Operation STRIX needed a six-year-old child.

'I'm six!' The little girl insisted, straining her toes to look as tall as possible.

"Ah yes, we did celebrate!" Loid answered, "The Golden Funfair was her treat; she'd been asking me to go all week and I knew she would love it!"

Loid made sure to maintain his pleasant smile as he reached for the gift Peter offered him, but his mind was racing.

A six-year-old was the best, practically. Too young, and they would be barred from Eden due to not making the age cutoff. Too old, and there would be added scrutiny around whether they were old enough to be put a year ahead of Damian Desmond.

A six-year-old was best, developmentally. Speech, coordination, comprehension of complex ideas, attention span; all of it improved exponentially as each year went by in that crucial stage – a six-year-old was just better equipped, mentally, to succeed at accomplishing their part of Operation STRIX.

It had never even occurred to Twilight that he'd failed to complete the first, easiest, step of the mission…

Peter chuckled awkwardly, "Well I'm sorry if my presence upset her on her special day…"

"No, not at all," Loid lied easily, "She got on the merry-go-round and forgot all about it."

Maybe Anya didn't know how old she was?

Loid tossed that possibility aside quickly. If Peter Roche had been as attentive as he appeared, he would have ensured that Anya's birthday was celebrated one way or another. So, given the timeline, her birthday was only a few months before Loid found her. She would have known she was only five years old.

Maybe Peter was mistaken?

That didn't seem likely either. He originally found her at a well-to-do orphanage before leaving her where Loid had found her. It was an above-board adoption, so they would have had paperwork and been given documents that included a birth certificate. The only reason Franky had to fabricate a new one for Anya was because the orphanage she'd been left at didn't 'do' paperwork, given its shady nature.

Maybe she lied because she wanted to be adopted?

More likely, but children usually aged themselves down, rather than up, to appeal to prospective parents. Families usually aimed for younger children because they were considered 'cuter' and less likely to have deep-set emotional baggage from being in the system too long.

"That's good to hear," Peter said, "How is she doing otherwise?"

"I assure you, she's happy," Loid smiled, and felt a twinge of pride at the realization that that wasn't a lie.

A waiter came over and asked for their food and drink orders. Peter ordered rice pilaf with a light beer.

Safe choice. Comfortable enough to unwind a little, but not enough to actually get drunk with a stranger.

Loid followed his lead on the drink but ordered a chicken and gnocchi dish. That was what he had planned to make for Yor and Anya for dinner tonight if he didn't have this little mission. He wondered what they had cooked instead, in his absence.

He glanced over at Peter. His initial assessments of the man indicated that he was a mellow enough person that getting him to reveal what Loid needed to hear wouldn't be too hard, but Loid still didn't want to appear suspicious by pushing. Peter Roche was very clear about his care for Anya's security, so if Loid approached this conversation by appearing as a new father worried about her mental health, Peter would likely be more willing to open up to whom he would assume was a kindred spirit.

Once the waiter had passed on, Peter asked, "How is she handling school? By end of June, she should be done with her first year of proper education, right?"

"She's doing well, I'd guess. Maybe not as well as I would hope," Loid added with a laugh, "But as long as she's happy, I'm happy," Well, not exactly, but Roche doesn't need to know that. "She goes to Eden Academy."

He watched the man closely to see how he would take that last piece of information. Peter Roche's expression only revealed genuine delight.

"Oh Eden!" he exclaimed, eyebrows high, "That's a good place for her! She was always so clever."

"I know," Loid said, his smile failing to reach his eyes as the ghosts of her poor test scores flashed before his eyes, "She already has two Stella!"

"Already? That's impressive! I always thought she was quite an intelligent child. Always felt like she could see right through me."

Loid was struck with the weirdest sense of déjà vu. Didn't he say the exact same thing at the family interview?

