Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  ###

  “Okay gang,” Lady Hawthorne said softly before her assembled assistants a little later in the day. “We’ve been tasked with getting a handle on how many abandoned, runaway, and missing children we have”

  Someone gave a low whistle. “Lady Hawthorne, I read a report before I left the Mounties that there might be over five hundred thousand kids homeless or having ran away from home. Try as we might we just couldn’t stop it from happening. The Mounties couldn’t figure out how to keep a handle on runaways. When the evacuation was announced the Mounties stopped working the problem. They have if not more important things to worry about; things that take precedent over runaways who will be they thought eventually rounded up.”

  “But we don’t have enough room to house that many kids!” Someone retorted.

  “I know,” Lady Hawthorne, “Yet we have to do something. We can’t leave them behind.”

  “But how do we make this happen?” Someone else asked.

  “As the cities are evacuated many of the homeless kids and runaways will be swept up,” one of the men said, “I can’t imagine that the authorities will not check on kids they see running about. Most of the ones we’re seeing are in the rural areas. They are the ones who may not be accounted for. We have to round them up somehow.

  The young noble woman spoke, “That’s why we’re here. Now how do we do it?”

  “Well let’s face it,” one of the women spoke, “if we just start showing up in the abandoned towns those kids will run from us. They may not even believe the evacuation is real.”

  “She’s right,” one of the younger men spoke up, “I was in pediatric mental health. A lot of the street kids don’t trust us. They’ve been screwed over so many times by adults they just don’t trust us.”

  “Why not use kids,” Jill Wilson who was staying with Lady Hawthorne for a couple of days to help sort out the stuff they were still getting for the damn break, wandered into the meeting. “There has to be a network with these kids.”

  “Not necessarily Miss Wilson,” an older woman in the back of the room said, “They mostly survive on their wits end.”

  “Yea but let’s face it they know of each other,” Jill continued, “if not planet wide at least in their small part of it. That’s how they know where things are being given out. Where they can get a meal, where they can get a place to sleep for a night. They also know what areas to avoid.”

  “Jill how do you know this?” Lady Hawthorne asked. She was concerned that the Wilson girl had some experience with runaways and living at her wits end.

  “It just makes sense. All we have to do is use their system.” Jill said softly, “Send a couple of younger cops or people that look like they are still in high school undercover. Trust me the police know where these kids are. They may not have time to round them up right now but the cops have a good idea of what’s happening.”

  “She may be right,” one of the younger women said, “we’ve got enough young people around here to make this happen. Let’s get a juvenile police officer in here and let’s see what they have to say.”

  “Lady Hawthorne,” Jill said softly, “I want to do this.”

  “Jill your father won’t allow that and I want to die of old age not at Lady Wilson’s hands.” Lady Hawthorne remarked thinking what she would do if one of her five kids was used by the crown to go under cover and they came to grief. Thankfully none of her kids were old enough to help. She knew without a doubt that if she let Jill go undercover and something happen to the teenager she would be dead meat.

  “I’ll handle Lisa, and Dad,” Jill replied with a smile in her voice, “The hard part won’t be them it’ll be my security team.”

  “You got that right,” Jenny who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room until now spoke up. She treated Jill like one of her nieces. The young woman was not a handful; but she could be a problem if she chose to be. But that was true of all young women who had to go everywhere with a detail. It was hard to date, go to the prom, be out with friends with two protective detail agents always in eye and ear shot of a teenager. “Jill it’s out of the question. The detail won’t let it happen.”

  “We’ll discuss it,” was all that Jill said.

  “That’s a certainly,” The woman promised, “But you are right. Jill is right! She has the right approach but how do we make it happen.”

  “We,” Lady Hawthorne asked looking to the well-built protective agent.

  “Yes we!” the agent retorted, “twenty years ago I was homeless and living on the streets. If it hadn’t been for one of the kings detail I ...well we won’t go there. Let’s just say that I know how these kids live. Or did! I want a piece of this.”

