Altered Children

Since January 2023, Dennis Murphy and Ramaraju Gupta had been conducting teleconferences on alternate Sundays with the medical doctors, psychologists and teachers who had been working closely with the altered children and their parents. They held monthly Sunday conferences with the parents and children to keep them in the loop. Dennis and Rama initiated the conferences at 7:00 a.m. from their university conference room in Seattle, Washington.

This schedule made it easier for almost every member of the group to participate no matter where in the world they lived, except for those few in five pacific time zones. The schedule would rarely interfere with work or religious services. Whenever feasible, people gathered in homes, offices or conference rooms in schools and universities.

Mack Wallace had determined that using a scrambler for even a portion of their phone-based conferences could cause them problems. Frequent Internet or phone contact with people who lived in Middle Eastern countries would likely attract unwanted attention of western governments concerned about Islamic terrorists. Therefore, any communications with the Middle East other than the most mundane would have to be passed telepathically through the altered children. They knew this would be somewhat cumbersome and slow the meetings, but it would also be much safer.

In May 2023, cell phone, e-mail and Internet services were provided to families who needed them. Propane or solar powered generators were given to the few families without electricity. The conferences were always conducted in English, and if no one was available who could interpret for non-English speaking participants the altered children used their telepathic abilities to translate as needed.

By April 2026, the group consisted of one hundred forty-two doctors, psychologists and teachers, and one hundred seventy-one families with two hundred twenty-six altered children, including eight sets of twins.

A first quarter moon shown through a dark, partly cloudy sky when, at eleven o’clock, two boys sauntered into the liquor store on Willowbrook Avenue near Rosecrans Avenue in Compton—a short distance south of Los Angeles. Eight-year-old Henry Charles, known as “Little-C” in the ’hood, followed his fourteen-year-old brother through the door.

This night, as with many other nights, their single mother and twelve-year-old sister worried about them. They sat in their two-bedroom apartment in a rundown neighborhood of South Los Angeles. Trying to watch television. Wondering why the boys were out so late again.

The boys looked around the interior of the liquor store, empty except for the short, middle-aged Korean man behind the counter. An old brown minivan with a gray front passenger door was parked across the street, beside a vacant lot next to the gas station at the intersection. Three boys in their late teens sat in the vehicle watching the activities inside the store. Their tattoos identified them as members of an offshoot of the Crips street gang. In the store, the two brothers strutted to the counter.

The proprietor had been robbed twice before. During the last robbery he’d pulled his gun and shot the robber, a member of the same street gang. Now, the demeanor of these boys warned him something was amiss. He slowly reached under the counter.

“Okay, Bro,” Little-C’s brother, Cleavon, told him, “do it.”

Little-C pointed at the proprietor with his index finger. His thumb directed at the ceiling mimicked a revolver’s cocked hammer. He furrowed his brow and stared at the proprietor. “Put yo’ piece on da counter and give us all yo’ cash.” Little-C thought repeatedly, piece on da counter, give us yo’ cash, and visualized it in his mind.

The proprietor blinked and froze. He slowly withdrew the Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver and laid it on the counter. Opening the cash register, he took out all the bills and gave them to Little-C, who stuffed them in his jacket pocket. Little-C’s brother grabbed the gun and shoved it in his belt. The proprietor remained standing quietly, staring ahead blankly.

“Yo’ neva saw us,” Little-C instructed the proprietor. “Yo’ don’ know us. Yo’ don’ know what happen’ to da money.” After he repeated the litany twice more, the two boys turned and marched back through the door.

They grinned and high-fived each other as they strode across the street and entered the minivan. The boy sitting in the second row of seats pulled Little-C into the seat next to him. He looked at Cleavon, jerked his thumb at the backseat, and Little-C’s brother drifted back and plopped down.

“I tol’ you he could do it,” Cleavon said to the others. “He got da evil eye or somethin’. Man, when he look at dem he scare da shit outta dem and dey do whateva he say.”