Maybe I should give a little nudge…

"Oh, of course," Loid nodded, "She just has this ability to read people…must seem a little off putting…"

Peter Roche stiffened for a fraction of a second, but sidestepped the implication of the comment with a nod, "I'd always wondered if her academic aptitude matched her emotional aptitude, but she left us before schooling beyond kindergarten was an option..."

'"She left us"? More like you left her…' Loid thought indignantly.

'Just like you will, once Operation STRIX is over…' Twilight reminded him, at the back of his brain.

Loid cleared his throat, "Mr. Roche –"

"Peter, please."

Loid nodded, "…Peter. May I ask why she…left you? Although she has been thriving as my daughter, I recognize that she may have some…trauma related to her past experiences, and she was so upset when we crossed paths with you that it made me quite concerned."

The man shifted in his seat, "Anya didn't tell you?"

Not enough.

"No," Loid said, "I didn't want to ask in case it upset her even more."

That only seemed to make Peter Roche more uncomfortable.

"I appreciate that you're trying to be a good father," he said, clearing his throat, "Anya doesn't deserve any less."

"I can only try," Loid said, "But I don't want to accidentally run into any triggers for her…"

Loid let his question hang unasked at the end of his sentence and Peter acknowledged it.

"My wife," he said, clearing his throat, "She spent more time with Anya than I did and…" he paused, giving Loid an analyzing stare. Loid made sure to keep his expression as neutral as possible. It wouldn't do him any good if Peter Roche clammed up because he thought Loid was judging him. "Please don't think we adopted her, then dropped her, on a whim. We'd always wanted a daughter, a sibling for our boy, Bruno. But we had trouble conceiving; Bruno himself was a miracle. My parents suggested adoption while we were visiting them in the south, in Schenfeld. Anya basically fell into our laps, and I was happy. But –"

Loid cursed internally as their waiter returned with their beers and Peter heartily took to the distraction; he thanked the waiter, who let them know their food would arrive in a few minutes, and took a large sip of his drink, clearly trying to stall for time. Loid figured that, whatever happened to result in Anya's stay at that shady orphanage, the man sitting across from him clearly regretted it, or at least had little to no say in it happening. It was a good thing that Peter seemed insecure enough to overshare in the name of proving that to him.

"Does she still watch Spy Wars?"

Loid blinked at the non-sequitur, "Yes?"

Peter broke into a wistful smile, "That was our thing. I introduced it to her because Bruno liked it when he was younger and when I came home from work, or on the weekends, I would sit with her, and we'd watch it together and I'd listen to her ramble on about her favorite part of the latest episode, and it was good. It was our father-daughter thing."

Was it now?

Loid thought of reading Spy Wars with Anya until she fell asleep at his side and tried to drown the twist in his gut with his own gulp of beer.

"I could handle the quirks, and the hyperactivity. I could handle the attachment and trust issues. When a kid has issues like that, you just have to love them and show them you love them, you know? But the nightmares…" he broke out of whatever reverie he had fallen into and focused on Loid again, "Does she still have the nightmares?"

Loid nodded. Peter Roche seemed saddened by that, and Loid suddenly felt like he'd failed Anya somehow, so he quickly added, "She doesn't yell or scream, though. I remember you said she used to wake up screaming."

"Well, at least there's that, "Peter Roche accepted, "It was horribly scary, the things she'd cry out. I don't even think she realized."

"Can you tell me?" Loid asked, "I've thought about having her see one of my colleagues, a child psychologist, but I need to know what kind of help she needs."

Peter Roche let out a bitter laugh, "If your colleague is used to kids who tend to shout 'Stop it! It hurts! I don't want to!' in their sleep, then by all means, go ahead!"

Loid's blood ran cold.

His mind flashed back to seeing Anya in tears that first time he'd caught her sniffling, clutching her stuffed toy like it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

What on earth…?!

