The White Assassin by Hilary Wagner Page A

Billycan looked at Dorf hopefully. “Do you think I could be like them someday … a great leader?”
    “Billy, listen to me closely,” said Dorf firmly. “You don’t want to be anything like them.”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “I know it’s hard to understand, but being a true leader has nothing to do with what you can take from others—”
    “Why not?” asked Billycan. “Leaders become leaders by being tough and breaking rules, letting no one stand in their way.”
    Dorf sighed. “Oh dear, how do I explain this to you …” Dorf shifted uncomfortably. “Billy, I didn’t mean—”
    “Dorf, would you call me by my new name?”
    Dorf lay back down. “Certainly … Billycan. I’ll tell you what, let’s chat about all this in the morning. I think you tookmy words a bit too literally. I’ve a lot to explain to you, but I’m simply too weary now. These shots are becoming too much to bear.”
    “All right,” said Billycan dismally. “Good night.”
    “Oh, now don’t be disappointed,” said Dorf. “We’ll talk tomorrow. I promise. Now off to sleep. Sweet dreams.”
    “Sweet dreams, Dorf.”
    As the panels of lights flickered on one by one, the lab quickly filled with the smell of coffee and sugary pastries. That meant morning. The humans had arrived.
    “Dorf, are you awake?” asked Billycan through the window.
    “Yes, I’m awake.”
    Billycan peered down at him, watching him stretch lethargically. “Why are you so much smaller than me and the other rats?”
    Dorf smiled. “Believe it or not, I’m actually a normal size for a rat. I’m just small compared to you because I wasn’t born in Trillium.”
    “Why would that make you smaller than me?”
    “Well, that’s the question. I don’t think anyone knows why. It seems all Trillium-born creatures are slightly different from others of their kind. Rumor has it, Trillium creatures were here long before the humans arrived. Something in Trillium has permanently changed all the animals—for the better.”
    “Is that why I keep getting bigger?”
    “I believe so, along with the shots. I’ve never seen even a Trillium-born rat grow as fast as you. You’re already nearly as big as an adult. I noticed it with the other white rats, too—the ones born in the lab, not the adults captured from thestreets. I heard the lab techs mention it. They said the drug is affecting the young ones’ growth.” He glanced down at his flank. “I’m far too old to grow any more; in fact lately I feel ancient. This was not how I intended to spend my old age … not in a place such as this.”
    “Dorf, how old are you?”
    “Well, I’m not exactly sure, but compared to the average Trillium rat I’m almost certainly quite young. Just as Trillium rats grow larger than rats like me, they live much longer—much longer indeed. Where I was born, a rat’s life is quite short, but you, Billycan, you were born here. From what I’ve learned, you’ll live fifty, sixty years, possibly much longer.” He nodded toward a pair of lab techs, both hunched over rows of test tubes. “Why, you’ll live as long as they.”
    “Sometimes I feel like I can live forever. That nothing can stop me,” said Billycan. “When I leave this place I’ll become a great leader.”
    “Yes,” said Dorf, twitching his whiskers. “Billycan, we need to address this leader talk. What I told you about being a leader … I did say those things, about not listening to anyone and not letting anyone stand in your way, but we should never hurt another creature in order to get what we want.”
    “But you told me we need to be strong to survive. The weak creatures that stand in my way are going to die soon enough. What does it matter if I am the one who kills them? I’d just be speeding things up.”
    “Billycan, wouldn’t you feel bad taking the lives of other creatures—other rats?”
    “But the weak don’t deserve to live. As you said, only the strong survive. So no, I suppose I wouldn’t feel