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"Don't underestimate your own importance to us, Elena," Bauer said. "We're thrilled to have you with us."
"And we couldn't find Adam," Tess added.
Gee, thanks.
Bauer continued, "And, beside Leah, our last, but certainly not least guest."
I turned. In the cell behind me was a girl. No, I don't mean a young woman. I mean a child, no more than twelve or thirteen. I assumed her
youthful appearance was the manifestation of some unknown supernatural race.
"What is she?" I asked.
"A witch," Bauer said.
"Does a spell do that? Make her look young? Handy trick, but if it were me, I sure wouldn't want to return to that age. Either long before or long after puberty for me, thank you very much."
Bauer laughed. "No, it's not a spell. Savannah's twelve."
I stopped. If I'd been shivering before, I was frozen now, a block of ice lodged in my gut.
"Twelve?" I repeated, hoping I'd heard wrong. "You captured a twelve-year-old witch?"
"The absolute best age," Matasumi said. "Witches come into their full powers with the onset of their first menses. Being on the brink of puberty, Savannah presents us with the perfect opportunity to study mental and physiological changes that might explain a witch's ability to cast spells. We had a remarkable stroke of luck finding her. An accident really. Savannah is the daughter of a former Coven witch we targeted several weeks ago. When our men picked up the mother, the daughter was unexpectedly home from school, so they were forced to bring her as well."
I scanned the cell. "You don't keep her with her mother?"
"We had some trouble with her mother," Bauer said. "Her powers were stronger than our sorcerer led us to believe. Dark magic, you might call it, which would likely explain her split with the Coven. Eve was ... well, we had to--"
"We removed her from the program," Matasumi cut in. "The best thing, really. She proved much too difficult to be a useful subject, and her presence distracted the child."
The ice expanded to fill my stomach. These people were holding a child in an underground cell, congratulating themselves on having found her, and extolling the advantages of killing her mother? I watched the girl. She was tall for her age, whip-thin, with a face that was all planes and sharp angles. Waist-length jet-black hair fell so straight it seemed weighted down. Huge dark blue eyes overpowered her thin face. An odd-looking child with the promise of great beauty. She stared intently at a crossword puzzle book, pencil poised above the page. After a moment she nodded and scribbled something. She held the book at arm's length, studied the completed puzzle, then tossed it aside, got up from the table, paced a few times, and finally settled for surveying the contents of a bookshelf behind the television set.
"She must get bored," I said.
"Oh, no," Bauer said. "This isn't easy for Savannah. We know that. But we do our best to accommodate her. Any thing she wants. Chocolate bars, magazines ... we even picked up some video games last week. She's quite ..." Bauer paused, seeming to roll a word on her tongue, then discarded it and said quietly, "She's comfortable."
So she knew how bad it sounded. "Sorry we executed your mom, kid, but here's some Tiger Beats and a Game Boy to make up for it." Bauer tapped her manicured nails against the wall, then forced a smile.
"Well, that's it," she said. "You're probably wondering what all this is for."
"Perhaps later," Matasumi murmured. "Doctor Carmichael is waiting and this isn't really the place ..."
"We've shown Elena around. Now I think it's only fair we offer some explanation."
Matasumi's lips tightened. So this wasn't usually part of the tour? Why now? A sudden need to justify herself after showing me Savannah? Why did Bauer care what I thought? Or was she defending it to herself?
Before Bauer continued, she led me out of the cell block. I studied the security procedures. Once through, we passed two armed guards stationed in a cubbyhole beyond the secured door. Their eyes passed over me as if I was the cleaning lady. One of the advantages to hiring guards with some form of military background: Curiosity had been drilled out of them. Follow orders and don't ask questions.
"Some sort of military connection?" I asked. As long as Bauer was in a mood to answer questions, I should ask them.
"Military?" She followed my gaze to the guards. "Using supernatural beings to build the perfect weapon? Intriguing idea."
"Not really," I said. "They did it on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A sub-par season. I slept through half the episodes."
Bauer laughed, though I could tell she had no idea what I was talking about. I couldn't picture her lounging in front of a TV set, and even if she did, I was sure the only thing she watched was CNN.
"Don't worry," she said. "This is a completely private enterprise. Our choice of guards was merely practical. No governmental overtones intended."
