Little Miguel took longer. The crowd grew impatient and pushed in tighter as the guards used their comms to talk to someone that Joe couldn’t hear. Flix whispered over and over, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.”
Eventually, a handsome, too-smug man appeared at the bars. He thrust his arm through them and made small-talk with the guards. He didn’t look at Miguel until the guard placed the white device in front of Miguel’s mouth and the kid gagged and started to cry. The guards repeated the procedure Joe had seen them use with Helene’s men, then the gate unlatched and swung open. One of the guards pulled Miguel from his mother’s arms and handed him off to the father.
“Please, Mr. Davenport! Have mercy!” Miguel’s mother, Melanie, shouted. “Help us!”
Miguel’s father kept walking like he hadn’t heard. The barred gate clanged shut behind him.
Melanie dissolved into sobs and incoherent Spanish. All Joe could make out was “my baby, my baby.” Melanie rushed at the gate, and two guards caught her.
“You did the right thing, miss,” one of the guards said as he pinned her arms around her other baby. He forced her to the metal door off to the left. At the last moment, he opened it and hustled her out. The door slammed closed. The noise of it reverberated through the tunnel. When it ended, not a sound came from outside. It was like Melanie had never been there, hadn’t just given up her son.
Peter turned terrified eyes back to Joe. “This is bad. I don’t want to do this. It wasn’t like this in Columbus.”
Flix nodded. “He’s right. We need to leave.” He dug his feet in, and Joe had to push him forward.
Joe swallowed his own misgivings. “It’s not going to be like that for us. We have a plan. Stick to it and we’ll be fine.”
Flix turned all the way around and swiped at the wetness on his cheeks. “My mom left me, Joe. Like that kid. Who the fuck does that?”
“Not us, okay?” Joe shook Flix a little, petted Peter. “You will be safe. I promise.”
“You’re holding up the line,” someone bellowed from farther back.
Aria took Peter’s hand and walked him forward.
Peter didn’t have the chip. Joe remembered, all the way back when Peter had gotten bitten and stung by the fire ants, the red, puckered line of skin over Peter’s shoulder blade. He’d seen the scar a million times since, worked out what had happened. The bastards that had trafficked Peter had stolen his citizenship. Or they’d tried, at least.
Now, one of the guards held up the white instrument again, this time in front of Peter’s face.
Peter gagged, and the guard took the device away to read it.
“Oh my God,” the guard said to the others. “It’s that missing kid. Peter, uh” — he checked his screen — “Hartford. The one where his parents got killed in Columbus? ’Cause what the hell ever happens there? That was back before Christmas. Where you been all this time, kid?”
Joe hurt for Peter, wished he could hug him. The stronger, tougher boy Peter had become seemed to melt away in the face of the guards’ questions. He looked so young and alone.
“He’s been through a trauma,” Aria said, and she did hug Peter. “He needs to be treated kindly.”
“Who are you, poc?” the guard asked.
Peter lifted his head. His voice shook, but he got out the words they’d rehearsed. “She’s my caregiver. I wouldn’t be alive without her. I need her to stay with me.”
The lead guard frowned. “I don’t know, kid. Underages aren’t supposed to be allowed to keep servants.”
Real tears formed in Peter’s eyes. “I can’t trust anyone but them,” he whispered. “Please let her stay with me.”
“Aw, shit. Don’t cry.” The guard leaned into his comm. “Sarge, we got a missing kid down here. Peter Hartford. DNA confirmed. He wants to bring a poc in with him. Says she saved his life.”
All Joe heard in response was static, but the guard must have heard something else, because he nodded briskly before swiping his hand over the comm.
“Come let me enter your DNA, lifesaver.” He pulled Aria closer and stuck the DNA sampler in her face.
“That’s bullshit!” someone yelled from farther back in the tunnel. “I coulda brought a poc with me to save my life and keep me warm at night, too!”
“Shut up, Adler, you asshole,” the guard yelled back. “Yeah, I recognize your voice, you scrawny, rat-faced punk. This is a one-time only special circumstance. If we were gonna break the rules, we’d kick your ass out first thing.” The guard took a deep breath. To Peter, he said, “Sorry. We get a lot of repeat customers. You and your poc are cleared to enter.”
This time, it was Aria who looked back. For the first time in a long time, Joe saw Sadie and Liliana in her eyes, along with a bit of the girl she used to be. Would it be like that for each of them? A step back before the step forward?
“Thank you,” he mouthed.
Aria placed a careful hand on Peter’s back, and they stepped through the gate to the dome.
Joe didn’t know what he’d expected to feel. Elation, maybe. Accomplishment. All he felt was relief. Two of them were safe. Now for two more.
He managed a soft, discreet nudge of Devin’s ass to get him moving forward. They’d be together soon. Maybe in another hotel room at first, but then a place all their own.
Devin approached the guards. “It’s in my hipbone.” He smiled softly, and Joe knew they were remembering the same moment, when Joe had first told Devin about the chip.
“You have a money chip here.” Joe had slid a fingertip over the soft skin covering
