Benicia woke up to the voices of children: Babies wailing, laughing, babbling, welling up from the floor, and finally working through her bed and her pillow to her ear. Older children, with sudden bursts of thumps; closer, through the wooden walls. And closest of all, the voices of two little girls, speaking Japanese and some language she didn't recognize at all. Seeing Benicia raise her head, one of them, the one with black hair and very blue eyes, said: "Good morning!" The other followed, but the one with orange-blonde hair and tawny eyes had a thick accent.

"Good morning."

"I'm Lily," bubbled the first girl. "She's Mimi. Who are you? I've never seen you here before."

"I'm Ben--Betty. Betty Beringer. I'm a friend of Pleione."

Lily giggled, and exchanged some words with Mimi that Benicia couldn't understand. Something about Lily had caught Benicia off-guard . . . something.

"We know a 'Ben.' He's a pest who keeps drawing pictures of us."

"We do not like picture," the blond said, sounding more like "we duh nuta rikuh pikuturuh."

"Not the way Ben draws them," said the black-haired one. "Why did you say 'Ben?' at first?"

Maybe it was the wide, utterly innocent eyes . . . but it was clear the child had to be answered now. "Well, my real name is 'Benicia' but I don't like it."

"Oh. That's a funny name. There's a town named that."

"Yes . . . " Benicia wished she could have thought of another name beginning with 'ben' fast enough to seem natural. Still, she began to weave another plausible and memorable part of her 'legend' as she spoke, though she didn't know the tradecraft word for what she was doing. She shrugged. "Maybe I was born there or something. I don't know anything about my real mother."

"No mother?" asked Mimi, the blond one.

"Is she dead?" asked Lily, the one with black hair.

Again, Benicia shrugged, and shook her head as well. "I don't know. I don't know anything about her."

"Who takes care of you?" asked Lily.

"My father. I don't see him much. I was living in schools for a long time. I didn't like that much. Finally my father let me live with one of my aunts instead. That's how I met Pleione. Do you know who Pleione is?"

"Uh-huh," said Lily. "I've known Pleione since I was little."

Benicia suppressed a laugh; the girl was tiny. "How old are you?"

"Five."

"Do you guys live around here? This is my first visit."

"I lived here until after mama and papa died. Then we went to live with Grandma and Grandpa. They live in Singapore now. But they let us come back to visit."

"Oh." <Died?> "I'm sorry." Should she ask more?

Someone came in without knocking--Sarah. <Naturally.> One thing Benicia had not missed was that among her generation in this place, Sarah was the alpha female, even as her mother somehow held primacy over the older ones.

Breakfast in the Alvarson mansion was based on rice, although the younger children went in for the same heavily-advertised, heavily-sugared cereals most other kids in America still insisted on. "Al," one of Pleione's sisters, said pointedly that she really missed the American-style breakfasts "Auntie Mako" used to fix.

Benicia got up too late to catch the martial-arts exercises she had heard about from Pleione, but she saw evidence of how vigorous they were in the elder Mrs. Jones who hadn't changed out of her leotard. Benicia asked Minako Jones some questions about martial arts, but did not bother to read her; she was just satisfying her own curiosity while making polite conversation. Mrs. Kumada took her meal in her room, so Benicia didn't have a good opportunity to get close to her yet.

After breakfast, Pleione and the older children went off to Japanese School. Benicia declined their invitation to come along, saying, truthfully, that she would feel lost.

The house was still buzzing with activity, getting ready for the party, and also for the arrival of several more people, including Dr. Alvarson. It was chaos; Olivia Jones was the only official staff and while she was efficient and energetic to a terrifying degree, she had a baby to worry about. Everyone had a baby to worry about, and three of the women had twins to mind. It was amazing that they got anything done, but they did.

Mrs. Kumada was out of action altogether, though she tried to pitch in at one point, bringing on an argument that ended in tears, lots of tears. Benicia couldn't bear to watch this.

A little after three, before Pleione and the others had returned, there was a great commotion outside. More pickets and TV vans appeared just before the owner, D.A. Alvarson, arrived—and her father was outside, confronting the reclusive multibillionaire.

Benicia wanted to crawl inside herself, watching her father perform from an upstairs window. It was not only a disgusting publicity stunt, it was stupid, liable to blow her cover, for they were going to wonder how the Reverend Johnny Lee Swainson knew that Alvarson was coming today.

"How could they have known you were coming?" asked Mizuno Ami, the widow Suuri.

Alvarson shrugged. "It could have been someone in my holdings here, or someone involved in air traffic control. Or just someone keeping an eye on my movements."

"None of us would have told anyone, sir," said Olivia Jones.

"One of the children might have said something," said Naru.

"Perhaps," said Alvarson, turning to Usagi. "Did you try to read my thoughts? While I was with our holy man?"

"No, Alvarson-sama. Do you think I would risk such a thing?"

"Someone tried to read my thoughts. Where is the First Moon?"

"She won't be back for another hour. And she knows better!"

"Yes, she knows better, you have taught her . . . " Alvarson trailed off, a sign that vast old mind of his was trying to recall something. His wife led him off after a few moments, knowing as the others did he could be lost in thought for hours.

Benicia Swainson caught little of the exchange except the tone; it was all in Japanese. She was surprised that Alvarson seemed to be fluent in Japanese. She knew only enough to recognize it.

Some of the pickets stayed on after the Reverend Johnny Lee left—it was clear they intended to intercept and harangue each and every person coming and going from the Alvarson mansion, which chased off any arriving trick-or-treaters. The party seemed well-enough attended, though.