Five m
inutes in the air and then they set down on the deck of a submarine. It was a big one, with the stars and stripes of the United States, and it occurred to Bean that since they didn't know what country had kidnapped the other kids, how could they be sure they weren't just walking into the hands of their enemies?
But once they got down inside the ship, they could see that while the crew was in U.S. uniforms, the only people carrying weapons were the I.F. soldiers who had brought them and a half-dozen more who had been waiting for them with the sub. Since power came from the barrel of a gun, and the only guns on the ship were under Graff's command, Bean's mind was eased a little.
"If you try to tell us that we can't talk here," Mother began--but to her consternation Graff again held up a hand, and Sister Carlotta again made a shushing gesture as Graff beckoned them to follow their lead soldier through the narrow corridors of the sub.
Finally the six of them were packed once more into a tiny space--this time the executive officer's cabin--and once again they waited while Graff hung his noise damper and turned it on. When the light started blinking, Mother was the first to speak.
"I'm trying to figure out how we can tell we aren't being kidnapped just like the others," she said dryly.
"You got it," said Graff. "They were all taken by a group of terrorist nuns, aided by fat old bureaucrats."
"He's joking," said Father, trying to soothe Mother's immediate wrath.
"I know he's joking. I just don't think it's funny. After all we've been through, and then we're supposed to go along without a word, without a question, just . . . trusting."
"Sorry," said Graff. "But you were already trusting the Greek government back where you were. You've got to trust somebody, so why not us?"
"At least the Greek Army explained things to us and pretended we had a right to make some decisions," said Mother.
They didn't explain things to me and Nikolai, Bean wanted to say.
"Come, children, no bickering," said Sister Carlotta. "The plan is very simple. The Greek Army continues to guard that apartment building as if you were still inside it, taking meals in and doing laundry. This fools no one, probably, but it makes the Greek government feel like they're part of the program. In the meantime, four passengers answering your description but flying under assumed names are taken to Eros, where they embark on the first colony ship, and only then, when the ship is launched, is an announcement made that for their protection, the Delphiki family have opted for permanent emigration and a new life in a new world."
"And where are we really?" asked Father.
"I don't know," said Graff very simply.
"And neither do I," said Sister Carlotta.
Bean's family looked at them in disbelief.
"I guess that means we won't be staying in the sub," said Nikolai, "because then you'd absolutely know where we are."
"It's a double blind," said Bean. "They're splitting us up. I'll go one way, you'll go another."
"Absolutely not," said Father.
"We've had enough of a divided family," said Mother.
"It's the only way," said Bean. "I knew it already. I . . . want it that way."
"You want to leave us?" said Mother.
"It's me they want to kill," said Bean.
"We don't know that!" said Mother.
"But we're pretty sure," said Bean. "If I'm not with you, then even if you're found, they'll probably leave you alone."
"And if we're divided," said Nikolai, "it changes the profile of what they're looking for. Not a mother and father and two boys. Now it's a mother and father and one boy. And a grandma and her grandchild." Nikolai grinned at Sister Carlotta.
"I was rather hoping to be taken for an aunt," she said.
"You talk as if you already know the plan!" said Mother.
"It was obvious," said Nikolai. "From the moment they told us the cover story in the bathroom. Why else would Colonel Graff bring Sister Carlotta?"