Story 07 – Part 2 – Fearful Silence

“I can’t get the little darling to speak,” Wilanna said. “Though, he seems to be starting to trust me. At least my cooking, anyway.”

“Dev and his boy are on their way over here,” Nero assured Boomer.

With how jumpy the child was, Nero was fairly impressed that Boomer had convinced the kid to trust him. Of course, having Lisa had probably helped Boomer’s credibility. Still the child refused to say a word or even nod his head. Boomer was trying to read the boy’s facial expression, but he had still contacted Carmine.

Nero had agreed, after he heard Boomer’s description of the pursuing men, that this situation be kept silent for awhile. The chances of there being more than one person in trouble with those men were very likely. Some how Boomer had managed to convince the kid enough to trust him in order to get the child out of the store without attracting attention.

“There are others, aren’t there?” Boomer asked the child.

Nero watched as the child looked around nervously and then pretended like he had not heard them. It seemed that the boy wanted help, but he was afraid of what might happen. The young boy looked just shy of his teens, and was probably from a third world country from what Nero could tell. If Nero had to guess, he would say that there was some sort of illegal slave labor going on. It meant that they might have to hurry in case the slavers decided to move their base of operations.

There was some laughter as the front door opened, and Nero remembered that he was going to tease Jordan about his date with Vire. Jordan was not calling it a date. Because the obstacle course was not going to be available until spring, Jordan had finally gotten the courage to invite Vire to go with him to some sort of museum exhibit. Nero sighed. He was going to have to ruin their wonderful moment. If the child was actually from another country then perhaps Jordan knew the language.

“I’ll give it a shot,” Jordan said after Nero explained the situation.

“Anything I can do?” Vire asked as Jordan walked over to the back of the lobby.

“Until we figure out where the kid came from we’re stuck,” Nero admitted.

“Well, when Tech gets home from school, he might be able to help,” Vire volunteered. “And Car knows more languages than he has fingers.”

“We already called him. He should hopefully arrive soon.”

Jordan talked to the boy in the two other languages he knew, but the child did not respond. At least not verbally. When Jordan started talking in Esellian the boy had titled his head slightly. Even though the boy was still not talking, at least they had a better idea as to what the boy spoke and a possibility of where he was from.

As Jordan kept talking, the child started fidgeting more. It seemed that Jordan was on the verge of getting the boy to trust him, but not quite. The boy seemed to be waiting for some sort of sign, and Jordan was doing the best he could. After several minutes, Jordan sat back with a sigh.

“He’s from a tribe, I think,” Jordan explained. “He actually only understands a little bit of Esellian. I think the kid is now under the impression that the only people he can trust are those who can speak his tribal language.”

“Great,” Nero sighed. “What tribal language is that?”

“I have no idea,” Jordan admitted. “There’s quite a few possibilities, and I don’t know any of them.”

“Can you look it up on the network?” Boomer asked. “I’m afraid we’ll be too late if we take much longer.”

“Perhaps I can help,” Carmine said from the doorway.

Carmine walked into the lobby and crouched down in front of the boy. For a few moments, Carmine did not say a word. Nero decided that the slightly exotic look that Carmine had would probably help the situation. After a while, Carmine began to speak slowly. At least, Nero assumed that some of them were words. Still, the way the boy’s face lit up was a very good sign. Then the child started responding to Carmine.

“He was kidnapped, with a lot of others,” Carmine said, but the look on his face said more.