“You got a name?” I asked, indifferent to the boy’s glare. I was standing with one foot up on a chair, interrogation style.

“Randy.”

I was surprised. The kid gave up his name easily. I suspect that was part of the conditioning they went through before they were sold off. Nobody likes a difficult love doll.

The whole thing made me sick to my stomach, and it wasn’t just me. Mo’Lock seemed uneasy around the kids. He muttered under his breath about tormented souls before retiring to his corner and staring out the window. I didn’t have that luxury. I got on with it. “You know who I am?”

Randy nodded, with his glaring blue eyes fixed on my face. “Cal McDonald,” he said. “You took my father away . . . took away all our parents. Took away Lazar and everybody!”

I shook my head and paced a small circle. This was going to be tough. “What your ‘parents’ did was wrong, not to mention illegal and highly immoral. Lazar was a bad person who had to be stopped.”

“He never hurt anyone! He took care of us when nobody else would, and he found us homes!”

The other two had begun to stir. The female was muttering and her head swayed from side to side.

This was going to be difficult. Very, very difficult. The kids probably had no idea what they were or where they came from. I had to be careful. Mo’Lock turned to me and shrugged his wide bony shoulders, offering me no help. I couldn’t determine whether the ghoul couldn’t or wouldn’t. He seemed edgy about the whole thing, edgy and distant.

I paced a little, then went back to Randy and stood in front of him holding my hand on my chin.

“Can you tell me how old you are, Randy?”

The kid dropped the glare and thought about the question.

“I think . . . yes, I’m sure. I’m five years old.” His face lit up with pride.

I shook my head. “Don’t you think you’re a little big for a five-year-old?”

Randy looked at me, incredulous to my query. “No,” he said, “all of my brothers and sisters are five.”

By now the other two were conscious and listening. Neither had the rage in their eyes that Randy had. Just the opposite, actually. They seemed scared of me. I counted myself lucky for that. It meant if I could get through to Randy, the others would most likely follow. I scrambled for questions.

“Can you tell me how you were born?”

The boy looked at me like I was the dumbest thing he’d ever laid eyes on. All three smiled, enjoying their little in-joke.

“In the lab,” Randy said sarcastically, “Where else?”

Blondie and the girl suppressed laughter.

I nodded. Lazar and Polynice had done a real job on these kids. They had no concept of the real world, just the twisted reality created for them. In desperation, I looked at Mo’Lock again—I was out of ideas. “What do you think, Mo’?”