The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa de La Cruz

cut into the hillside.
    The narrow streets were empty,

save for junkyard dogs and the occasional random rooster.
    “The glom says you’re wrong,

boss,” Mimi said. She knew he hated it when she called him that.
    He spit out a wad of tobacco, a brown spittle that arched out of his mouth. Impressive, if it weren’t so

disgusting.
    “I wish you wouldn’t do that,”

Mimi said.
    “Why not tell me what you wish

I would do?” Kingsley smiled.
    Mimi did not dignify his

teasing with an answer. She wondered what it was like to be a reformed Silver Blood, whatever

that meant. Did he still have a soul mate? Did the same rules apply? What did Silver Bloods do,

anyway? Did they still need the Red Blood to survive? Or did they just live on caffeine and

sugar ?, which is what Kingsley seemed to subsist on. The guy was skinny, but he

could eat a dozen doughnuts in one sitting.
    “Cap,” Ted Lennox called.

“ this little girl wants to talk to Force.”
    It was the same girl who had

followed them earlier that evening. The one to whom Mimi had given the stuffed animal, which the

little girl was hugging now.
    “Sweetheart, what are you

doing walking around by yourself?” Mimi asked. “You should be in bed. It’s five in the

morning.”
    “Senhora. Senhora. You are looking for someone, yes?” she said in halting

Portuguese.
    Mimi nodded. The Venators had

a cover. If anyone asked for the reason they were in the slums, they played policemen on a

missing person case.
    “Yes. We are,” Mimi replied in

the girl’s native language.
    “A little girl like

me.”
    “How did you know?” Mimi asked

sharply. That wasn’t part of the story. The fiction was that they were looking for a thief, a

criminal, an escaped convict, a grown man. No one knew they were looking for a young girl,

because then it would cause red herrings in the dreams. If the people knew what they were looking

for, they would be sure to dream about it, and it would make the Venators’ work that much

harder.
    “How did you know we were

looking for a little girl?”
    “Because she told

me.”
    “Who told you? Told you what?”

Mimi asked sharply.
    The little girl shook her

head, looking suddenly afraid.
    “Did you scan her?” Kingsley

asked with a tilt of his head.
    Mimi nodded. That first night

they’d arrived, she’d scanned all the kids. There had been nothing. But had she been thorough? Or

had she been too gentle? The glom was unpredictable, some humans did not take well

to the invasion of their consciousness. If they woke up during a session, there was a chance it

could harm them, even drive them insane. Look what had happened to that so-called witness of

theirs.
    The Venators were skilled and

meticulous, and hadn’t damaged any Red Bloods so far. But maybe Mimi hadn’t wanted to take that

chance. Not with this little girl. She had done a cursory examination and had resisted probing

the girl’s core subconscious.
    Sam removed a picture from his

pocket. It was Jordan’s school picture. She looked troubled and serious in her plaid uniform.

“Have you seen her? Is she the one?”
    The little girl nodded,

clutching the stuffed puppy to her chest for dear life.
    “Well, what do you know?

Follow the little children, indeed,” Kingsley said.
    “Shush” Mimi chided. Her heart

began to pound. Could it be possible that all along, the answer to their quest had been right in

front of their noses? Following them every step of the way? When had the kids started following

them? They had been there since the beginning, that first night. Could they have missed it

because Mimi had been too weak, too much of a soft touch, to have scanned the girl

correctly?
    “Are you sure? Are you sure

you have seen her?” Mimi wanted to shake the girl, although it was really herself she wanted to

shake. She had let her feelings for the girl get in the way of her job. And since when