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With a last glance at them, Davi backed up. But suddenly something shot out of his pocket. Obi-Wan knew immediately what it was: Davi's pet ferbil, Scurry. Davi would not leave the Learning Circle without his pet.
"What is that?" 0-Bin snapped. "Catch it!"
Davi went down on his hands and knees. He made a chirping noise with his mouth and cupped his hands. The ferbil ran into his palm.
"That," 0-Bin said, "is a pet."
Davi said nothing. His face flamed.
"It's just a little ferbil," Siri said.
"Two punishment marks, 0-Siri. I was not talking to you. V-Tarz!"
V-Tarz rumbled forward. "Please search V-Davi's dorm area," 0-Bin ordered.
Obi-Wan and Siri followed. While the students stood around, it did not take V-Tarz long to find two iridescent lizards, another baby fer-bil, and a bag of seeds.
O-Bin pressed her lips together. "What do we say, students?"
All the students faced Davi.
"SHAME. SHAME. SHAME," they repeated over and over.
"Take… those… things," O-Bin told V-Tarz, her teeth clenched in a smile. "And get rid of them."
V-Tarz scooped up the lizards and put both ferbils in his pocket.
"No! "Davi cried. "Please…"
"SHAME. SHAME. SHAME."
Inside V-Tarz's pocket, the ferbils chirped anxiously.
Davi's eyes filled. Tears slowly dripped down his cheeks. "Please," he whispered.
As soon as the lights powered up the next morning, Obi-Wan hurried to Davi's sleep couch to give him words of encouragement. They would find a way out. They would take him with them.
But Davi was gone.
Qui-Gon and Adi hid behind a low wall, their eyes on the high security building that housed the CIP. Nen had brought them through several checkpoints, but he was not authorized to enter the building. It was up to them to get past the guards.
"We ca
"There is only one guard," Qui-Gon said. "It should be easy. Kegan is not used to unlawful activity."
They rose from their hiding place and strolled toward the guard.
"Greetings," Qui-Gon said. "V-Tan and 0-Vieve have sent us here to observe. You will be happy to let us pass through."
"I am happy to let you pass through," the guard said, succumbing to the mind trick and waving them through the doorway.
Once they were inside, Qui-Gon and Adi quickly found the Central Instruction Processor. Adi's fingers flew at the keyboard as she entered a series of contradictory instructions.
"This should send them all to landing sites," she said. "I don't want them to crash in a populated area. This program should confuse the tech perso
"How long?" Qui-Gon asked.
Adi's eyes never left the data screen. "Hard to say. It should give us at least two hours. Maybe three. They aren't technologically advanced, so it could take them a while."
"I don't want another night to fall without finding our Padawans,"
Qui-Gon said grimly.
Adi agreed quietly. "We will find them. And Lana, too."
When Adi was finished, they turned toward the exit hallway, but Qui-Gon stopped by a door marked central instruction file records.
"Let's just look in here a minute," he said. "We could find a clue."
The room was lined with holographic file units. They were dated and lined up alphabetically. Qui-Gon accessed a drawer of files, Adi another.
"There's a file on every citizen of Kegan here," Adi Gallia said in disbelief. "Recorded conversations…"
"Whom they meet, whom they dine with…" Qui-Gon said, accessing another file.
"What they use, what they eat…"
"What they write to their children at school…"
Qui-Gon studied a file for a thirteen-year-old named O-Nena. "Didn't Nen tell us about The Learning Circle?"
Adi Gallia murmured assent as she accessed another file. "Did you find out where it is?"
"No," Qui-Gon said. "But here's a reference to a /? e-Learning Circle.
What could that be?"
"Sounds like something to check out."
"Let's look up Lana," Qui-Gon suggested, flicking past files to get to her name. "There's nothing here."
"I'll try Melie and Nen." Adi searched through the files, flashing one name after another. "Here. I'll take Nen, you take Melie." She read through the files quickly.
Qui-Gon sca
"They've erased all the information." Adi met Qui-Gon's gaze. "I don't like this. It's as though they wiped out any evidence of her existence."
"Except in her parents' memories."
Simultaneously, the two Jedi closed the files.
"There's no time to lose," Adi said.
They left the building and hurried to Nen and Melie's dwelling. Adi quickly explained that the autohoppers would be grounded for about three hours.
"We'll gather as many dissidents as we can," Nen said. "We'll try to find out if anyone has seen your Padawans."
"We must find out where the Learning Circle is located," Qui-Gon told them. "I have a feeling the key is there. Have you ever heard of the Re-Learning Circle?"
"I've heard it mentioned," Nen said. "Nobody really knows what it is.
Some sort of training facility."
"The mothers talk," Melie said. "They say if your child is reassigned they are not allowed to contact you again. Do you think that's where Lana is?"
O-Yani, the elder caregiver, stood in the doorway. "No," she whispered.
Melie turned, her gaze suddenly sharp. "O-Yani, your grandson V-Onin was sent to the Re-Learning Circle six years ago."
"It was not my fault he was ill," O-Yani said quickly.