Coming of Age by Timothy Zahn Page A

ever order a birthday cake for him?” Tonio asked suddenly. “Or have professional help throwing a birthday party?”
    â€œGood point. We can check on that.” He made another note.
    â€œThis isn’t going to work, you know,” Tonio said, shaking his head. “We’re going to wind up interviewing half of Ridge Harbor.”
    â€œOh, it’s not that bad,” Tirrell said soothingly. “Whoever Oliver’s informant is, my guess is we’ll find he was relatively new to his job when Colin came to his attention. That’s because—”
    â€œWait a second; let me guess.” Tonio stared into space for a few seconds, lips moving silently. “Ah. Because if the informant had been at it longer, we should have had earlier kidnappings like this?”
    â€œRight. Good thinking,” Tirrell said, impressed in spite of himself that Tonio had successfully tracked through the logic. “I guess we’ll start by calling the Brimmers again, find out about birthday cakes and such. Then we should probably try the hospital.” He started to get to his feet.
    â€œStan?” Tonio had a thoughtful look on his face. “Maybe I’m missing something here … but what exactly does a fagin do with kids, anyway?”
    Tirrell sat back down. “Well, fagins do different things, I guess, depending on how cold-blooded they are and what they think they can get away with. Usually, they have their kids using teekay to steal for them, but I know of at least one case where the fagin was hiring the kids out to an underground mine operation that was so carelessly run the local hives wouldn’t let their kids work there. We caught one using the kids to smuggle stuff past customs, too—you may be old enough to remember that one.”
    â€œSo they just want cheap labor out of them, right?”
    â€œBasically. What they’re doing is exploiting the kids, who are either taken young or sucked in by big promises. The real tragedy is when the kids hit Transition and get tossed out by the fagin, and then find out that without a hive record they’re not entitled to any education. That doesn’t happen very often,” he added, seeing the look on Tonio’s face, “since we usually catch fagins early enough to give their kids at least some hive time. And the last time it happened in Ridge Harbor, the kid got Basic anyway, at city expense. But even beyond that, the whole experience can scar a kid for life.”
    Tonio was still frowning. “All right,” he said slowly. “But if it’s just teekay they’re interested in, why pick on Colin in the first place? The children I talked to said he was small for his age, and that means he’ll be less powerful.”
    â€œNot always; and smaller kids usually keep their teekay a little longer as preteens,” Tirrell corrected absently, staring at nothing in particular. “But that’s still a darn good question—fagins aren’t interested in the long-term teekay characteristics of their victims. And this guy Oliver seems to have latched specifically on to Colin a long time ago.”
    â€œYou suppose it was because Colin was adopted? It might not be as hard on his parents that way.”
    â€œFagins aren’t noted for that kind of consideration, either,” Tirrell said, a bit tartly. “No, there has to be another reason—something about Colin himself. Something the average person wouldn’t know, perhaps?” He got to his feet and started back toward the vault door. “Let’s go find out.”
    The preteen followed him. “We going to call the Brimmers?”
    Tirrell shook his head. “I think we’ll start at the hospital instead. I’d like to take a good look at the rest of Colin’s medical records. And at the people who compiled them.”

Chapter 6
    â€œN OW LOOK, KELBY, THIS is ridiculous,” Jarvis said as