“Callie, you may listen,” Miss Isabel said. “You can hear what the others read aloud. You will need to have a good memory, however.”

  But Callie had another notion. “Please, it’s a secret. But I can read, I think.”

  The teacher smiled tolerantly. “You do have your class reading book on your desk. However—”

  Callie opened the book and angled it so that the printed pages faced Nanny’s nearer eye. The goat could not focus the way a person could, but she could do a lot with a single eye. She could discern the print.

  “This is the story of a boy named Dirk and a girl named Jayne,” she read. “Dirk and Jayne are friends.”

  The whole class laughed.

  “We all have pretty much memorized the opening sentences of the book,” Miss Isabel said. “But can you read this?” She started printing on the blackboard with chalk.

  Callie and Nanny oriented on the board. “When in the course of human events it becomes ness—necessary for one people to dissolve the poli—political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth—”

  Now there was no laughter. “You can’t have memorized the Declaration of Independence!” the teacher said sternly.

  “No, ma’am, I didn’t. But I can read it, except for the bigger words. Nanny helps me, but she doesn’t know all the words either.”

  Miss Isabel pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I believe this will be our little secret, our class’s secret,” she said, her gaze challenging the other children. Not one of them protested. Then she dropped the matter. After that Callie took her turns reading in the normal manner, being one of the group. They all acted as if this were perfectly normal.

  In the following days, Callie became a star in class. She could see the teacher and the blackboard through Nanny’s eyes, and was lightning quick to assimilate and answer all questions. She had been a mediocre student, but Nanny enabled her to organize her thoughts and memories more efficiently.

  It was good for Nanny, too, because her mission was to gather information, and now it was being fed to her in a trough. She was learning all about the activities of the human species, filling her data banks.

  Of course the children and Miss Isabel caught on to the powerful role Nanny was playing in Callie’s performance. But each morning they touched the goat and reviewed their personal joy of the contact and their commitment to keep the secret. The teacher approved, in part because her class was the best behaved in the school, and her children were progressing much faster than others. This reflected well on the teacher. The goat was good for all of them.

  But the word was spreading, not only about the Service Goat, but about her effect on Callie and her class. Other teachers questioned the second grade homeroom teacher. Word reached the school principal. Who then dropped in on the class. They had no warning so could not escape him.

  Principal York Applebaum was a rotund, friendly, but competent man who preferred good feelings but could discipline an errant boy so that he would not repeat the offense. The grade school was well run, and the teachers were largely left alone, which was the way they preferred it, but there was a hidden edge.

  Now he was at his friendliest. That made Miss Isabel nervous; Applebaum could be deadly when smiling. Nanny picked up on her subtle flinch, and warned Callie that something was up, and it probably concerned them.

  “You are doing well here, all of you,” the Principal said sunnily. “Unusually well. You are to be commended for your application and behavior.”

  Miss Isabel flinched again, but kept silent in the manner of a battlefield commander keeping her head down as enemy artillery zeroed in on their position.

  “And you have a child with a Service Animal,” Applebaum continued as if this were an afterthought. “Who I hear is no trouble at all. In fact I understand that Nanny—do I have the name right?—is quite popular, in class and on the playground.” He smiled broadly. Even the other children flinched now. Of course he had the name right; he knew all about the goat from daily school reports. What mischief was he up to?

  “As it happens, there is no record of such a Service Animal in any of the training facilities. No record of a formal placement with a child. It is as if this marvelous creature suddenly appeared from nowhere. Isn’t that curious? It is probably merely an error in the records that will be corrected in due course. But I thought I had better check into it myself, just in case.”

  The artillery was oriented and about to fire. They were at ground zero. They could only wait, helplessly.

  “In fact, I understand that the child is always in direct physical contact with the animal. That it is almost as if she can see through its eyes, having none of her own, so is able to perform well in class. That she has become one of the brightest students in this school, far beyond her nominal level. Isn’t that remarkable?”

  Now the nuclear cannon was pointed right at them from point blank range. The children seemed to be holding their collective breath.

  Miss Isabel made a decision of desperation. “Yes, Caladia is fortunate to have her Service Goat. The rest of us support her, knowing the tragedy of her background. We wish her no further ill. Perhaps you should meet Callie and Nanny directly.” She looked directly at Callie as if asking permission.

  Translation: they had to have him touch the Goat and join the conspiracy of silence. They tried to keep that inner circle limited, but there seemed to be no other way to stop this juggernaut. Would Nanny agree?

  Nanny agreed. She could either make the man forget this contact and have no interest in repeating it, or she could recruit him to the conspiracy. She decided, efficiently, as was her wont.

  Callie stood up and spoke up. “Yes, Mr. Applebaum. It is an honor to meet you personally. You may pet my Goat.” She and Nanny made their way to the front of the class. There was not a peep from any of the children, who knew what that touch would signify.

  The principal reached out and patted Nanny’s shoulder. And paused. “Oh, my,” he breathed. “This is a good deal more than I anticipated.”

