Part 5 (2/2)

”Yeah.” His voice was clipped. She could follow the thought. They'd set up the clones and subst.i.tute one for the real child at birth. Who would know? Who would check for a clone mark, particularly if it was as well hidden as Talia's was?

”She had nothing to do with it?” Talia asked.

”Probably,” he said. ”We'll never know for sure.”

But they could, if they broke into all the records. And he knew how to do that. Talia didn't, not yet, but he could. He was really good and really smart and maybe he would do it now that he had a reason. He sat back down. ”You checked the billing records and found this company. Then what?”

”You gotta realize this was during all the meetings you had with Ms. Gonzalez. I didn't do it all at once. I was afraid they'd catch me.”

”They didn't, did they?”

She shook her head. ”I was careful not to dig too hard, and I didn't use the same machines all the time. Besides, if someone asked what I was doing, I was gonna say I didn't know and I'd take my hands off the computer and pretend like I got in there by accident. Because, y'know, when you're a kid-”

”I know,” he said. The smile was gone. ”What did you find?” ”I couldn't find all the records,” she said. ”I wanted to cross-check with Disappearances, but I couldn't get into those files at all. They weren't accessible. I'm not sure they exist.”

”If Oberholst, Martinez, and Mlsnavek has access to a Disappearance Service, they let the service keep the records. If they have their own, they destroy the records. It's the only way a Disappearance Service can properly function. No questions, no answers, no history. It's better that way. And it makes it hard for me to do my job.”

She suspected as much. But she hadn't known for sure. ”I wasted a whole afternoon trying to track that down. Then I got this brilliant idea. You gave it to me, actually.”

”Me?” he said, sounding surprised.

”You wiped away my clone status when you adopted me. I'm a real person under Armstrong law now, and I'll inherit and stuff if you want me to, but I can call myself your daughter and n.o.body asks about it or wants to see that mark or anything.”

”That's not the only reason I did it, you know,” he said.

She frowned at him. She didn't want to hear the other reasons. ”I needed to be legal. That's what you did.”

”You're my child,” he said. ”I'm not a Gyonnese. You were raised by my wife and your DNA comes from both of us. That some scientist took that DNA from another child of mine doesn't matter. I wanted to acknowledge you as my daughter. The rest of it was just bonus.”

Her cheeks were hot again. He'd made that speech before, especially early on, and she'd always thought he was just trying to charm her. But over the last few months, she'd started to realize that he didn't value charm much. He liked real people with real emotions and he valued honesty more than anything.

So maybe he was telling her the truth.

”Anyway,” she said, not certain how to respond, ”I got to thinking about the five of them and how they'd just kinda vanished, and if they hadn't Disappeared, then maybe they were put somewhere for safekeeping and when the case got settled, they weren't needed anymore, so they became real like me.”

He was frowning. It didn't seem like he completely understood.

”You are real,” he said, ”with or without my adopting you.”

”No,” she said. ”I'm a clone, not a full-fledged human.”

”You were a human being without parents or family,” he said. ”That was how the law saw you. Otherwise you were covered under every single law that applies to human beings.”

”Whatever,” she said, waving a hand. ”I got thinking that maybe after the court case, the five got adopted. And that Oberholst, Martinez, and Mlsnavek, being a law firm-and my mom's law firm besides having ties with Aleyd-would handle those adoptions.”

”Logical,” her dad said. ”I should have thought of that.”

”You couldn't've found out,” Talia said. ”These aren't public records.”

”They are in Armstrong.”

”But not in the Earth Alliance. It varies from community to community.”

He nodded. He must have known that. He just hadn't thought that the five had left Armstrong. He thought they were here, and he wasn't willing to look for them? That struck her as strange. But she wasn't going to get side-tracked, not when she was almost done.

”I found two,” she said.

”Two adoptions?” he asked.

”Yep,” she said. ”Two adoptions at the right time period of two little girls. They were the same age-the right age, seven months younger than Emmeline. Oberholst, Martinez, and Mlsnavek doesn't handle a lot of adoptions, so these really stuck out. And it was weird. They didn't handle the kids. They handled the parents.”

”And you a.s.sumed that these were two of the five?”

She bristled. ”I didn't a.s.sume anything. I wrote down the names and tracked them through public records. I found images.”

”Of the girls,” he said.

She nodded, then bit her lower lip again. It was bleeding. She had to stop that. It was a nervous habit that her mom always wanted her to quit, and it had gotten worse since her mom died.

”They look like me,” she said softly.

”Yeah,” he said. ”They would.”

Her heart was pounding. She'd admitted the worst to him, and he wasn't reacting. He wasn't saying much at all.

”I only found two,” she said because she wasn't sure he understood. ”I never did find all five.” ”Good,” he said, but he sounded distracted. He was thinking, probably going over everything she had told him.

”The information links that I found, the important doc.u.ments, they're only in Oberholst, Martinez, and Mlsnavek's system. I didn't do that on a public research board.”

”But you looked for those names on a public board?” he asked, and there was something in his face-a stillness, a worry, a hesitation. She wasn't quite sure what it was, except that it made her nervous.

She wanted to lie to him, because she knew the real answer would p.i.s.s him off.

”Yeah,” she said. ”But it wasn't like they were the only things I looked at on that board. I did schoolwork and I looked up some old friends from Valhalla Basin and I looked up some kids I'd met in school here. It was all jumbled up.”

”That might help,” her dad said. ”After you found the images, did you look up more information on those families?”

Every week until she got pa.s.sage on the first s.h.i.+p. Was she supposed to tell him that, too? Probably. It was probably what she needed to tell him. She sure didn't want to. ”I wanted to know if they still lived at the old addresses,” she said. ”And?” he asked. ”If they had other kids,” she said. ”And?” ”If they were in touch with Oberholst, Martinez, and Mlsnavek or with Aleyd or with Mom.” ”Were they?” ”One of the men who adopted one of the girls, he works for Aleyd.” Her dad let out another one of those gusty sighs. ”And the other family? Does it have a tie?” ”Not like that,” she said. ”n.o.body works for Aleyd anymore.” ”But they did.” She nodded. ”Both parents. They're retired now, doing artsy stuff, I guess. They got some big payout.” He swore. She'd never heard him sound so upset before. Her heart pounded. ”I screwed up, huh?” ”No,” he said, ”it's not your fault. I would have figured that Aleyd would have covered its tracks better.”

”What do you mean?” she asked, feeling confused. After all, he had been the one who was worried she'd started a trail. And she had, from the look on his face. Only she expected him to yell at her, and he really hadn't yet.

”You'd think if they were going to find homes for the other five, they'd have done it with families not connected to Aleyd.”

”Maybe they did,” Talia said. ”I only found two. That means there are three more out there.” He nodded, but the nod seemed abstract, like he was thinking about something else.

”The problem isn't you,” he said. ”The problem is that they didn't think. They were looking short term, at the trial and the possible punishment. Then when the case got settled, they let two of the couples adopt. They probably had couples that Aleyd knew it could control fostering the children just in case one of the children had to go to the Gyonnese.”

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