The driver slowly moved the van out into the street. He drove north on Willowbrook Avenue passing near the King/Drew Medical Center a mile and a half away in the direction of their homes in South Los Angeles. He and the two boys waiting in the van had been observing the robbery for the gang. As soon as they were two blocks from the store, the three boys started laughing, joined by the two brothers.

When they stopped laughing, one of the three boys, seated in the minivan’s second row of seats, lightly clutched Little-C’s shoulder. “How’d you scare that dude, back in the store?”

“I dunno,” Little-C replied. “I just tol’ him what to do an’ he do it.”

“He see yo’ faces,” the same boy said. “Won’ he say somethin’?”

Little-C smirked. “Nah. Dey neva do.”

The boy in the passenger seat snickered. “Fuckin’ right! Ain’t nobody gonna pull nothin’ on us no mo’. We gonna be da powa in da ’hood.”

“No stoppin’ us now,” the driver agreed.

In the liquor store, the proprietor blinked a couple of times, looked at the open, empty cash drawer and bent forward with his hands on the counter. He shook his head, looked around the store from where he stood. The proprietor felt around the shelf for his revolver. He didn’t find it, so he bent down and glanced under the counter. He rubbed his forehead as he straightened up, shook his head again and thought, What the hell happened? Where’s the money and my gun?

The man leaned against the counter with his eyes tightly shut for a minute, and then vaguely remembered two boys coming into the store, handing them the money and gun. No matter how hard he tried, however, he could not recall their faces.

On Friday, the thirty-first of July in 2026, at six fifteen—a half hour after the break of dawn, Professors Ramaraju Gupta and Dennis Murphy entered their Psychology Department’s conference room. Twenty minutes later, Albert and Irene Cohen arrived with Howard and Dorothy Starkey and their twin sons, Jason and Peter. Yuriko and her mother, Izumi, came in shortly afterward; such an early hour did not interfere with Yuriko’s rehearsal schedule.

Dennis and Rama were exhausted because of their almost continuous efforts over the previous two days preparing for the conference and notifying the group members. Their labors had left them little time for sleep. As seven o’clock approached, Rama made the calls necessary to connect everyone who was available. Word that something drastic had happened had quickly spread among the group. They all knew the conference was crucial. The meeting was being recorded for the benefit of anybody who could not participate.

Promptly at 7:00 a.m., Pacific Time, Rama opened the meeting. “We called this emergency conference with three objectives: first, to inform you about a tragic event, then to discuss new and vital information, and finally to decide upon actions we need to take. As to the first objective, I’m extremely sorry to tell you that four of our children have been killed.” He briefly explained about the children’s kidnapping and the risk they took by escaping and passing on important information about the aliens, leading to their deaths.

Dennis described the contributions by the Starkey family, Yuriko and her mother, Albert and Irene Cohen, and the children who had been in telepathic communication with Luci and Dione during the escape attempt.

Rama continued. “Our second objective is to present you with the information we need to make the best decisions possible regarding actions which will cause significant changes in most—if not all—of our lives. The preponderance of evidence is clear. It is an undeniable fact which cannot be disregarded. Extraterrestrials have been kidnapping people for many years and have modified the children’s genes, giving them intellects and paranormal abilities far superior to anything observed before. If any of you still doubt this, you won’t after we present the information we obtained from Tom Wallace, Dione Anderson and Luci Ischer.”

The two professors presented information about the League of Worlds and the hominoid species it represents, spacecraft and space travel, the quarantine resolution, and the Silkaran military’s secret Operation Pacify. Dennis mentioned reporting the kidnappings to the police and the FBI’s involvement.

Rama described the children’s reports of an undercurrent of doubt among the spacecraft’s crew, especially Admiral teDanon’s qualms. “The indication that there may be a faltering commitment to the operation is a beacon of hope for us,” Dr. Gupta noted, “if only we can take advantage of it.”

