"No. I don't want to."
"But you have to."
"Why?"
"We talked about this, Ben. Because I'm God. You're supposed to always do what God tells you, remember?"
"Because you'll hurt my mom if I don't?"
"That's right. You don't want anything to happen to your mom, do you? Do you want your house to start on fire when you're all asleep?"
"No!" wailed Ben.
"You know what to do then, to save your mom, and your sister. It won't take long. If you do it right, she'll like it, and it'll be our secret. No one has to know but you and me. Okay?"
"Ben?" his mother called from downstairs. Ben darted from his bedroom to linger at the top of the staircase. He could smell dinner cooking, and his stomach growled. If he didn't do what God said, he might miss dinner, and he was really hungry. His mom hadn't paid for his school lunches yet this month, so all he got was a cheese sandwich from the grumpy cafeteria lady.
"Yeah?" he called back.
"Who are you talking to up there?"
"God."
He heard his mother chortle. "Okay. Just don't wake Lynnie up. Dinner will be ready in a little while. Go watch tv in my room."
"Okay."
Ben dragged back to his room, deciding then and there he would turn off his tablet and then throw it in the toilet. Then God couldn't talk to him anymore, or ask him to do things to Lynnie that he didn't want to.
"Ben? Are you there?" God called softly from Ben's tablet.
"Yeah. But I'm not going to do it."
"What about the fire? You don't want to die like that, do you?"
"I'll tell my mom, and we'll go somewhere else."
God laughed. "I can find you wherever you are, Ben. You, and your mom. Wouldn't it be better to know nothing bad is going to happen?"
Ben whimpered, rubbing at his eyes. He had to pee, and he wanted to cry.
"Good boy. Do as I say, and I'll make sure you get that new bike you want. Now hurry."
Ben picked up the tablet and the hairbrush God had told him to get from the bathroom, went into Lynnie's room, and closed the door.
The web laid out on the board had grown impressive already. If what they suspected was true, this pedo by proxy ring spanned most of the East Coast. Kim stood ramrod straight, studying all the connections and possible connections. Even if they managed to take down the kingpins and shut down the entire operation, the videos of the kids were out there now, being passed around, bought and sold and copied, and others would pick up where the leaders of this ring left off with no interruptions in service to their clients.
"We have to do more than take the ring down," Kim said, mostly to herself. "We have to nail the consumers of this filth hard, otherwise there's no motivation to even slow down those waiting in the wings to take over the operation."
"But we can't do that until we get the client list, and the proof we need of who's buying and watching this stuff," said Halstead from over her shoulder.
"Yeah." Kim exhaled heavily. Her sleepless eyes felt like rocks burrowing into her head.
"So we do what we can to this bunch, then move on to the next. We make it harder and harder for them to operate. We stay one step ahead of them and save the ones we can," added Halstead.
"We probably should have dumped this on Sex Crimes," Kim replied woodenly.
"This was meant to be ours," answered Halstead. "We'll get them."
Kim tried to smile at him, but only managed a grimace. Voight came rumbling from his office. "We got the green light from the Ivory Tower. We infiltrate the schools, the foodservice company, DCFS. One of you is going to play the part of a single mother who just moved here."
"Gotta be me," said Kim, before anyone else could take a breath. Voight shot her an empathetic look, but she shook her head. "I won't let it interfere, Sarge. I can do this. I have to do this."
"Alright," rasped Voight. "Sex Crimes has been looped in, it's the only way the brass would sign off on us taking the case. Let's use every resource they have. They're waiting to brief you, Kim. They'll set you up in an apartment with the five year old son of an old friend of mine at the 33rd. It all has to look legit. The kid knows what to do, but his parents will be set up in an apartment nearby in case he gets squirrely. Upton, you start tomorrow as a DCFS case worker. Ruzek and Atwater, get yourselves hired as drivers for this school lunch delivery outfit. Your resumes and new identities are on my desk, along with your backstories. Same goes for the rest of you. Halstead, you're going in as a teacher at the school the latest victim attends. You're posing as a substitute teacher, so we can move you around; the ring won't strike the same place twice in a row. This isn't gonna be a quick solve, and we may be entrenched for months. With any luck, there's one hierarchy here and we can take it down and the rest will crumble. Anyone not on board for the long haul, I need to know now."
It was so quiet then, Kim could hear the hum of the overhead lighting.
"Good. Let's roll, then."
"Hey Sarge, what's your part?" asked Atwater.
"I'm a customer on the prowl for new movies and live-action."
Kim's face drained of color. She didn't envy him the role he was about to play, but if anyone could pull it off, it was Voight.
By the time the evening news was on, Kim was cooking hamburger helper for her 'son' Eli, a precocious boy who sat at the table building with Legos, nonplussed by what he had been asked to do. The front of the fridge was covered with artwork Kim presumed had been drawn by Eli, whose real name was Garrett. How easy it was to imagine he was really hers, hers and Adam's; that Adam would come strolling in any minute with the gallon of milk she had forgotten to pick up on the way home, Eli's face brightening at the sight of him.
Don't go there, she warned herself. She and Adam were incommunicado now, until this was over. The boy looked up at her, asking if he could have sour cream on top of his hamburger helper.
"Sure," she told him, a warm feeling spreading from her gut up to her heart. The memory of Austin Heaton coding at Med and the sound of his mother keening in disbelief drove it quickly away.