That was very good to know.
Another reason, Walickiah realized later, that he was staring so hard that Karna had to elbow him three times was that he’d never seen an officer holding a child, at least not voluntarily. But Major Shin, running his fingers through his son’s thick hair to smooth it to the side, couldn’t have looked happier.
The captain retrieved the map and brought it into the major’s office, and Walickiah followed. In his office Shin leaned over the map, but his son tried to grab it.
“No, no, no Peto. Not this. Here.” He placed the little boy on the floor. “You can have . . .”
He looked around, then picked up a message from the Administrators and grinned.
“You can have this. Nicko Mal signed it himself. You know what to do with it.”
Walickiah watched in horror as the major’s son put the official message in his mouth and tore it with his tiny teeth.
“Don’t worry, Lieutenant,” the major told him upon seeing his expression. “I know what it said. Peto’s more effective at destroying paper than my dog. And he doesn’t choke on the bits anymore, he just usually spits them out. He’s fine. Now, what I was thinking over here was . . .”
It took Walickiah another minute to focus on the map over the sound of disrespectful ripping underneath him. Since the major whipped between subjects so quickly, Walickiah found himself feeling a little light-headed. The three men pored over the map for about ten minutes, redoing station reporting territories and explaining the system to Walickiah.
Suddenly Major Shin looked up in surprise, then down at the floor. The message from Mal was scattered in wet shreds, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.
The major looked at his officers in alarm. “Uh, I think my son’s absent without permission. The stairs!” he cried and ran out of his office, with Karna right behind him.
Walickiah knew enough to join them.
There was no baby in the forward office, or going down the stairs. The major groaned.
“Need help, sir?” Karna asked.
“Yes! He could be anywhere! He knows how to do stairs,” the major called as he ran down them. “And I gave Mahrree such a hard time when she lost him at the . . .”
But they didn’t hear the rest because the major was already gone, his heavy footsteps sounding like thunder as he ran. Karna and Walickiah followed him.
At the bottom of the stairs, the large main receiving area was quiet as it usually was this time of day. Most of the soldiers were either eating dinner or getting ready for their night shifts. Major Shin stood at the main door anxiously looking out into the darkening compound. A soldier saluted as he walked past.
“Private! Did you see a little boy?”
“Today, sir?”
The major groaned again and turned around. “Karna, check the hallway to the barracks. Walickiah, go to the mess hall. I’ll look out here.”
Walickiah looked at Karna who raised his eyebrows in a ‘Get moving!’ manner. Walickiah rushed out the side door down the corridor to the mess hall, not sure what he would do with the baby if he saw it.
This was most telling, Walickiah considered. The major was nearly hysterical simply because his little boy was missing. How weak and easily panicked Shin was. He may be as large as a bear, but he was as wretched as a butterfly.
All kinds of scenarios played out in the lieutenant’s mind. He hadn’t been told specifically what to do in Edge, because he was to take advantage of any situation that presented itself. Walickiah didn’t understand why he was told his assignment would be difficult. On the contrary, it would be quite easy. So many situations were presenting themselves he would have thought it was his birthday. And if they didn’t like the results that happened with one child, there was another at his disposal.
What kinds of chances would a small child have in the forest, should it happen to get ‘lost’? That would make for a most interesting study . . .
And what if two vanished, in different parts, without a trace, and their mother was also—
Walickiah was startled out of his contemplation when he saw a strapping corporal carrying the little boy and walking towards him. The soldier appeared to be exceptionally young, but was surprising large in build. Perhaps it was the extreme innocence of his face that gave him such a youthful look.
Such a carefully practiced look.
“Sir,” the corporal nodded to him. “I’m assuming the major lost something?”
Walickiah slipped back into character and sighed exaggeratedly in relief. “Yes! I think he’s about to rip apart the fort.”
The corporal chuckled. “Do you want to bring him Peto, or shall I?”
Walickiah held up his hands. “I wouldn’t know how to hold him.”