Free No Going Back by Mark L. Van Name Page B

could pay you.”
    I stood still until she released me. “You’re welcome,” I said, “and no need.” I moved to the front of the transport and motioned at the children. “Now, you have to take them out before they can remember anything about this vehicle or me.” I told the transport to open the rear door, and then I ducked behind the divider that separated the cargo area from the normal passenger seats.
    “Mom?”
    I pulled back the divider enough to see that Tasson had propped himself on one elbow.
    Chang dropped to her knees and pulled him to her. “Oh, yes, baby. I’m here. I’m so glad you’re safe.” She stroked his head a few times. “We have to go now, Tasson. I’ll help you walk. Come on now.”
    He stood and leaned on her.
    “The rest of you children, you come with me, too.” She led out the four who could walk. They all focused on her.
    “How much will they remember?” I whispered into the comm.
    “Virtually nothing of the first few minutes they’re awake,” Lobo said. “Standard human behavior for the type of sedative/wake-up combination we used.”
    Chang returned and led out two more who were now able to stand.
    The final four were stirring when she entered the transport again. She hustled them through the door. She stopped right outside the transport and turned toward me.
    “If I can ever do anything for you,” she said, “you call.”
    I mouthed, “Thank you.”
    “Let’s all wait by this tree,” she said to the children.
    I told the transport to close its rear door and drive back to the restaurant via a route Lobo had given me. We took off slowly but picked up speed as we left the residential area.
    “Anything so far?” I said.
    “No,” Lobo said, “but I wouldn’t expect any action quite yet. There are no nearby landing zones, so everyone’s restricted to ground travel. You should be safely well away before anyone arrives.”
    “Good. Now, we have to hope these people behave as they should.”
    “And we have to get away,” Lobo said. “Once everyone gets over all the excitement, they’ll start examining Chang’s story. Even if it holds up—and I doubt it will—they’ll want to find the rescuers and interview them, maybe arrest them.”
    “So let’s hope we’re long gone before that happens,” I said.

CHAPTER 12
    Jon Moore
    I rode in silence until the transport was almost at the restaurant.
    “Do you think I should have killed those men?” I said to Lobo.
    “Absolutely,” he said.
    “What about the law? It exists to provide justice. That’s not mine to decide or to deliver.”
    Lobo laughed. “I love that you can still make me laugh. Human legal systems exist for many reasons, justice being only one of them. It’s almost certainly true that the men at that auction were wealthy and, at least some of them, maybe most of them, were also powerful. Find anywhere, anytime in human history in which justice for the rich and powerful was the same as justice for the average person, and I’ll change my position. These men were going to buy and abuse those children. Unless someone stops them, they will do the same thing again.”
    “So some combination of the Studio legal system and the planetary coalitions will try them and put them on a prison planet somewhere.”
    “Maybe some of them,” Lobo said, “for some period of time, but I’d bet not all of them, maybe even not most of them. In no time, they’ll be free, and they’ll be doing the same thing again. They deserve to die.”
    I shook my head, more in frustration than in disagreement. “I hope you’re not right, but even if you are, who am I to decide that? If everyone killed everyone they felt was evil, we’d have chaos on every world.”
    “That’s a fair point,” Lobo said, “but in this case, with the data we have, my judgment is that you should have killed them.”
    “Well, it’s over,” I said, “and I believe I made the right choice.”
    “Whatever you believe,” Lobo said, “I