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Were they checking for a disease or infirmity that meant she only had a short time to live? The Kurians used humans the way banks exchanged currency; perhaps a human only counted as a human if it could be expected to survive more than one year.
Valentine looked at himself in the shard of mirror on the wall. The single bare bulb in the wall cut shadows under his eyes and jawline. You're a glass-is-half-empty kind of guy, Valentine.
Maybe she scored supergenius on a test and was being shipped off to learn some kind of Kurian technology. Maybe she had a special skill that would keep her comfortably employed in the Kurian Order to a ripe old age.
Or maybe she showed up on some list as a refugee, and was shipped back to her original owners faster than you could say Dred Scott.
The other thing he'd learned from Father Max was that the first step in discovering a few Unknown Unknowns was to answer the Known Unknowns.
So much to do. He'd have Ahn-Kha take Hank to a boarding school. He didn't want the boy to become just another camp extra until he enlisted at fifteen. He'd have to arrange for transport for both of them, and for himself to Pine Bluff and the Miskatonic.
He had one promise to keep before starting this new page. Even if it was a page he didn't know that he was up to turning. Just as well Post had given him this. At least he had something to do with his leave other than fret.
* * * *
Hank brought in breakfast. The boy looked as gray and bleary as a Minnesota October, and Valentine smelled more beer and vomit on him.
"How about a little yogurt, Hank?" Val said, holding up what passed for yogurt in Texarkana to the boy. He lifted a spoonful and let it drop with a plop.
"No, sir, I'm-already ate," the boy said, putting his burn-scarred hand under his nose. He fled, and Valentine chuckled into his bran mash.
"Are you up early or late?" Duvalier groaned. She rolled over and looked at the window. "Early."
"No, late. It's almost nine. I think everyone slept in."
She reached down into her covers. "Water?"
Valentine got up and gave her his plastic tumbler full.
"Val, we didn't. . ."
"Didn't what?"
"You know."
"You yodel during sex. I never would have guessed that."
"Dream on, Valentine." She rolled over on her stomach. "God, gotta pee."
She got up and dragged herself into the bathroom.
"This would have been a bad time of the month for us to do that," she said from within.
"Do I need to get you anything from supply?"
"No, I mean-fertility and all that."
Valentine wondered for one awful second what his daughter looked like. She'd probably have dark eyes and hair; both he and Malita Carrasca were dark.
"I got basic hygiene first week of Labor Regiment," Valentine said. "Good soldiers don't shoot unless they've taken precautions not to hurt the innocent."
She laughed and then cut it off. "Ow. My head."
Someone pounded on the door hard enough that the hinges moved.
"Come in," Valentine called.
Ahn-Kha stood, blocking ninety-five percent of the light coming through the open door.
