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PRESTON STARES AT ME intently What the hell is he thinking? So he knows that Ellis is one of us, so what? Why should that make any difference to hied He&039;s suddenly more serious and direct He left the van momentarily to speak to someone, then caly hot in here now

"Tell me about her, Danny"

I don&039;t like this I&039;ll drip-feed him infor in the old world have taken their toll, andwhether I&039;vein existence When I don&039;t answer he asks another question

"How old?"

"Just turned five"

"And you think you knohere she ht be?"

"Possibly," I answer quickly I can afford to give hiue details Even if I knew exactly where Ellis was, I could tell hi about her He doesn&039;t knohat she looks like Christ, I haven&039;t even told him her naht be"

Preston leans over to the front seat and picks up a map, which he unfolds

"Showuntil you tell hter What are you, some kind of pervert? A kiddie-fiddler?"

His face remains impassive and serious There&039;s not a flicker of ehter we&039;re interested in," he finally starts to explain "Our belief is that children are key to our future They&039;re important now, and they&039;ll be even more crucial when this war&039;s won"

"Go on"

"Have you ever seen a child fight? They&039;re fast, strong, agile completely uninhibited They&039;re not burdened with years and years of s; all they know is now They accept what they see and experience today, and they accept it without question This is their normality"

What he says uy His sliets my back up He comes across like a politician, a subpar spin doctor I knoe&039;re both fighting on the same side, but how different are our aims and objectives?

"You talk a lot, but you&039;re not actually saying anything Why should I tell you anything about hters, Danny, perfect fighters even Brutes are strong and aggressive, but children are so else entirely I think-"

He stops speaking suddenly, almost as if he&039;s not sure I can be trusted I press hih his greasy, slicked-back black hair

"I think the line between us and the Unchanged starts to blur when you&039;re looking at very young children Like I said, they don&039;t carry the baggage and the ht stied kid could be taught to fight like us"

There&039;s another silence as we both think about what he&039;s just said My initial reaction is that it&039;s probably bullshit, but heup surrounded by all this madness wouldn&039;t know any different They&039;d have to learn to fight to survive, whatever their initial allegiance

"I got separated froe happened toto lose fro with the details I take the er on the area where I used to live "I last saw theet aith the kids"

"Kids? More than one?"