The series Prey, and the characters of Tom, Sloan, Attwood, and Tate, and any appearing on that show are copyright, so hands off, don't touch, so there!! That also goes for the characters I invented.

This takes place after 2006 where John and Mary, Tom and Sloan's children are getting rather bored about being in a human school and have decided to play hooky. However, they are soon to come against an old and dangerous adversary.

COLD EYES IN A PLEASANT FACE

CHAPTER ONE .

Winter ended its cold deceitful frost, John and Mary, being children of the New Species, hated the cold, but it was better sitting outside than going to a school in which the teachers never challenged their intelligence. They decided that going on a sprint across the country would do them wonders.

It was then that Mary got an idea.

"We really should find out who Uncle Walters was before."

"Oh before he became Dr. Atwood."

"I know that he is not one of us, but he did help father and it is our duty as members of the new species — although there are others who would call us different —to assist him in case his former employer does betray him once more."

John sat down on the park bench, observing the normal children at play. He thought of the others like him and how they were killing, mingling their crimes with crimes of bestial men. He could understand why his own father wanted to be like the homo sapiens, why he hated his own kind so much that he would be willing to die for it.

But that was in the past and their father had come to terms with his own peculiarities.

"Are there others raised like us?" asked Mary.

"Father does not think there are many, but there will be more. Remember his own mother, our own grandmother turned him over to Lewis for training, and father is one of the chosen, one of our leaders."

They really had to help Walter Atwood. Although they looked like normal children, their intelligence made them seem more adult, and so they could not think of Atwood, not as an adult, but as an equal. For propriety's sake, however, they addressed him as Uncle Walter. It was the correct thing to do.

They could see a change, ever slight, in the ways things were run. Already father and mother planned to let their little brother, Edward attend Saint Catherines, although he was only three. However, Dominant children matured faster and Edward, named after Doctor Edward Tate, was as intelligent as a bright six year old and probably more.

The adults did not care for one of the teachers, mother particularly hated him and wished he would disappear from the planet, oh she said, "forget it, now that we have space travel. Maybe the black hole." She could not find anything on him. The teacher seemed so police and nice, too nice.

The records showed that Mr. Foster was an exemplary teacher, married once, now divorced, and had two children, girls, to whom he sent two thousand dollars child support, plus had them over for visits every second weekend, as well as New Years and Easter.

Not many on the earth knew about space travel. The dominants kept it a secret, using Area 51 (some had gotten employment in that area) to cover their tracks.

"Maybe this new teacher is one of us," said Mary.

"He couldn't be. I would have sensed it," said her brother.

"Unless he masked his presence. Most of the humans know that dominants are in this area except the nuns class them all as human."

"Yes and so do others and remember that when father and mother had us, mother's DNA did not show in us, except for your hair color and the way it waves."

"Mother told of this species called the Neanderthals whom her ancestors wiped out, much like our species are trying to wipe out the humans, but now it seems unnecessary. There are more being born like us and with proper education we don't turn out like that horrible person, Kevin."

Suddenly John had an idea. "That's how we can help Uncle Atwood, not finding who he was. He was probably under strict orders like father was when he assumed the role of an FBI agent. We are more intelligent, maybe we can find what this Kevin has become."

"We will have to get into Uncle Atwood's office and use his computer plus the identifier and we will have to get a biometric device, one that will mimic father's or mother's."

"But that wouldn't work. It would require cloning and to have two sets of parents would be confusing."

"What about cloning part of their fingers?"

That too seemed a bad idea. Cloning parts of a body meant the body deteriorated, besides their Roman Catholic upbringing was against it "Homo Sapiens like to be admired, Mary," said John, "we could go visit Uncle Atwood and ask him about his government work. How many terrorists did he capture?"

"That's a bright idea and then we'll get on his computer and track down Kevin. I wish we had brothers and sisters like the others." She pouted.

"Uncle Ed said they couldn't risk taking mother to one of their obstetricians and he couldn't trust our Medicals who may have worked with the group bent on eliminating the Sapiens." He smiled. "But they did save us and maybe next time, mother will have four babies like the mothers of our friends."

"Father and mother could adopt, children whose parents were killed by the Limousine Lady. That would not work either." Tom and Sloan had spent too much time hiding their presence from the semi military group after them, as well as the evil dominants who wished all homo sapiens to be annihilated.

Walter Atwood lived in a house on a large estate, surrounded by a brick fence complete with security camera and guards. The house had once belonged to a notorious gangster and under the rules of confiscation, Atwood had gotten it for a steal.

No one knew if Atwood was or had been married. There were rumors of a wife and daughter who died tragically, but no one could confirm that.. All John and Mary knew was that every year around October the fourth, Atwood would take a trip to Washington, DC and someone saw him go to the local cemetery.

The children used their natural charm on the guard who let them in, and actually drove them up to his employer's door. He was not, however, l that foolish for he asked another employee to watch the gate while he was gone.

Atwood seemed pleased to see the children, asking how they were and why they were not at school.

"We're rather old for that," said John.

"But," said Walter Atwood, "you were there for a reason so that you will remain undetected."

"We're bored."

"What was the name of that school?"

John told him.

"I'll see what I can do. Saint Catherines doesn't have a good gifted education program past the high school level, but there is another private school twenty miles in the country who has an excellent reputation. They accept only students from eight years and up." He stopped talking for a moment. "Eight years and up. I had better investigate it further."

"Maybe later," said John, "I heard you were on good terms with the President of the United States. Were you one of the Special Agents assigned to protect him or perhaps to train them?"

"I belonged to the Navy Seals, and was wounded, then I joined the Secret Service," said Atwood, "Do you remember from your history lessons when the President changed his schedule and..."

Mary looked through the CDRS. "Do you have 'Eliminator?' here?"

Now 'Eliminator' was one of the favorite Dominant children games, much like a Dungeons and Dragons type game. There were two versions, the Dominant one a holographic version and the Homo Sapien one, on PlayStation and the other game formats. Atwood had the latter version on his PC.

Since all his sensitive data was password protected, Atwood said it was all right for Mary to play the game and took John to his library to get a couple of books on the lives of Secret Service Agents and the Military in Action during the Gulf War.

Meanwhile Mary entered the information on Mr. Foster, and brought up his photograph. She also brought up Kevin's photograph, after when he killed that boy and seriously injured the other and before he left for the Dominant Training Program. "Now to see if they're the same person."

She looked for a morphing program, but knew that was not enough. Mary needed one of those programs used by Law Enforcement Agencies to unite missing children with their parents and Walter Atwood had one on his computer.

She first inserted Kevin's picture as it was easier to age then the reverse. She watched the changes as the picture changed from a small boy to a teen and then an adult male in his early twenties. "That's it, Kevin! We have you!"

Posted on Toys Prey sept 18,2004