“Try them on,” Ferrol said. “You remember when I took measurements of your heads? Now you know why.”
“Is this a prank on us, Dr. G?” Gressani said.
“It’s not a prank.”
Celeste pinned her hair into a bun and stretched the mask over her head.
“Voila,” she said, her voice muffled. “Would you like me to wear this in bed tonight?”
Gressani cracked up, but he stopped at Ferrol’s dirty look.
“You’ll be wearing disposable white jumpsuits over your clothes and white shoe covers, so all they’ll see is your heads and hands.
Celeste peeled her mask off and told him it was hot inside.
“You’ll get used to it,” Ferrol said.
“Tell me why we’re doing this?” she asked. “I understand the need to protect ourselves from identification, but there are more comfortable ways to shield our faces.”
“You know how careful I am. I’ve thought through all of this,” Ferrol said. “We can’t predict everything. Chaos theory tells us that the unexpected can and will happen. In the event that we decide the children must be released, there can’t be any way for the police to make a connection to people or places. These will be young, impressionable children. They will be asleep when they are taken. They will be drugged in transit. They will awaken in a windowless, white room. They will be greeted and subsequently cared for by the two of you who will appear as alien beings. They will be told they have been taken to a spaceship for study. If and when they are released, they will tell the police what they experienced. From what I’ve read about alien abductions, a great many people will believe them. It’s incredible how gullible people are. Forty percent of people believe in aliens. Twenty percent say they’ve seen a UFO. People who claim they’ve been abducted become celebrities. What the children describe will confound any investigations.”
He leaned back in his reclining desk chair with a look of self-satisfaction.
“Isn’t there a problem with your plan, Dr. G?” Gressani said. “I’m going to sound like an ordinary Italian boy and Celeste with her French-Italian accent—well, you know how she sounds. Even children will recognize our voices as coming from regular people.”
Ferrol’s answer came in the form of a bag he retrieved from a desk drawer. He opened it and gave each of his compatriots a small black box and a headset.
“Electronic voice changers,” he said. “You’ll clip the boxes inside your white suits and wear the headsets under the masks. I’ve adjusted the faders to give a distortion level that I would describe as a huskier version of the creature in E.T.”
Gressani wanted to try his out, but Celeste appeared distracted.
“I’m troubled by something you said.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
She unpinned her bun, let her red hair fall down her back, and said, “You said, if and when they are released. This shocks me. We can’t hold them forever. They’ll need to be returned to their families. I know that kidnapping innocent children is quite barbaric. All of us accept it’s the only way to advance something that will benefit mankind, but these aren’t laboratory animals to be sacrificed at the end of an experiment. They are children.”
While she spoke, Ferrol nodded professorially and replied, “I couldn’t agree with you more. I misspoke. When they’re released, I meant to say. I don’t know how long the work will last, but when we’ve reached a clear, definable endpoint, we will return them to Italy. Understood?”
She was about to say something when Gressani began jabbering in a distorted, robotic voice.
*
Celeste was ready.
It took a loose, shapeless suit to obscure her curves and a rubber creature mask to hide her beauty.
“You look perfect,” Ferrol said. “I know you’re nervous. We’re all nervous, but we’ve rehearsed this countless times. We’re ready. Be a good nurse. Make them comfortable. Do what you do.”
She started to talk, but she had already activated her voice distortion. Annoyed, she reached through her suit for the off button.
“What should I say about their parents? Were the parents asleep when they were taken?”
Ferrol remained impassive. He knew Celeste would discover the lie soon enough—he had already seen early news reports from Italy about an entire family who had gone missing. Later, when she and Gressani saw the news themselves, he would blame the kidnappers for lying to him and express great remorse for their terrible and brutal actions. He would tell them he made sure that Gunar made the thugs pay. For now, he needed her to be reassuring and reduce the girls’ stress as much as possible.
He said, “I was told their mother and father are fine. Make sure you tell them that. The men who took the girls from their beds were very quiet. They told me the parents didn’t wake up.”
She nodded her gray, alien head, and activated her voice changer.
Ferrol watched through his monitor and only when he began gasping for air, did he realize he’d been holding his breath.
Victoria let out a high-pitched scream and scuttled over to Elizabeth’s bed when Celeste entered. The two girls held each other and cried.
“Don’t be afraid,” the mechanical voice said. “You are safe. I won’t harm you. Please tell me if you understand me.”
Both girls had their eyes closed. It was Elizabeth who opened hers first and said, “You sound funny.”
“To me, you sound funny.”
“Where are we?” Elizabeth asked.
“On a spaceship.”
“Where are Mommy and Daddy?”
“They are asleep in their beds.”
“When they wake up and we’re gone, they’ll be upset.”
“We whispered in their ears not to be worried. They know you’re safe.”
Victoria’s eyes popped open. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“We don’t have names.”
“Then what shall I call you?”
“You may call me your friend.”
“Why are we here?” Elizabeth demanded, suddenly feisty.
“We wish to learn about human children. You can
