Hidden Faults (16 page)

I thought I’d been in the prison about two months when two guards turned up again at the farm, looking for me. I was in the storeroom, enduring yet another bout of withdrawal, and barely registered what they wanted. They dragged me to my feet and forced me out of the storeroom, taking me out of the hydroponics area altogether. They made no concessions to my stumbling pace or my inability to walk upright for the pain, and it was all I could do to not puke as they hauled me along.

I couldn’t track where we went, except that I noticed when we entered an elevator and travelled some distance—up or down, I had no idea. When we emerged, the ground was carpeted. Offices, maybe. They took me to a room that looked a little like the conference room back at the labs, containing a long wooden table with chairs around it. They forced me into one of them, chained my legs to the chair and cuffed my hands, but then left me alone, shivering and cramping, head hanging down because the lights were too bright for me and made my eyes water uncontrollably.

A little while later, the door behind me opened, and I heard footsteps walking toward me on the carpet. Someone stood on the other side of the table from me. I looked up. Even with my blurry vision, there was no mistaking the tall, imposing figure in front of me.

“K-Kregan.” Had he come to help me?

“Sit up, prisoner.” Who was that? “Kregan, what the hell is wrong with him?”

Someone else, another man, stood behind me. I cringed at his yelling, but could do nothing to quell my convulsive trembling, my jerking against the restraints that had nothing to do with my desire to get away from this place.

“Withdrawal. Marra’s tits.” Clipped, angry tone, and then footsteps, door opening and closing. Was I alone again? I didn’t know. Made no difference to me.

Time passed, and despite everything, I started to doze, the energy involved in all the shaking wearing me out. I heard the door, more footsteps, and then someone jerked my head back by a grip on my jaw. Kregan again. He wiped my neck with something cold, and then I felt a hiss and a sharp sting against my jugular vein, which made me squirm and try to get away from him.

“Stay still, you bloody idiot. It’s only naksen.”

He removed the hypospray and stepped back. Within seconds, I felt the drug in my system, the shaking easing. The cramps would take a little longer to go. My brain started to work again, although sluggishly.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “Are you getting me out of here?”

“Hardly.” His voice was chilly. “Sir? He’s ready.”

Kregan moved to the other side of the table, and another man joined him, an older man with hatchet features and iron-grey hair, thinning on top. Never seen him before. I disliked him on sight. This was the owner of the shouting voice I’d heard earlier.

“Who are you?”

“Pregar Noret. Head of The National Security Force. Sit up, prisoner.”

I did my best, but they had me pretty tightly restrained. Kregan had on his most intense expression of disapproval as Noret continued.

“I’ll come to the point. You are a convicted terrorist, a covert paranormal. Under the laws of Pindone, your life is forfeit, should I choose. I could have you taken out and hanged this minute, and not a soul in the world could stop me. You understand me?”

“Yes. Sir, I—”

“
Be
quiet!
” I winced at the volume of his bellow. “I can do whatever I like with you. And if that means letting you rot in this place for the rest of your life, I can do that too. However, I have a use for you. What?”

I’d been shifting around in my seat, and he’d finally registered that I wanted something.

“Water?” The naksen made my mouth dry and really, after weeks in prison, this man’s bullying bluster didn’t impress me at all. It made me tired, trying to concentrate on his angry words, and I doubted it was worth the effort.

“Don’t push your luck, Jodimai.” That was Kregan.

“Just thirsty, sir. What do you want?” I asked Noret.

“A bit more respect, for a start.”

I looked at him, almost wanting to laugh. I was past the point of cringing in fear at thugs like him. I let the sedating effect of the naksen float away my anxiety. It was all it was good for, really.

“Kregan, I thought you said—”

“Sir, please. Perhaps if you just told him.”

“Huh. Very well.” He folded his arms and glared at me. “I’m offering you a role in Security. We have a very small group of criminals with special skills—paranormals like yourself—whom the government has determined can still contribute to the welfare of the country. It would be a chance to repay your debt to society.”

“W-work? For you?” I glanced at Kregan—no clues from him at all. His expression hadn’t changed. “Doing what?”

“Matters arising from security issues. Covert operations against hostile foreign states, or against internal enemies. That kind of thing.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes, looking at Kregan instead.

“You mean...be a weapon for Pindone?”

He huffed a bit. “Well, yes. If you want to see it that way.”

“Killing people?”

“Possibly. Under strictly controlled cond—”

“No.” I blinked slowly, thinking my answer over and finding no reason to revise it. “Can I have some water, please?”

He half rose out of his seat. “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“No. I don’t want to kill. I’d still be a prisoner, right?”

“Of course. But you would have certain privileges, certain liberties. You wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t be on naksen.”

His voice took on a slight wheedling tone, and that decided me—though the temptation was strong, so very strong. It helped that I didn’t like him at
all.

“No. I’m a doctor. I don’t kill people. I don’t fight, and if I’m going to be a prisoner, at least I know I’m not hurting anyone if I stay here. Can I have some water?”

Noret leaned forward and actually struck me across the face with his clenched fist, splitting my top lip. The pain shocked the breath out of me, and it was some seconds before I could get past that and affect a sneer.

“That supposed to convince me?”

“You arrogant fool! Kregan, talk to him!”

He got up and stalked away across the room. Kregan didn’t move, regarding me with his strange eyes.

“I lied to Ajeile,” I mumbled, swallowing some of the blood trickling from my lip. So damn thirsty—would it kill them to give me a glass of water? “I tricked her. She didn’t know I was homosexual.”

“Yes, she said. I’m extremely disappointed in you, Jodi.”