And finally, Dennis ended their presentation. “According to the information we obtained about Operation Pacify, the aliens originally targeted two hundred families for experimentation. So twenty-nine families are now unaccounted for. What happened to them? Some of us have talked about this over the last day or so. Tentatively, we’ve reached the following three conclusions: first, a number of the children have probably died; second, others may not be exhibiting paranormal abilities strongly enough to become an issue or a problem for their families; and finally, some families have likely chosen not to contact us or are not aware of us.

“Okay, let’s take a fifteen minute break, but don’t disconnect.” Throughout the presentation, the Starkeys and Cohens reviewed the messages which had been flowing in, collating and organizing them. During the short break, they discussed these messages with Dennis and Rama. Scientifically minded people requested more details about the spacecraft and space travel. Others wanted to know more about the league. Over a hundred people, primarily doctors, had asked about the genetic modifications.

At the end of the break, Rama summarized the comments and questions for the conference participants. When he finished, he thought for a moment and then added, “These issues will be dealt with next, along with the third objective of this conference: what actions we should take.” He directed the camera at Dennis, who sipped some water and then continued.

“We do have specific, detailed information available, some technical and some not. Everything will be made available on our encrypted website. A lot of you want immediate action. Because of the unmistakable alien threat, about two dozen people demanded that we notify government authorities. Believe me; we will get to this issue soon.

“Now, the first action item involves our proposal to create a non-profit foundation. This will be complex and expensive, but we believe there is a sufficient amount of talent and skill within this group to raise the necessary funds and to do what needs to be done. Dr. Gupta will summarize the proposal.”

Rama gathered his papers and cleared his throat. “We propose establishing and funding a foundation with the primary goal of protecting and educating the children, and comprising four divisions.

“I’ve been working closely with Dennis Murphy, JoAnn DeVry, Karen Pacheco, and Munir Ben Nafi on the concept, and we’ve been in touch with others who work in education, school administration, fundraising and business. We can do this.

“The kidnapping and murder of the children confirms our current inability to protect the children from the aliens. Spread out around the world as they are, we cannot watch over them twenty-four hours a day, which makes them especially vulnerable to abductions.

“We propose creating three or four centers in selected parts of the world, operated by one of the divisions. They’ll be set up as boarding schools. We’ll be in a much better position to protect the children and provide counseling, education and training for them. Every one of us realizes the importance of keeping the families together. We will do whatever we can to relocate the children’s immediate families along with the children. This will involve helping them to find appropriate jobs and housing, and obtain the necessary residence and work visas.

“The most significant problem with this plan is that congregating the children together in three or four locations could convince the aliens we are aware of them. If they think we know about them and they can no longer kidnap the children, the aliens could decide to take drastic action. Gathering the children together would certainly make it much easier for the aliens to kill everybody in those centers. Obviously we’re guessing, and don’t know what else they might do. We’ve identified other problems, both logistical and sociological, which we should be able to handle.”

Dennis jumped in when Rama stopped for a breath. “Several of us here in the Seattle area will review all your questions, comments and suggestions over the next couple of days. We’ll collate and pull them together into unique items, and post them with the best answers we can come up with. We strongly recommend you use the chat rooms we’ve established to discuss these issues before our next conference on August ninth. The foundation will be the leading item on the agenda. Sorry for the interruption, Rama. Back to you.”

“That’s all right Dennis. What you said was helpful. We plan a division for strategic and tactical planning and operations. It would focus on activities to deal with the extraterrestrial threat to the children, and everyone on the planet.”

Dennis cleared his throat and then interjected, “Tom Wallace’s parents, Mack and Roberta, are taking part in the conference. We are grateful that, despite their grief, they intend to remain involved with us. In case you don’t remember, Mack is a commander in the US Navy, posted to naval intelligence. We spoke with him at the break and he wants to address this issue.”

Mack and Roberta were at their apartment in Virginia Beach with their doctor, Jeremy Sanchez. Mack took a deep breath. “We’ve gone over it before, and generally agreed our governments have a history of treading on civil liberties if it suits their purposes. Certain intelligence and military organizations have run secret, dangerous, experiments using civilians without their knowledge. In this, they are no better than the aliens with their Operation Pacify.