  He had received the package. He understood about the goat, and would labor to protect the secret.

  He recovered quickly. “So nice to have met you, Caladia and Nanny Goat. I shall be on my way now.” He turned and departed.

  “Is he going to tell?” a child asked plaintively.

  “No,” Callie said. “He won’t tell. He’ll help us when he has to.”

  “Now we will return to our normal classroom activity,” Miss Isabel said, visibly relieved.

  But the secret was slowly leaking out. How much longer could the balloon inflate before it burst?

  Chapter 7: Horns

  “We simply don’t have enough,” Ben said. “My employer is going to shut this operation down if I don’t produce soon.”

  “And we do like the money,” Venus said.

  “It’s more than that. I don’t like to fail in an investigation, any kind. That wounds my pride.”

  “Okay,” she said in a businesslike manner. “Nothing’s doing at their house; we’ve tried to spy on it at night and it’s totally ordinary. But maybe there’s something to be seen at the school.”

  “Nobody’s talking there either.”

  “But they know, and kids can be careless. We might learn something just watching those children. Juveniles may be canny; I remember, having been one not long ago.”

  “Not that you ever acted like one.”

  She smiled. “Not that I was ever given the chance. They say the average girl has her first sex at age fifteen. I was an old hand by then.”

  “You did know that was illegal?”

  “I knew. The men around me evidently didn’t.” It was a familiar lie. The men knew, but didn’t care.

  Ben was curious. “Just how young did you start?”

  “Young enough so I can’t remember the first times. So I learned how to make the most of it. That made life easier, especially as I got my curves.”

  “I wonder how many of those innocent children at the school are similar?”

  “Not many, but more than people realize. They learn early that it is dangerous to try to tell.” She spread her hands in a what can you do gesture. “I finally got lucky with you. Now I want to do what was a chore before.” She paused briefly. “So do we go stake out the school?”

  He shrugged. “Might as well. We’ve got time on our hands.”

  “Speaking of which . . .” She took his hands and stroked her own body with them. One thing led to another, as she intended, and they finished on the bed. It was as if she needed to prove herself every few hours. He had no objection.

  In due course they staked out the school, parking beyond the playground and surveying it with field glasses from inside the car.

  “If anyone comes—” Ben said.

  “I know: suddenly we’re making out. Not only does it give us a reason to be parked there without driving on, it discourages closer inspection, and it conceals our faces so we can’t readily be recognized.”

  “You’re a born investigator!”

  “I’ve spied on people before. Sometimes I’ve taken pictures. They can be useful.”

  He laughed. “I’m afraid you’ll find the schoolyard pretty dull.”

  “You never can tell.”

  It was already dull, as successive waves of children came out to play in their periods. Venus kept her eyes on the yard while teasingly tickling his leg and thigh. He did not reprove her, but neither did he yield. This was a business post.

  “Are we really common law married?” she asked.

  “Well, normally it requires time, such as five years living as man and wife. But during those years what is it, if not marriage?”

  “Being with you is just so much better than I ever thought I’d wind up. You’re just such a great man. I—say, there they are.”

  He saw. The goat was instantly recognizable. Many children went up simply to pet it and move on. There seemed to be a thing about the animal; everyone had to renew its acquaintance.

  Then something unusual happened. A small creature dropped down from the spreading branch of an oak tree. “That’s a raccoon,” Ben said. “What’s it doing there? They don’t make pets of them here, because—”

  “Oh, boy,” Venus breathed. “It is. It really is.”

  “Rabid,” he said.

  The children, at first curious, were quickly waved back by the school groundskeeper. But the animal was between them and the school building. It advanced on them.

  Suddenly the goat was there, alone, no longer touching the blind child Caladia. That was unusual; they had, as far as Ben knew, always been in direct contact with each other. The goat lowered its head and made as if to butt the raccoon, ineffective as that might be. There was contact, and the raccoon was hurled out of the school yard.

  Then Ben and Venus’s jaws dropped in unison.

  “Did you see that?” Venus asked.

  “Those horns are mobile!”

  “They just straightened out like spears and stabbed that raccoon to death!”

  “That’s one deadly fighting animal,” Ben concluded, as the goat got washed off and rejoined the girl. “Not just a companion.”

  “Now we’ve got something to report.”

  He considered. “Not yet. We need to know more about it, to make the report credible. So my employer won’t think I’m making it up to keep the job going.”

  “But you know that none of those school folk will let on, if they even noticed,” she said. “I’ll bet there won’t even be a newspaper mention.”

  “I’ll bet you’re right. We’ve already seen about as much as we’ll ever know. It’s that conspiracy of silence. We’ve run afoul of it before. Unless—”

  “Unless I go meet the goat,” she concluded.

  “Venus, I wasn’t asking you to do that! You know you can’t risk touching that creature.”

  “Better me than you. Ben, I’d do anything for you. Now let me prove it.”

  “Damn it, Venus! It’s dangerous.”

  “I will get you that missing information. About those magic horns. It’s the only way.”