“Didn’t lie about the other thing. You have to believe me.” He didn’t say anything. “You won’t help me?”

“You want help, I suggest you do what Pregar Noret wants. There’s nothing I can do for you.”

“You’re a doctor. How can you ask me to do this?”

“Pindone needs the help paranormals can give it. Certain paranormals. I thought you were more stable than most.”

I grinned at him, showing him the blood on my teeth. “I’m crazier than I was.”

“
Oh, for Marra’s sake.” Noret stomped back over to the table, and shook me by the shoulder. “You’re wasting my time. Go back to your cell, prisoner. I can wait. I’ve been in this security game for a very, very long time. A few months, even a few years, waiting for you to see sense, is nothing to me.
You’re
nothing to me. Your only value is your paranormal powers. If you won’t use those in the service of our country, then you can die here. Kregan, we’re leaving.”

He walked to the door. Kregan got to his feet, then looked down at me from his great height.

“Jodi—this really is the only chance you’ll have of getting out of here.”

“Yes. I understand. I’m not a killer, sir.”

Did I imagine the very slight sympathy in those cold eyes? Probably. Kregan hated dishonesty, and I’d apparently practiced a dreadful deception on him. He turned away and followed Noret to the door. I started to shake again—nothing to do with the drug, simply pure adrenaline reaction. I had a feeling I’d very quickly regret my decision, but it felt good to make an active choice that really was a choice. A costly and probably pointless choice, but it meant a lot to me. I felt a tiny bit more powerful than I had before I’d been brought into the room.

A minute or so after they left, the guards came in and unchained me, then took me back to the farm. Ganwe immediately noted that I wasn’t in withdrawal any more.

“Don’t even think about using me today,” I growled at him. I knew how his mind worked.

He pursed his lips and glanced around to see who could overhear us. “Watch your mouth, Jodi.”

“No. I don’t think I will.”

I walked into the storeroom and found my usual spot to hide, beside a stack of crates, under a couple of old sacks. It gave me the illusion of privacy and warmth when I was in withdrawal, if not the reality. A couple of minutes later, Ganwe came in after me and crouched in front of me.

“Anyone asks, I was the one who belted you,” he said, touching my face.

I jerked away from his hand.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. Nothing happened, nothing’s changed. Except I’m getting really sick of sucking cock to increase your supply of sweets, Ganwe. I think that’s going to stop.”

He grabbed the front of my overalls and dragged me up close. “That ain’t the reason. And if’n you don’t work for me, I’m throwing you back to the rest of them. No one shares my cell if’n they don’t work for me. You’ll make me look bad.”

“Can’t have that, can we?” I laughed, a tad hysterically, right in his face.

I expected to be hit, but he frowned, then let me go, pushing me back almost gently against the wall. “Tell me what happened. Who belted you?”

“Oh, just the head of the National Security Force. He wants me to work for him. As an assassin.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Huh.”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“Well. Stands to reason, don’t it? You got something the Nats need. They want you to be their boy.”

“Like you want me. They gave me a choice too.” I looked him in the eye. “I turned them down. I’m turning you down. I’m sick of this. You can beat me up, you can kill me. No more.”

“That the worse you can think up? Being beaten up? Being dead? How about crippled, Jodi? How about having to shit through a tube for the rest of your life? How about losing an arm or a leg, or being blinded?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“No. Cos basically, it ain’t worth it. But I throw you back out there, you been my boy, you think them others gonna go easy on you?”

“I don’t care.”

He shook me by the shoulders. “Yes, you do. You will. By the time you wished you listened to me, it’ll be too late. I don’t understand your problem. You like sucking cock, don’t ya? Being a deev?”

I regarded him in sheer disbelief. “Are you out of your mind? That’s like asking a woman if she likes being raped because she enjoys sex with men. Please don’t tell me you’re stupid enough to believe that, because I don’t think you are.”

He scratched his head and appeared genuinely confused by my answer. “I guess I thought it was different for men. For deevs, anyway.”

Good grief. “No, it’s not. And another thing—how much more naksen do you owe the guards?”

“Fourteen myclits. If I don’t pay, they’ll take you out again. I ain’t gonna—”

“Shut up, Ganwe,” I said tiredly. “I want you to pay it off faster. Take the maximum out, get it over and done with. And then no more. You don’t take any more from me.”

He regarded me thoughtfully, and without anger, which surprised me. I’d expected an explosion. “You’ll be sick almost every day, Jodi. And I need that naksen for other deals—”

I grabbed him by his overalls and dragged him close. He blinked in surprise, too shocked to belt me, fortunately.

“Listen to me. You don’t get it. It’s over. No more cock sucking, no more naksen thieving. You don’t scare me any more. So kill me or shut up. I’m not a possession. Not for them, not for you.”

He pulled my hands off his clothes, but he still didn’t swing at me. “So you’re ready to be a boss yourself, is that it? Cos you only got two choices in here—boss or boy. Ready for all that means?”

“Not playing, Ganwe.”

“
This ain’t no
game
, you stupid fuck! This is life and death stuff. I do like you say, cut you loose, you either have to be a boss or you’re gonna get eaten! Jodi, I’m trying to stop you making a stupid mistake. If you wanted out so bad, why didn’t you take up their offer?”

“What’s the thing you want most in life? Money? Freedom? A beautiful woman? Big house?”

He sat back on his haunches, clearly bewildered by the sudden change in topic. “All of them, I guess.”

“Would you do anything to get them?” He was still confused. “If I said, hey, Ganwe, here’s the key to a house and a million in the bank, and this fabulous looking girl will do anything you ask her to, would you fuck someone to get it?”

“Sure.”