“Only one thing has changed since we last confirmed our decision not to contact our governments. We now know extraterrestrial beings are involved. The evidence is indisputable. However, we still don’t know whom at the higher levels in our governments we can trust. We can’t just tell the authorities about the aliens without telling them how we know. As soon as outsiders know of the children’s abilities, the children’s safety and their futures will be beyond our control. Irrational fear of what the children are, or may become, could put them in greater danger than they are in right now from the aliens.”

Mack gripped Roberta’s hand tightly. “This would get out to the news media, and it would focus a tremendous amount of attention on us. Forget about ever having any privacy again. Think you’ve been under stress already? It would get much worse. We, especially the children, would be under a microscope for the rest of our lives. We’ve all managed a degree of normalcy up to now.” He paused and took a deep breath.

“Once the media is onto this story, there won’t be another normal moment. If the public finds out about the aliens, there could be panic, and there would be a great deal of pressure on the government to take action. I have no doubt that whatever action they take will be detrimental to the children. We have to maintain control.”

Mack grabbed the glass of water at his left and took a swig. “One more thing to consider,” he went on. “The aliens have been monitoring our radio and television broadcasts for years to learn about us. They would likely pick up news reports about the children and in all probability deduce we know of their plans. We have no idea what they might do then.”

Mack’s voice broke as he continued. “This . . . this thing is probably too big for us to deal with alone. But we have to be extremely careful how we involve the authorities. Remember, the FBI is already engaged. We must develop an acceptable plan soon, but maintain our secrecy until we do. Tom . . . and those other children, . . .” his voice cracked again before going on, “they all gave their lives to tell us about one of the most momentous events ever to face mankind. Let’s not squander the opportunity they gave us.”

“Dennis Murphy again. Mack, I know this has been hard for you and your family. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insight in your time of grief. From the feedback we’ve been getting, we appear to be in agreement. When we’re ready to contact the authorities, we will want to deal with the leadership. Two key questions: which governments should we contact and who in those governments can we trust?”

Dennis leaned forward with his elbows on the conference table. “Twenty-three of you are in the military. Five are at the rank of colonel, or its equivalent. I’m including Mack in this count because of his coming promotion to captain in the US Navy. We also have one brigadier general among us. Mack’s posting to the DIA at the Pentagon will be invaluable.

“Some of you have government positions. Two are in national legislatures: a United States congressman and a member of the German parliament. Three of us are as high as a sub-ministerial level: assistant secretary of the Treasury Department here in the United States, deputy minister in the Education Ministry in Great Britain, and deputy minister of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Several others are in lower level positions. Each of these people will be able to help us identify which leaders in their governments we should contact.

“Now, I want you to hear from Peter Starkey, one of our children. He and his brother Jason created the children’s database and website. They have been coordinating the children’s efforts to find altered children whose families have never connected with us, and to help bring them and their families into our group.”

“Thank you, Dr. Murphy. All of our paranormal abilities have been growing stronger. The children can help to identify people who can be trusted. Many legislatures and government agencies have tours. We should take them. Whenever we have a chance to meet officials, we need to do it. The members of our group who work in government can help us meet them. We’ll use our telepathy to find out who we can trust.” He looked at Dennis. “I’m done, sir.”

“That’s great, Peter. This is a good first step. We’ll use our main website to set up a page for each one of those members. He or she can use the page to schedule the children and their parents for what we will call ‘educational’ tours and meetings with various government officials. Please try to set up your timetables by noon our time a week from today—that’s August seventh, so we can move ahead quickly. Once we have a list of those we think we can trust, we will make a plan for who to contact, as well as how and when to make contact. Rama, please continue.”

“Okay. Now to the third goal: raising money for the foundation’s activities, particularly creation and operation of the centers. Many of you have good incomes and have donated money. But, so far, considering what we need, that’s been a drop in the bucket. You all know how talented Tom Wallace was with his art and Yuriko Nishikawa is with her music. They and other artistic youngsters have demonstrated their ability to earn very large incomes and a willingness to donate a significant part of it to this group. Children are also developing products which should earn large amounts through profits on their sales or from royalties.”