"But anyway," Peter said quickly, "I didn't have any issues with her and was fully ready to raise her, issues and all. But my wife came to me one evening after the kids were in bed." Here, he began to look nervous again, "She told me Anya made her and Bruno nervous. She said that Anya always seemed a little too observant and just tended to…to know things. Anya could always tell when she was lying to her, respond to things she'd never said, know what she was doing, what she was thinking…"

'Sometimes they called Anya a freak.'

"Did you believe her?" Loid was aware of how clever Anya could seem, but he'd never describe it as going that far.

"I'll admit, no man wants to call his wife a liar, but I thought it was just her feeling really vulnerable around this new person in our lives. So, at first, I thought she was just exaggerating."

"At first?"

The waiter returned with their dishes but, this time, Peter didn't seem to notice.

"I began to notice her doing the same thing with me. I'd tell a white lie, and she'd look at me all confused and ask why I'm lying. If I looked at her and thought about how I loved spending time with her, she would hug me and say 'I love you too'. And then…"

He picked up his fork and stabbed at his food but made no move to eat. Instead, he leveled another discerning gaze in Loid's direction.

Loid wanted to assure the man that he was right in his initial assumption. If Anya was truly a mind reader, Loid would have noticed it by now. While he had noticed that she had a keen eye for reading emotions and expressions, she had never indicated that she knew more than what any other emotionally attuned person could. Her age might make her having that skill seem more surprising, but there was nothing beyond that.

But he stayed quiet.

"I mentioned that we had a house fire."

Loid nodded.

"She saved our lives, I think."

Loid blinked in surprise. "Pardon? Anya?"

Peter finally took a bite as he nodded, "We used to live in a neighborhood near here. The fire broke out in that home, in the middle of the night."

"Nobody got hurt, I hope," Loid asked. He already knew the details of that night, but he knew it was appropriate to ask that anyway.

"Thankfully, no, because I actually hadn't been asleep. I didn't hear anything, but I smelled the smoke right before Anya came knocking at our door, crying."

"That was lucky, then. She must have heard something that you didn't."

Peter shook his head, "That wasn't the strange part. I hadn't gone to sleep because Anya had warned me beforehand, and I couldn't get what she'd told me out of my head." He looked at Loid again, and Loid was struck again with that feeling of being in over his head, "She'd been antsy all evening and, when I'd asked what was wrong, she said that she had seen a man outside our building thinking about how he would burn our house down. And then it happened."

Loid took a bite to think about how to respond.

There had been mention, in the information that Franky had found, that Peter had offhandedly told a colleague that his daughter had saved him, but Loid had assumed that the warning from her had come after she had noticed the flames and smoke herself; he had asked Franky for a blueprint of the apartment the Roche's had lived in and it seemed that Anya's bedroom had been the one closest to the living room, where the ignition site had been. But now he was hearing that she had warned the family earlier that night? He didn't exactly believe that Anya had literally heard the culprit thinking. Peter was probably describing how she had heard the strange man muttering to himself about his plans.

He'd have to find a way to ask Anya about that man. That single thread to the organization that Franky was certain was behind all of this based on his own information gathering. The first key to figuring out how much of a threat Anya's past would prove to be regarding Operation STRIX.

Either way, that man further proved that the fire had been targeted, which brought Loid back to the pressing mystery.

"How do you think the fire happened? Was it an electrical fire?"

Peter shook his head, "Nothing should have been malfunctioning; we'd replaced all our old appliances a few months before," he leaned in conspiratorially after taking a swig of beer, "I think it was arson."

Loid feigned surprise, eyebrows raising, "Why do you say that?"

Peter Roche kept his voice low, "I have a coworker who has a brother who has…connections…from the war. And I got a promotion that he had been gunning for."

That was it?

Now Loid's surprise was real. There was no way that was the real reason. It seemed like such an overreaction to basic workplace politics. From personal experience, Loid knew it was much easier to just direct the SSS to someone if you disliked them enough. If this colleague had family with unsavory connections, using said connections so brazenly would be unwise.

