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calling him Jack.  That would
make five.  Five Jacks, but I’m first."
    "Who cares what Jack you are?  Why am I here?" 
Tommy jumped up and shouted his questions.  "You kidnapped me for the
money, didn't you?  Have you talked to my parents yet about ransoming me?  It
won't do you any good.  I'm not rich, yet.  I already told you that."
    "Now, now.  Ye are gettin askert again."  Tommy
needed a moment to translate that sentence.
    "Scared?  Of course I’m scared!  When’re you going to
start telling me what's going on?  Who are you?  What do you want with me? 
When can I go home?"
    Jack pushed Tommy into his chair.  "Maybe you would
feel better if you had your cat.  We like cats here.  That’s why we brought
your cat with you."  He went into the other room and brought out Potter.
    Why is Potter so passive?  He doesn't usually let
strangers pick him up.
    "Why do you call him Potter?" Jack asked. 
"We don’t name our cats."
    "He has a white mark across his forehead, like the scar
on Harry Potter."
    Jack shrugged his shoulders.  "Well that don’t mean
nothing to me.  Here, take your cat."
    With Potter purring in his lap, Tommy did feel calmer.  Not
safe, but calmer.
    Jack's smile didn’t expose his teeth.  "I don't know
why you’re here.  I wasn't told.  We take older people, but we always return
them as soon as we're done with them, and you aren't to be returned."
    Tommy trembled.  “What could you want me for?  Except for
money, how could I have anything you want?”
    "I don’t know why the lords want you.  I was told to break
you in and give you something to do.  Everybody works here.  The lords have no
place for those who don’t.”  He said the last two sentences flatly, the way
Tommy’s mom always answered "Just because it is" to his questions.
    Tommy shook his head.  "Lords?  Who are the
lords?"
    "You'll learn that soon enough."  Jack stood up. 
"We might as well get this over with.  You won’t take it any easier if I
coddle you.  Bring your cat.  We won't be coming back.”  He opened a door on
the other side of the desk.  "Just down this passage is the path."
    Tommy wiped his eyes and nose on his shirttail and got up to
follow.  What else could he do?
    At the end of the passage, another door led into a room,
about the size of an elevator, with still another door on the opposite wall. 
Jack unsealed this with some difficulty, using an inset handle, and stepped
over a lip at the bottom.  When Tommy followed, his first impression was of an
enormous, dimly lit cavern smelling of rotting vegetation and animal
droppings.  Then he became aware of gigantic trees outlined in the glow.  Trees? 
In a cavern?
    "It’s night now, but the showers are finished, and the
lights will be coming on soon.  Almost everyone is asleep.  I’d be except for
you.  You’re trouble."  Jack's voice almost disappeared in the huge
space.  “Stay close, and be careful not to run into anything,” he chuckled, “or
step into anything.”
    As they walked, Tommy had to struggle to hold on to a
squirming Potter, but he wasn't going to lose the one thing that still anchored
him to home.
    A narrow path led from the door.  Tommy brushed against wet
bushes on both sides.  Overhead, he saw trees outlined in silhouette against
the softly glowing roof.  Something flew from one tree to another with a
whispered “whoot” that was muffled by the distant sound of moving water.  If
not for the roof overhead, he could have been in the Chattahoochee River Park
on a moonless night.  Even the roof reminded him of the glow of Atlanta's
lights against low-lying clouds.
    After they had walked for a while, the smell of animal
droppings grew stronger, and the narrow path ended in a wider path covered with
something that crunched under his feet.  Jack led the way to the right as the
roof brightened. 
    With the light, Tommy could see more of his surroundings, and
his uneasiness increased.  He jerked his