Rama consumed half his glass of apple juice “So, the third division of the foundation will deal with fundraising efforts. This division would coordinate and invest the donations and income from our talented children and their families.” He then described the various departments and functions of the fourth division, Administration.

“I’m about done now. It appears our own members have the skills and experience necessary to operate the foundation, such that we should not require outside employees. This will help minimize potential exposure and leaking of information to the media and government agencies. Here’s Dennis Murphy to finish up.”

Dennis breathed a sigh of relief, after they worked their way through the last item. “It’s a lot to absorb at one time, but circumstances don’t allow us the luxury of time. Because events are moving so rapidly, I suggest changing our conference schedule from the second and fourth Sunday morning of each month to every Sunday morning beginning the ninth of August. That’s our next regularly scheduled conference. If you have an objection, send me an instant message right now before we close the conference. The agenda for the next conference will be posted on the website later today.”

Thankful there were no objections, Dennis closed the conference, sat back in his chair and looked around at all those who had joined him in the conference room. “Well, what do you think? How did it go?”

Jason and Peter looked at one another and Jason gave a sidelong glance at Yuriko. After Peter and Yuriko nodded their heads, Jason said, “It went very well and we’re excited to get on with it. We kids have lots of ideas to explore with the adults.”

A minute quietly passed. Albert Cohen added, “I think it went well too, but . . .” He stroked his chin. “But I’m still concerned about contacting the governments. We’d better be extremely careful.”

“Dr. Cohen,” Peter stated, “once we get into their minds, we’ll be certain who to trust.”

Howard Starkey heard his stomach growling. “Let’s get something to eat and then start reviewing the messages.”

“And the chat rooms,” Jason interjected.

“Yuriko must go back to hoter to rest when we finish eating,” Izumi informed them. “She must rehearse this afternoon.”

“As soon as we get back to Japan,” Yuriko vowed, “I intend to do more to help.”

“Yuriko,” Jason noted, “you can probably help most by raising money with your concerts. But when you and your family move here, maybe we can work on things together.”

Izumi and Yuriko smiled. “We see what we can do,” Izumi said. “It depend on what we can work out with Takashi-san. For now, prease be patient.”

They cleaned up the conference room and left to have what they each felt was a well deserved breakfast. Afterward, Yuriko and Izumi took a taxi to their hotel and the others returned to the university lab assigned to Professors Murphy and Gupta for their project.

There were already messages waiting and activity in the chat rooms. One of the early comments surmised, “For all we know, the tracking devices give the aliens the means to kill whoever has one in their brain, so creating these centers might not be more dangerous to the children.” Someone suggested, “The one critical task ahead is to find a way to remove or disable the tracking device.” A different person added that disabling the devices had to occur first in case the relocation make the aliens aware they have been discovered.

Over the following days, Dennis Murphy, Ramaraju Gupta, Howard Starkey, and several others, reviewed the Internet messages and discussed alternatives for dealing with the devices and relocation issues.

Jason and Peter spent time contacting children by e-mail and telepathy. Soon they had a group of altered children worldwide who searched telepathically for altered children who were in the missing twenty-nine families, unaware that there were thirty-eight of them. Not wanting to be left out of the planning, the altered children thrashed out their own ideas for resolving the problems facing them all.

Until his recent eighth birthday, Alain Lovett lived in Cheltenham, in the north of Gloucestershire, England, with his upscale family. Their home was in the Cotswolds, forty miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon. They constantly tried to impress their upper class neighbors and associates and lived a little beyond their means. Both parents were often too busy for their son, an only child. His father put in long hours at the institution where he worked as an investment banker. His mother volunteered a majority of her time to work with charities. They had generally ignored the boy’s reports of hearing voices, or insisted the voices were in his imagination.

