the house staff, they all had the information, and everyone knew they had it, and Rollin is so hard to say ‘no’ to. He said it was fair to take it because so many people were getting turned out of their houses, and they were hungry, and they needed money. I thought the money was to feed people, not for guns…”
Lena took a deep breath; Rollin was sadistic. He claimed to be a human-born, but he ran the show like he wasn’t. He knew how to use their empathy against them to get whatever he wanted. He shot people not to kill them, but to make them suffer. She was beginning to wonder if he was empathetic at all, because he seemed to enjoy tricking and torturing people so much; she wondered, with fear in her heart, if there was such a thing as a Silenti who could enjoy feeling the angst he put others through—a Silenti psychopath. “Okay. I can fix this. And I’m going to keep your secret if you can keep one for me. As far as him finding you goes, there’s something else I need to talk to you about—we can make it so that he will never find you. We can give you a new life. I’m planning to go on a trip soon, and I think you should go with me, if it’s what you want after we finish talking. Do you know Master Astley?”
*****
After talking Cheryl into a stunned silence, Lena ran up to Howard’s office on the second floor. As was typical for Howard, the desktop was sitting there, turned on, with several windows open, including his email. Lena went to the navigation bar and clicked it; all of Howard’s frequented sites were there, including the many banks and investment firms that he used to spread Waldgrave’s money around to make the accounts less conspicuous. And there, scribbled on several yellow sticky notes attached to the right side of the monitor, were all the passwords, usernames, and the account numbers that they went with. Lena was flabbergasted; while she didn’t make a habit of yelling in the house owing to an embarrassing event that occurred during her first Council, she felt the situation appropriate.
Howard! Can I see you in your office please?
She waited in silence for his reply; seconds later, in an annoyed tone, it came. Now?
Now!
Lena sat down in his chair and grabbed a sticky note. She went to the indicated site and typed in all of the necessary information; access to an account holding more than thirty thousand dollars was at her quavering fingertips. What Rollin could have done with so much money, she didn’t want to know. Somewhere, he already had these passwords; if he wanted to, he could drain the account. Of course, that would reveal his hand and close the steady stream he had been tapping without notice for months.
Howard opened the door; they shared an odd look. Neither one had ever seen the other from the opposite side of the desk.
Howard’s eyes fell on the computer and the sticky note in Lena’s hands. “What are you doing?”
“Well, Howard, I think we need to have a discussion about password protection, and how it doesn’t work if you keep your passwords on your computer !” Lena reattached the note to the side of the computer and shot Howard a stern look as she crossed her arms.
“You called me all the way down here for that? We’re discussing what to do about the situation with the human-borns upstairs. It’s important. This couldn’t have waited?” His voice was surprisingly gentle given that she had just verbally accosted him; Howard, by this point, was used to Lena having a point. She knew how important his work was, and even when he couldn’t see a point, he knew there was probably one coming.
Lena tried to choose her lie carefully. It wasn’t Cheryl’s fault, but Lena didn’t want to bring her under scrutiny before she tried to whisk her away to her real family. “I was just talking to Devin, and he said something about remembering overhearing something while he was having the crap beaten out of him one time. None of
Lena took a deep breath; Rollin was sadistic. He claimed to be a human-born, but he ran the show like he wasn’t. He knew how to use their empathy against them to get whatever he wanted. He shot people not to kill them, but to make them suffer. She was beginning to wonder if he was empathetic at all, because he seemed to enjoy tricking and torturing people so much; she wondered, with fear in her heart, if there was such a thing as a Silenti who could enjoy feeling the angst he put others through—a Silenti psychopath. “Okay. I can fix this. And I’m going to keep your secret if you can keep one for me. As far as him finding you goes, there’s something else I need to talk to you about—we can make it so that he will never find you. We can give you a new life. I’m planning to go on a trip soon, and I think you should go with me, if it’s what you want after we finish talking. Do you know Master Astley?”
*****
After talking Cheryl into a stunned silence, Lena ran up to Howard’s office on the second floor. As was typical for Howard, the desktop was sitting there, turned on, with several windows open, including his email. Lena went to the navigation bar and clicked it; all of Howard’s frequented sites were there, including the many banks and investment firms that he used to spread Waldgrave’s money around to make the accounts less conspicuous. And there, scribbled on several yellow sticky notes attached to the right side of the monitor, were all the passwords, usernames, and the account numbers that they went with. Lena was flabbergasted; while she didn’t make a habit of yelling in the house owing to an embarrassing event that occurred during her first Council, she felt the situation appropriate.
Howard! Can I see you in your office please?
She waited in silence for his reply; seconds later, in an annoyed tone, it came. Now?
Now!
Lena sat down in his chair and grabbed a sticky note. She went to the indicated site and typed in all of the necessary information; access to an account holding more than thirty thousand dollars was at her quavering fingertips. What Rollin could have done with so much money, she didn’t want to know. Somewhere, he already had these passwords; if he wanted to, he could drain the account. Of course, that would reveal his hand and close the steady stream he had been tapping without notice for months.
Howard opened the door; they shared an odd look. Neither one had ever seen the other from the opposite side of the desk.
Howard’s eyes fell on the computer and the sticky note in Lena’s hands. “What are you doing?”
“Well, Howard, I think we need to have a discussion about password protection, and how it doesn’t work if you keep your passwords on your computer !” Lena reattached the note to the side of the computer and shot Howard a stern look as she crossed her arms.
“You called me all the way down here for that? We’re discussing what to do about the situation with the human-borns upstairs. It’s important. This couldn’t have waited?” His voice was surprisingly gentle given that she had just verbally accosted him; Howard, by this point, was used to Lena having a point. She knew how important his work was, and even when he couldn’t see a point, he knew there was probably one coming.
Lena tried to choose her lie carefully. It wasn’t Cheryl’s fault, but Lena didn’t want to bring her under scrutiny before she tried to whisk her away to her real family. “I was just talking to Devin, and he said something about remembering overhearing something while he was having the crap beaten out of him one time. None of
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