children. But what were you looking for? Is there something genetically abnormal about these children that isn’t reflected in the chromosome analyses?”
Wiseman seemed to sink deeper into his chair, and the records he was holding fluttered to the floor. “My God,” he breathed. “What you’re suggesting is monstrous.”
“What’s happened is monstrous,” Malone countered, his voice suddenly level. “I’m sure you never expected anyone to find it. Not you, or anyone at CHILD. But Sally found it, Arthur. And if she could find it, others can too. So it’s going to come out We’re going to find out what you did to these children’s genes.”
“No!” Wiseman protested. “I did nothing to these children. Whatever’s wrong with them, it had to start with their parents. It had to!” But before he could go on, the front door suddenly flew open and Bandy Corliss burst into the room, followed by his father and Carl Bronski.
“I found it,” Randy crowed. “I found the house!”
Lucy’s eyes went immediately to Jim, who nodded. “We stopped at City Hall,” he said. “The place is owned by Paul Randolph.”
Wiseman frowned. “Paul Randolph is executive director of CHILD.”
“Right,” Bronski said. He looked curiously at Wiseman and Steve Montgomery, guessing immediately who they were. “What are you two doing here?”
Malone explained to them what had happened. “We still don’t know how it was done,” he finished. “For that matter, we don’t even know exactly what was done to these children’s genes. But you can bet that somehow they’ve been altered.”
“Can we find out what they did?” Sally asked.
Malone shrugged. “It depends on you. If the information’s in the computer, you’re the only one of us that can fish it out.”
Sally started to speak, but Bronski took over. “Then that’ll be your job, Sally. I want you to go to the hospital with Mark and start working with that computer.” His eyes shifted over to Wiseman. “And I want you to go with them, is that clear?”
Wiseman, his face haggard, made a gesture with a trembling hand. “Of course,” he mumbled. “Anything …”
“The house,” Bronski went on. “I can get a search warrant for it by telephone. We think it’s empty, but I want to go in. And I’d like to take Randy with me.”
“No!”
“Lucy, there’s no other way,” Jim said.
“There must be, or you wouldn’t have come back here,” Lucy snapped. “You’d have just gone ahead and done whatever you thought you had to do.”
Now Carl Bronski spoke again. “Lucy, that isn’t it at all. We came back here because Jim wouldn’t agree to taking Randy in unless you agreed too.”
“Which I don’t,” Lucy said.
Jim Corliss sat on the sofa and drew Lucy down next to him. “Honey, you’ve got to—” Seeing the stony look in her eyes, he broke off and started over. “Of course, you don’t have to let Randy go. But without Randy, there’s not much point in Carl even going in there. As far as we could tell from outside, the place is empty. Carl’s excuse for getting a search warrant is that he needs to verify Randy’s story of what’s inside that house, and that means Randy has to show him.”
Lucy, too exhausted to think it all through, turned to Sally for advice.
“If it was Jason, I’d feel the same way you feel,” Sally told her. “But still, if CHILD was using that house for something—”
Lucy took a deep breath and stood up. “You’re right,” she said. “Of course you’re right. We have to know what was going on out there.” As Carl Bronski picked up the phone, dialed, then began speaking quietly to the judge at the other end, Lucy turned back to Jim. “You’ll be careful?”
“Lucy, you have to believe that I’d never let anything happen to Randy.”
“Something’s already happened to him,” Lucy whispered. She reached out and touched his arm. “But it’s not just Randy,” she said, her voice suddenly shy. “You be careful, too. I—well, I feel as though I just found you again, and I don’t think I could stand to lose you now. Im going to need help from now on, Jim.”
“And you’re going to have it,” Jim promised.
The small group began to break up. Mark Malone packed the computer printouts into his briefcase, then led an ashen-faced and silent Arthur Wiseman out of the house.
Sally and Steve Montgomery left to take Jason to his grandmother’s, where he would stay while his parents went to the hospital to work with Mark Malone.
Carl Bronski, with Jim and Randy Corliss, prepared