation. Sergeant Hoi didn’t suspect a thing when she wanted to hop a ride with one convoys. She convinced the sergeant to put her on a convoy going near the small town of New Rome. She told him it was a school project. The thonian MP riding with the convoy had been one of her baby sitters years before and was more than willing to help her old commander’s daughter on her homework assignment.

  When the convoy turned off to go to Hilliard she got off the truck and began to walk into New Rome. When she had gotten far enough up the road where no one would see her she changed into some clothes she had fished out of a trash can. She wanted to look like she had been on the land for a long time. She slept that night in an abandoned barn. The next morning she wandered into New Rome. An abandoned town that had at one time, a thousand people living in it. She poked around the town for a couple of days before she stumbled on anyone.

  “Who are you,” a small girl not more than 2 crimens old startled her. Lamile had been poking through an abandoned grocery and service station to see if there was anything left on the shelves to eat when the girl startled her.

  “Lamile,” the teenager replied, “Who are you?”

  “J’lie,” the little girl said.

  “Hungry?” Lamile asked. She spied a bag of dried fruit and snatched it off the shelf. She opened it and handed it to the little girl, “Is your mom around?”

  “Mommy’s asleep,” the little girl said. “She’s been asleep for a long time.”

  “Where is she,” Lamile asked.

  The girl walked to the back of the store where a young woman lay on the floor. Lamile could tell immediately the thonian was dead. She checked to see if there was a pulse. There was none. Lamile took the little girl out of the service station and had to make a decision. Although she was certain that the woman had died of natural causes, she couldn’t just walk away from the woman. The cops had to be made aware of it. But if Lamile turned the thing in, she would have to give up on this town and try another. She made a compromise. She fed the little girl, bathed her and put her in a clean dress she had found in a small store. She waited until the little girl was asleep before she called the police. As she called the cops
she wondered where the girl’s father was. She knew the girl’s father’s body should be around somewhere. Her mother had been lucky her father’s death trauma hadn’t killed her, this girl’s parents may not have been so lucky!

  “There’s a dead body in the New Rome service station.” she told the Police Dispatcher. “There’s a little girl next to the woman.”

  “Who are you?” The AI asked, but Lamile cut the connection. However the AI had heard enough to recognize Lamile’s voice, as per its instructions the AI sent a priority message on the evacuation’s classified communications network. Within minutes the message was routed to the intelligence team in the Mountain. Mylea received a simple and plain message. “Wanderer heard from. No further info.” The next morning Mylea saw in the overnight reports that a body had been found by a young girl who had not left her name. The time of the report was the same time that Lamile had been heard from the night before. It was some relief but only some.

  After Lamile she finished with the police she looked around the town hunting for a place to hide. That was when she found the father. She found him under a car. It had fallen on him. He had slowly died from a crush injury. As he slowly died from his injury he lost conscience causing his lifemate to lose conscience and eventually to die also. She left him alone and found a place to hide.

  Lamile watched the police and EMS units arrive from a small out building near the service station. She held her breath when one of the crime scene people looked right at her. She looked down at her scene scanner and back at her. She knew she had been discovered by the cops. The CSU tech walked over to where she was hiding. In a low voice only Lamile could hear, “She’ll be taken care of Wanderer.”

  The tech had been added at the last moment, she was a member of the Black Guard who had been part of the Interstellar Rescue Service Criminal Investigation Service before being chosen to become a Black Guardsmen. Her job was to get to the scene check on Lamile and ensure that the dead woman wasn’t Lamile.

  “Stay hidden, we’re only a short shout away if you get into trouble.” With that the woman walked back to the service station.

  Shocked, Lamile stayed hidden until the team had left. When she was certain that they had left she went back to the service station and found a small package left for her. It was out in the open on one of the counters with her name on it. It wasn’t there earlier. The package included a very small ear bug radio, a couple of ration bars, and an envelope with a note in it. Shocked she opened the note, “Lamile, your mother is furious with you. You’ve scared the crap out of her. That being said I want you to be safe. If things get crazy just yell and the Black Guard will have you picked up as quick as they can. No, they are not in direct eye sight of you; but the ear bug is a tracker. Thank you very much for your courage. Take care Wanderer and be safe.” It was signed Aggie.

  Astounded she folded the note up and hid it very securely on her person. She slept that night in an abandoned home. The next morning she wandered down the road to the next town. Remembering how lucky that she had been not to lose her mother also when her father died. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the little girl when she had seen the two bodies loaded into the ambulance the night before.