Out of frustration, Alain hid his abilities from them and everybody else. His parents knew he was intelligent, principally from what his teachers told them and his school test scores. He did well with minimal studying. Shortly after he turned eight, his parents had sent him to boarding school, telling him summer classes were an opportunity to get acquainted with the school and meet other kids. Not coincidentally, this enabled them to vacation in the south of France.

School sure is easy, thought Alain as he reviewed the questions on the final exam for the summer class in history. I won’t get perfect scores anymore though. The teachers are beginning to wonder if I cheat. I’m tired of kids calling me names. But I’ll get back at them. They’ll see!

Alain had used his telepathic and clairvoyant abilities to retrieve the test’s answers ahead of time. He had memorized them, which his photographic memory made exceedingly easy, and had hid a copy of the answers in his room. He slowly entered the answers on the computer in front of him. Only four questions remained when two of his classmates completed their exams and left the classroom.

He hurriedly keyed in the correct answer for three questions and purposely made a minor error on the fourth one. Finally, he submitted the test, got up, waved to the proctor, and exited the room well before noon.

Since most of the test scoring was automated, it was only a few hours before the test results were published on the school’s Intranet website. A little while before dinner, Alain’s best friend came into the common room while he was reading a book.

“Did you see your score yet?” his friend asked as he sat down.

“Yes,” Alain replied and flipped a page.

“Well, did you do okay?”

“What do you think?” Alain answered smugly.

“What score did you get?”

“I got a ninety-seven.”

“Wow! That’s bloody good. I got an ninety-three, and I thought that was good.”

“It is. Mine’s just better.”

“We’re done with finals now,” Alain’s friend commented. “TGIF! What say we go to the flick tonight after supper?”

“Nuh-uh. I taught some kids to play poker . . . like me uncle showed me. Now we play a couple times a ‘sennight’. They’re such a bunch of ‘muggings’. Almost too easy to ‘cod’. I let ’em win a little and then I win big.” He remembered the seven quid he’d won the last time he taught a lesson to the three children in his dorm. It was easy when he knew what hands they held and he could make them bet whatever he wanted them to. I better go easy on those ‘clots’ or they’ll stop playing, Alain thought.

“Hey, maybe you could teach me. Can I come?”

“Yeah. I guess I can teach you. But you’ll never be as good as I am.”

Over the last few years, Yuriko and most of the other children had learned how to compartmentalize their feelings. So, despite the tragic events of the previous week, her Sunday afternoon performance in Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle on the second of August was superb. The Starkeys and three other families of altered children from the Puget Sound area attended. At its conclusion, they joined the rest of the audience in rapturous applause. The Starkeys, the Cohens, Dennis Murphy, and Ramaraju Gupta went backstage to say goodbye.

Jason’s hand shook slightly as he gave Yuriko an envelope. “Here . . . Yuri-chan. This is for you.”

“May I open it?” Yuriko asked.

“Sure,” Jason replied.

Yuriko removed a signed photograph of Jason and a photograph of the boys with their parents, which she showed to her mother. “Oh, thank you . . . Jase.” She walked over to the small table against the wall and picked up a concert program with her photograph on the cover. She quickly signed it and handed it to Jason. Both children quickly looked away as their faces reddened to a soft pink glow.

The visitors talked for another five minutes, then left and went their separate ways. Izumi and Yuriko had a quiet dinner in their hotel room and packed for their trip home. On Monday, they flew back to Tokyo.

During the week after the teleconference on the previous Friday, Jason and Peter Starkey enlisted the assistance of as many altered children as possible in locating and contacting the children so far unaccounted for. Almost all were willing to help. The boy from Kenya they had mind-talked with on Tuesday the twenty-eighth agreed to try harder to find the African boy Yuriko had told them about, who’d had such a virulent incident with a fire. Yuriko, now home in Japan, and Kamal and Zahra Fakherdin in Morocco, offered their support.

Due to the large number of altered children working diligently as a team on this common effort, twenty-four children were contacted in August. Nine of those children had not developed telepathy in sufficient strength for the group’s children to maintain a regular link. The team managed to get their names, addresses and phone numbers, which they gave to Rama.