  “Horns of a dilemma,” he said, not smiling.

  “Which this will resolve.”

  “You’ll join the conspiracy!”

  “Maybe, but you alone I will tell.”

  “I don’t trust this! You’ll be compromised, like the children.”

  “I’ll go tomorrow. That will give you the rest of today and all night to have at me, in case I don’t come back. So that at least you’ll have that much of me before you lose me.”

  “Venus—”

  “I was joking, I think. I don’t think that goat or anything else can keep me from you. I really do love you, Ben, and want to be with you forever. And I want to do this for you, to prove it. You do need that information. Now stop arguing and love me back.”

  What could he do? “I love you, Venus.”

  She knew he meant it. Then they were in the throes of their physical and emotional love.

  But Ben feared it could end tomorrow.

  Chapter 8: Raccoon

  Linda was concerned when Callie told her about Principal Applebaum’s classroom visit. “A secret can be shared only so far before it bursts its bounds and ceases to be a secret anymore.”

  “Yes. But Nanny decided.”

  “Maybe I had better talk with Nanny again. There may be more going on than she knows about.”

  “She says sure.”

  Linda took Callie’s hand, so as to commune with Nanny while including Callie. “This can continue only so long,” she said, focusing her thoughts by speaking them aloud. “There are billions of people on this world, and none of them are telepathic, and really too few are sufficiently empathetic. When folk who don’t know you personally learn too much about you, they will be suspicious, concerned that you are scouting us for alien conquest, and they will seek to capture you and extract all that you have to give from you. By force. The process will likely destroy you. We cannot let that happen. We may have to withdraw Callie from school and hide you both, if we can manage it. But there are complications, such as the fact that we are not Callie’s true family, or even legal foster parents; we have managed to stifle inquiries so far, but at some point that dam will burst and Child Services will swoop in to take you away and probably separate you from Nanny, in their ignorance. So there are real risks even in standing pat.”

  “Oh, Lin!” Callie cried, hugging her with one arm. “I don’t want to leave you. I love you!”

  “And we love you,” Linda said. “And Nanny too. Sterling intervened because it was the only way to safeguard you from the uncaring system, but you’re our child now, in every way except legal. But we have to be realistic. That school principal can blow the whistle on us at any time, for one thing.”

  “He won’t. Nanny converted him.”

  “But she can’t convert the whole world. There will be other threats. We need to be prepared.”

  /How long is it likely to take until the secret bursts out?

  “We can only estimate,” Linda said. “The parameters are complex. One month has passed since Nanny came on the scene. Maybe six months, though it could be sooner. We don’t want to be surprised.”

  /Nanny would be picked up by her mother ship six months from her arrival. Then the danger would be over.

  Callie began to cry. The goat did not understand why.

  “Oh, Nanny, you need that empathy,” Linda said. “You’re a marvelous creature, but sometimes your alien nature betrays you.”

  /Empathy.

  “You use it constantly, Nanny,” Linda said. “It is the root of your contact telepathy. You read the feelings of others, and alter them as seems appropriate, such as diminishing the intensity of pain. You have a certain immunity from it, so that that pain does not immobilize you as it does the victim. You are handling it from outside, as it were. But I think now you need to appreciate it from the inside too, because it is substantially more than pain.”

  /?

  “Empathy is many things, among them the ability of one person to feel the feeling of another person. Not only to intellectually understand his joys and sorrows, but to actually feel them. This is accomplished, technically, by what we call mirror neurons, that react to duplicate perceived emotions. To feel another’s pain. It is a cornerstone of the human condition, something that sets us apart from the animal kingdom, and generates our appreciation of the arts, which are largely symbols of our feelings.” She took a breath. “Orient on me, now; read my empathy. Locate those mirror neurons. They are no different from regular neurons, but they have a special assignment.”

  There was a pause as Nanny oriented.

  “Now assign some of your own neurons to that same program.” This was one of the special things the alien goat could do.

  Another pause. Callie did not understand exactly what they were doing, but knew that it was important. She felt the concentration of both parties.

  “Now activate that new circuit and focus on Callie’s feeling about you. Careful; this will be a heavy dose.”

  Now it was the goat who rocked back. She had gotten the dose.

  Linda removed her hand from Callie’s, breaking the physical contact. “And now you understand, don’t you, Nanny?”

  Nanny understood. She had known how to relate to sentient creatures, how to suppress their pain, and how to imprint certain simple emotions, such as the desire to respect a secret. She had become very intelligent when in contact with a sapient creature, and knew how to enable that creature to better organize her mind. But she had not really felt her feelings.

  Callie was a disfigured, blind orphan. She would be largely helpless without Nanny’s support. In addition, she loved Nanny. Love was another new concept. Nanny had defined it as a close attachment of convenience that facilitated social interactions. Now she actually felt it. That was a wholly different matter.

  Callie’s whole new world centered on Nanny. If Nanny left, Callie would lose her joy of life and soon fade into oblivion.