  Lamile who had been listening to the conversation was wondering what she could do to help. She and Jill had both renewed their friendship over the ensuing months. Where one was, the other was sure to be around somewhere. Both parents thought it wasn’t that bad of a deal. It was keeping them both out of trouble. She began thinking of a plan. She knew that Jill just couldn’t do it. Jill didn’t know Trena the way that she did, and although her mother was the chief of staff for her Uncle Mike, she herself wasn’t under the same type of security and protective protocol as Jill was. Besides, Lamile had some ideas where she could begin. But she would have to slip away. Lady Hawthorne would have a fit, and stand in the way if she knew what she was going to do. Lady Hawthorne was one of those people that Lamile listened to and was as close an adult friend that she would ever have, not that Deloris was that much older than her, only three crimen if that much. She wouldn’t want to get her in trouble. Her mother and Uncle Mike would skin her friend alive after they did her.

  “I would image,” the protective agent said, “that some of these kids would be making their way to Trenaport. Those that believe the evacuation is real that is. The ones who are not running a gang and think they will be king rat that is.”

  “Many of these kids,” Lamile said, “will find a spot around the zones,” she was talking about the landing zones general Langtree had been setting up,” and try to sneak onto a transport to orbit. The ones who know the truth, and are smart enough to figure things out; but don’t want to be involved with adults will be trying to find a way onto the transports. Why not set up a dummy transport.” Lamile was already deep into her plan, she thought she could lead several hundred kids to Trenaport if she did it right. Unfortunately she was going to have to get the adults to help. “You know you were talking about getting a couple of undercover people in with the kids. That’s not a bad idea. But why not get them out into the country and lead these gangs of kids to the port.”

  “And if it’s done right,” one of the young women who had married a Trenan noble after a tour at the Earth embassy, whose husband was now missing. “We can monitor the progress of the journey, without appearing to be trying to.”

  “We can also support it by dropping food shipments, and the occasional friendly adult who helps out.”

  “It can’t be this simple” Lady Hawthorne commented, “this is complicated, and...”

  “Lady Hawthorne,” Lamile said, “It may not work. And it’s not as simple as it sounds. We first have to infiltrate, then we’ll have to convince them, and then start them moving. We may be talking about only ten or fifteen children at a time, not hundreds; at least when it begins. Let’s get General Langtree and Princess Carroll in on this.”

  “Why them,” A defensive voice said from the back of the room. There were some people on Trena who felt that the off world police and military threatened their sovereignty.

  “General Langtree owns the equipment we need and will need to make the drops. The princess has Special Forces people we can use to help get our people in and keep tabs on what we are doing. And if they get in trouble the SpecWars can rescue us.”

  “James!” Lady Hawthorne called.

  “Yes my lady,” the face of her AI butler hovered in the room.

  “Please
contact General Langtree and Princess Carroll. Ask when it would be convenient for them to meet with myself, Lamile Atomi, Jill Wilson, to discuss the plan we’re trying to get together.”

  “Yes ma’am,” the AI said.

  “In the meantime I want to put someone into the towns and villages trying to make contact with these kids. Maybe talking to people who live in the towns who can tell us I what they know.”

  “Lady Hawthorne,” a voice to her right asked, “Do you want them brought here?”

  “No,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “I think I read that the crown took over my old school.”

  “The old boarding school?” someone asked. He had gone to school there on a scholarship. As had Lady Hawthorne.

  “Yes,” Lady Hawthorne continued, “They have been taking the kids they have found there since the school closed. I think we need to get someone there to talk with these kids. I may drift over there tomorrow.”

  “Can I go with you,” Lamile asked, “I would like to talk to a couple of the kids too.”

  “Sure why not?” Lady Hawthorne replied looking to Jill, “Want to tag along?”

  “Yes,” Jill replied.

  The conversation with Princess Carroll and General Langtree was short. Langtree was at first skeptical and flat out said he didn’t have much he could spare. Princess Carroll said she could release a couple of teams on and off over the next few weeks, saying it would be a good bit of training for them. Lady Hawthorne met with her people to recruit a young adult to bring the kids in.

  She never got the chance to put her girl in. Lamile went missing.