Four of seven children located in mental institutions had had psychotic episodes as a result of their genetic modification by the aliens. The other three, with moderate telepathic and clairvoyant abilities, had been misdiagnosed as schizophrenics. The names of these children and the institutions had been obtained and supplied to Rama.

The last eight children and their families never got in touch with the group. Three of them now lay lay comatose in hospitals, a consequence of MRI scans performed on them. The remaining five had refused to join the new foundation and expressed feelings of superiority, bragging about what they could get away with. The children who contacted those five suggested that they will cause problems and might be sociopaths. After the initial contact, three of the five avoided all efforts to communicate and no one was able to identify or locate them.

Eleven children in mainland China had maintained regular telepathic contact with them. Their families, however, were much less involved in foundation activities because of the tight control the Communist government still maintained over Internet and phone communications. Jason, Peter, Yuriko and others were able to convince the eleven Chinese children they needed to find a way to leave China and get to Taiwan.

Aboard the spacecraft carrier Rostvar Cluster, Medical Team Commander geWaxted, Shuttle Group Commander kaAshlo, and the pursuit group commander had joined Admiral teDanon in his stateroom to review the results of the interrogations and investigation into the escape of the children and their pursuit.

Finally, after almost an hour of reviewing the records, Admiral teDanon closed the files and sighed. He looked at each of the officers in turn, stopping at the commander of the pursuit group. “Well, what conclusions have you drawn, if any?”

“Admiral,” the commander began, “the pursuit was by the book. The flight followed your orders. But there does seem to be something incredible about the children’s escape. I doubt very much that so many of the crew would have been complicit, though all the circumstantial evidence would indicate otherwise.”

“Thank you,” Admiral teDanon said. “Now Commander kaAshlo, what is your opinion, particularly of your shuttle crew’s performance?”

The commander shifted uneasily in her chair. “Well, sir, I have reached the same conclusion. The personnel files of the shuttle crew who flew the children away indicate they were loyal and would not have conspired with the children or anyone else to help them escape.

“The in-flight communications from the pilot were analyzed for telltale voice patterns which might denote lying or subterfuge on his part. The behaviorist who analyzed the recording thought there was tension in his voice, but only what one would expect considering they were being chased. The crew’s behavior is both strange . . . and inexplicable at this time.”

The brow ridge above Admiral teDanon’s right eye began a slow persistent twitch. He rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger. “Hmm. Yes, yes. More strangeness.” He leaned back in his chair, elbows on the armrests, fingers of both hands interlaced in front of him. He looked at the chief of his medical team and nodded his head.

“I agree completely, Admiral,” Commander geWaxted stated. “Our actions make us all suspect, but no motives have been uncovered to account for the behavior. There is no solid evidence of lying or collusion with the Jerithan subjects by members of the medical team.”

The commander glanced about. “Myself included,” he squeaked. “Their behavior was inconsistent with everything we know about the crew involved. Everyone seems to know what they did, and believe they were following orders. It almost seems like we were all hypnotized, but I do not see how those subjects could have hypnotized us. It is certainly strange.”

“Yes,” Admiral teDanon concurred. “We have discussed before the grumbling that has been heard. Many members of the crew have become uncomfortable with the mission, but not enough to mutiny. Strange, incomprehensible behavior, . . . hmm . . . no lying or collusion.” He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “Hypnosis indeed! Actually, my conclusions are no different than yours. Thank you all for your time. You may return to your duties.”

After the officers left, the admiral completed his report and transmitted it to First Admiral teReevat. He is not going to be very happy about this, he thought. How long will it take him to drag me to HQ for a meeting?

During the week prior to the next conference on August 9, the families and professionals selected the name, “Foundation for Advanced Children’s Education”, with the acronym, “FACE”, and elected an eleven member board of directors. Dennis Murphy would be the board’s chairman and the foundation’s CEO (chief executive officer). Munir Ben Nafi of the Mohammed Fifth University in Morocco was chosen as the vice-chairman and the foundation’s COO (chief operations officer).

