"Timothy Zahn - A Coming of Age" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

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A Coming of Age

"Maybe." Tirrell sighed and fished out his note pad. "Let's put our supposers on ice for the
momentтАФwe may get the chance to simply ask her. Let's see. The obstetrician knew Colin's birth
date, of course, and so did the assisting nurses. Any of the staff on that floor would have been able to
look at the records for the next month, before they were sealed away. Then there's the Brimmers'
neighbors and close friends, and Colin's biological mother if we can find her. Who else?" He stared
at the list, pondering.

"Did the Brimmers ever order a birthday cake for him?" Tonio asked suddenly. "Or have
professional help throwing a birthday party?"

"Good point. We can check on that." He made another note.

"This isn't going to work, you know," Tonio said, shaking his head. "We're going to wind up
interviewing half of Ridge Harbor.

"Oh, 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 becauseтАФ"

"Wait 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?"

"Right. 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.

"Stan?" 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, tooтАФyou may be old enough to
remember that one."

"So they just want cheap labor out of them, right?"

"Basically. 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