Every Last Mother's Child
Page 124
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“Mylea,” Lady Hawthorne was on the phone early the next morning, the brunet’s image hovering over Mylea’s desk. “Have you seen the yellows?”
The yellows were the specialized briefing sheets that were sent to the top level officers of the evacuation team. They were called yellow because they were hand carried by palace pages and were printed on specially treated paper. If the wrong person touched the paper the message disappeared. After exposure to normal room light, the paper turned yellow after 24 hours. It was designed to prevent unauthorized people from reading the confidential reports. So far it worked. Mylea was surprised that they didn’t use the computer system.
“Yes,” Mylea asked the younger woman, “what’s got your attention.”
“All the kids we’re finding.” Lady Hawthorne replied, “It looks like the cops have found another forty last night. That makes the count something on the order of what five hundred or a thousand.”
“I knew we had a large homeless population.” Mylea said, “But I hadn’t realized how many children was part of it.”
“You know I don’t think it is solely homeless kids. Some of them may be runaways.” Lady Hawthorne said softly. “They can’t all be runaways, or homeless kids. I think some of these kids have been abandoned by their parents! If the Marshal doesn’t mind I’d like to send one of my girls to the holding center and talk with these kids. I want to find out what going on.”
“The Marshal will approve,” Mylea said without hesitation. She wanted to get to the bottom of it too. “Deloris, how many of your boys and girls do you still have with you and how many have no assignments.”
“Maybe a hundred,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “why?”
“These kids are hiding for whatever reason from the adults. It could be something as simple as not wanting to leave their homes, or as complicated as child abuse. Whatever it is they hide from the police. Or most of them do. Do you think some of your guys can ferrite out some of these kids? You know with a population of nearly seventy five million people we have to have several thousand of these kids running around.” Mylea returned. “I don’t want to have them on my conscience.”
“None of us do.” Lady Hawthorne replied. “Put me on the Marshal’s schedule some time day after tomorrow and I’ll have something to share with him by then about these kids.”
“That’ll work in the meantime I’m going to issue a Chief’s number ordered.” Mylea said.
“Okay Chief, take care.” Lady Hawthorne said and signed off.
“All right Betsy,” Mylea spoke to her AI assistant. “This is a general order to all evacuation personnel. All social service agencies, all personnel who are assigning families to be evacuated are to acknowledge the order.
“Item 1: From this date and time, all evacuation personnel are to ensure that families with children are fully accounted for. Families with missing children are to be held from embarking onto the landing craft until their children are accounted for. It is stressed that families with missing children may be missing for a variety of causes including missing, runaway, or other causes that may not be criminal, or against the law. Some children may be emancipated minors who for whatever reason have escaped our census.
“Item 2: Lady Hawthorne has been tasked to assist in locating abandoned and lost children. She will have a crown warrant tasking her to conduct this search. All staff members of the Evacuation Command are required to assist her.
“End it Betsy.” Mylea concluded the chief’s numbered order.
“Dispatched,” the computer said.
“Memo to the Queen,” Mylea started.
“I heard Mylea,” The Queen walked into the thonian's office. “I wanted to just touch base with you before I saw Mike today, but I heard the whole thing. Lady Hawthorne will have a crown warrant. I want to be kept informed on this.”
“Aye majesty,” Mylea said, “What else can I do for you?”
“Just wanted the updated numbers, how many have we gotten off world.” The Queen asked.
“A little over two hundred thousand,” The chief of staff said, “Only sixty million more to go.”
“Thank you,” The Queen left wondering how she could make things happened faster.