But the look in Peter's eyes told Loid that he genuinely believed what he was saying.

Was Peter Roche lying? Or did he really not know why his family was targeted?

If he wasn't the target, then who was?

After tonight, he would be handing off Roche surveillance to Nightfall, so he made a mental note to ask her to look further into everyone that Peter Roche spoke to on a frequent basis, as well as any of their less-than-reputable connections. It would be more work, but nothing she couldn't handle. He'd taught her well.

"The whole incident only scared my wife more," Peter Roche continued, sounding more somber, "Of all the things that happened last year, my biggest regret is telling her what Anya had told me that night. After that, she became very cold towards Anya and eventually broke down crying, saying she couldn't live with her in our home anymore."

"And so you just…"

Loid must have let a sliver of his anger show through, because Peter Roche shifted again and responded defensively, "Please don't think I just caved immediately – I defended Anya as fiercely as I could! But seeing my wife upset also broke my heart, and then Bruno also started bullying Anya, calling her a freak, and I realized that my home was not safe for her anymore," he wrung his hands, and Loid bit his tongue to stop from pointing out that the orphanage he'd left her at didn't seem much safer, "Bruno blamed her for us moving further away from his school and friends and no amount of explaining things or punishing him could make him stop hating her. Anya became quieter and she stopped making observations and asking questions. She clung to me more, but that just created a rift between me and the rest of my family.

"That is why I was relieved to see Anya happy and healthy by your side at the Fair. After I dropped Anya off at that place, I insisted that my wife and son go to therapy and they've come to a point where they both deeply regret how they behaved, but the idea of bringing another child into my home is just…." He trailed off and picked up his fork again.

'Unthinkable', was what Loid imagined Peter would have said. A part of him was grateful that the man recognized when a child was hurting and sought to remove them from a bad situation. Peter definitely wouldn't be a threat to Anya herself. Loid remembered how Anya often freaked out in his early days with her, pleading, at the drop of a hat, for him to not abandon her, and he couldn't help but feel annoyed that she had to experience that in the first place under the Roches' roof.

If the man thought this meeting was an opening to reintroduce himself into Anya's life, Loid needed to quash that immediately. For the sake of the mission.

"I understand," Loid said, putting on his best 'psychologist voice', "Your household was such a source of stress for everyone, with tension that built and built. Now you're grieving and dealing with the guilt from the consequences." He chewed some food, pretending to think, "I think Anya is still dealing with things too, in her own way. She needs space from all this."

"May I speak with her once more, just to let her know that I hold no ill will towards her? None of this was her fault."

"I'll pass on your sentiments and ask if she wants to see you. But if she doesn't, then I won't force her."

Of course, Loid had no intention of giving Anya any more contact with the Roches.

XXX

As soon as Loid returned to his car, he carefully unwrapped the gift that Peter had handed him to give to Anya.

It was the latest issue of the Spy Wars comic and a toy model of Bondman's pistol.

Thoughts? I'm more confident writing prose than dialogue so, with this being a dialogue-heavy chapter, I was a little out of my comfort zone. Hope it seemed natural enough.

I'm curious to know what people think of how the Roches handled their situation, now that Peter's gone into more detail. I wanted Peter Roche's story to be an example of how a man can fail a child BECAUSE of his love for them and his family. I never wanted Anya's previous families to really be villains for her, just regular humans that got freaked out by suddenly dealing with a telepathic child. And as Anya grows up, and bounces from family to family, she better learns how people react to her so, by the time Loid picks her up, she's learned to be a bit more subtle.

No, Loid doesn't believe that Anya can read minds. If he refuses to believe that Garden exists, then there's no way he's going to just accept supernatural powers unless he has proof.

Peter mentions that he got Anya from an orphanage in Schenfeld, which is the parody name I gave for Schönefeld, a town just south of Berlin. How did Anya end up there, hmm?