Betty Margrave knew the information would hit Autumn Belfontaine hard, given her personal history. It had been a punch in the gut for Betty, because of her two nieces.
Small wonder Kitty was taking such an intense interest in Amy’s situation. She’s just old enough to understand what could’ve happened if I hadn’t been able to get to her and Cindy as quickly as I did, or I hadn’t been able to bring the authority of an FBI agent to the table when the child welfare people started making noises about the girls being taken in by a dual-career couple.
By the time Autumn finished reading the summation of the situation, her hands were shaking so badly she had to set the tablet down rather than try to pass it back. In the Moon’s lighter gravity a fall was far less likely to do it harm, but it certainly wouldn’t do it any good.
“This is disgusting.” She was so angry her voice shook, sounding quite unlike the professional voice people knew from her radio broadcasts.
She took a deep breath, except it came in a sharp gasp. Yes, she was trying to regain control over her emotions, but no, it wasn’t working nearly as well as she wanted it to. “I mean, I know that they’ve got to be short-staffed, if things are as bad as we’re hearing. But to just round up all the kids whose parents are in the hospital and herd them into schools turned into makeshift dormitories–“
“What do you expect from a government operation?” That was Eli Mallory, who was leaning against the doorframe in a pose very similar to a photo of Alan Shepard in one of his best-known biographies.
Betty had to fight not to laugh. She’d seen plenty of botch jobs in her FBI days. Even the Marine Corps and NASA, organizations in which lives were on the line, had their issues. But as a representative of the command structure of the settlement, she had to be careful about anything that could be taken as mockery or disrespect to the authority upon which it rested. “You might want to be careful how you say that. This settlement happens to be a government operation.”
Anyone else, it might have taken aback. But Sheps prided themselves on always having a snappy comeback “True, but up here you’ve got to be on the top of your game if you want to be around for very long.”
“He does have a point.” Autumn had recovered some of her composure, although her radio voice wasn’t quite back. “We managed to get over five hundred kids from the NASA clone creche settled in without anything approaching the mess the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services seems to be trying to cover up. Although you’ve got to allow that these kids were raised to be competent, responsible and industrious from the beginning, so it’s probably not quite comparable to a bunch of random kids from the general community.”
From the sound of that comment, Autumn must’ve been drawing from some personal memories. Then she looked straight at Betty. “However, that’s all a distraction. Right now we need to decide how to handle this. My instinct is to go on the air and blow it wide open.”
“And you’re not sure if that’s the best way to handle it, or if that’s the anger talking.” Betty studied the younger woman. In the last few years she’d gotten a good measure of Autumn Belfontaine, and could tell where her major weak points lay. “How about you write the story up as if you were going to file it for a news agency. Then I’ll take a look at it and see if it’s a go or if we need to run it past higher authority.”
Both of them knew that higher authority meant Captain Waite.