The board included Howard Starkey, in part because of the contributions of his sons, Jason and Peter. Karen Pacheco’s election was due primarily to her experience as a psychiatrist with expertise in paranormal behavior. The remainder of the board was comprised of an attorney, newspaper editor, philosophy professor, and four mid-level managers in various types of companies. Eight countries were represented on the board.

The agenda for the conference had two items on it, establishing the foundation and deciding what to do about the nine families still missing, and their estimated ten to fifteen altered children.

After opening the conference, Rama stated, “We received excellent feedback concerning the foundation. Everyone agreed with the concept. Questions were raised about the logistics. Some are reluctant to relocate. Even those uneasy about uprooting their families agreed it made sense to send their altered children to one of the boarding schools. Others expressed excitement about relocating and becoming a part of the foundation staff.

“Excellent suggestions have been made for board members and locations for the boarding school centers. You’ve all had time to review the proposal and vote. Dennis Murphy will review the results.”

“Thanks Rama. The proposal for the Foundation for Advanced Children’s Education received virtually unanimous approval.” He announced the selections for the board of directors. “If you haven’t already done so, please check the website for the foundation’s organization chart. Too many potential locations for boarding school centers were suggested for us to narrow the choices to a manageable number. So, that item will be set for next week. Back to you Rama.”

The second item was to update everybody about what had been learned about the twenty-nine missing families. “Dennis and I want to acknowledge the contribution by the children,” Rama said. “Led by Jason and Peter Starkey numerous children used their telepathic and clairvoyant abilities to contact twenty-four of the missing children and most of their families.” He presented a summary of their findings and then Munir Ben Nafi spoke.

“We are trying to determine how best to notify these families about the artificial tumor and what it means. I’ve discussed it with doctors who have worked with a number of our families and children. We should consider ourselves lucky that, as far as we know, only three altered children were badly injured by MRI scans.

“Of particular concern is the delicate situation of the seven children in mental institutions. We’re disturbed their doctors missed the tumors on the brain scans the children should have been given, or did not understand the tumor’s nature. He smiled and added, “I will coordinate efforts to contact the doctors of those eighteen children for whom we recently obtained that information. Foreign language assistance may be needed.”

Munir signaled to Dennis, who took a big breath and said, “Jason and Peter told us there have been indications that five newly identified altered children appear to be using their paranormal abilities for unethical or dishonest purposes, such as cheating and stealing.

“For now, we are leaving it to Jason, Peter and whoever else they select to investigate further and let us know as soon as possible what they find out. Because of this, the children would like the board to adopt a statement of principles—a set of ethical guidelines—for using their paranormal abilities. They also want us to think about what actions we should take when those principles are violated.” Dr. Murphy paused for a breath and a drink

“This week, the board will appoint the division managers and assistant managers, choose the best of the locations for the boarding schools, and lay out a business plan for operating the foundation. The agenda for the next conference will be posted later today or tomorrow.

“We’ll be asking you to participate on various committees and to take on certain tasks if you are able to do them. We all have a lot to do. So, let’s get busy.”

He closed the conference after a brief question and answer period.

Over the next few weeks, eight of the eleven mainland Chinese children, who had been in regular contact with the other altered children, used their ability to get authorities to grant them passports and exit visas or ignore them while they made their way out of China. Those families got settled with the help of the Taiwanese children and their families.

For three weeks, Henri Coindreau, an altered child in Rouen, France, had been working on a statistical analysis of the geographic locations of the altered children. He finished late in the afternoon on the tenth of August. Taken aback at the results, he checked it over several times. When he was satisfied it was correct, he posted the information on the children’s website and e-mailed it to Rama.

Henri’s analysis had uncovered a pattern, in which five families were concentrated in roughly circular areas with a radius of four hundred kilometers, what he called the “Common Abduction Zone”. When he found less than five families in each of more than a dozen of these clusters, Henri attributed it to the probability that one or two families had moved, a child had died, or had not been identified—for whatever reason. Henri told Rama he thought the information would help in the search for the missing altered children.