by Jes Battis
“We need to get ahold of that doctor. Rashid.”
I frowned. “They said they were holding him for questioning. I thought Ru wiped his memory, though.”
“He may have left something behind. And if he did, we’re in trouble.”
“But there’s only so much damage Rashid could possibly do, right? I mean, if he starts talking about a centaur demon, they’ll just say that he’s nuts.”
“Maybe. But we don’t want to take any chances. As soon as he’s released from custody, we need to track him.”
“You know, he actually held his own pretty well back at the morgue. He came at the demon with a Stryker saw. Nearly cut its scalp off.”
She chuckled. “Probably just adrenaline. It wasn’t easy keeping the Kentauros sedated. We all took turns. I even called in some of the trainees, just to lend power.”
“What did you do? Sink its central nervous system?”
“We couldn’t shut it down completely. But we used ultrasonic bombardment to give it constant reboots. Every time we hit the amygdala and lower brain, we managed to trigger the autonomic nervous system, which overrides the higher functions. But first we had to find the amygdala. That took a while.”
“So it’s under conscious sedation.”
“It’s about to wake up. Pissed.”
We took the elevator to the subbasement level. The concrete walls were a mixture of dense particulate and extruded materia, created by power far beyond anything I knew. The woven strands of materia resembled filaments of quartz that provided constant resonance, like a murmuring hive. The air was thin, and very cold.
Selena swiped her key card, and we stepped into the interrogation chamber. The air inside was even colder, and crackling with static electricity. There was a broad steel table in the center of the room, with a chair on either side. The Kentauros demon was slumped in one of the chairs, seemingly still unconscious.
I noticed a length of gold chain looped around the demon’s throat and anchored to a fixture on the floor. As I looked more closely at the chain, its links seemed to move of their own accord, shifting in and out of focus.
“There’s no partition. And we’re the only ones here.” I stared at Selena. “Why are we alone with it?”
“Well, that’s the rub. We can restrain its body, but it has to be conscious while we’re questioning it. If it’s conscious, we can dampen its psychic abilities, but we can’t block them entirely. So filling the interrogation chamber with vulnerable minds didn’t seem like the best idea.”
“And you thought my mind would be a fortress?”
“No.” She looked slightly guilty. “I mean, you’re well trained. You’re a senior agent, and you’ve dealt with psychic assaults before. But that’s not why I chose you.”
“Then—” I blinked. “Oh. I get it. My genetic material. Even if it’s diluted, it still makes me resistant. And it gives us a certain sympathy.”
“None of that has ever been completely proven, of course. But I’m willing to bet that it’s going to do something for you. It can’t possibly hurt.”
“I feel kind of manipulated.”
“That’s only natural.” She almost smiled.
“Are we sitting next to each other?”
“No. I’m sitting. You’re standing. I want you near enough to see its face, but well out of striking range.”
“Great.”
Selena sat in the chair across from the demon. She extended her hand slowly forward. When it reached the middle of the table, the air around her fingers made a popping noise. She withdrew her hand quickly, and blue sparks danced in the space where it had been. I smelled ozone.
“Baryon field,” she said. “We changed the flavor of its quarks to make it nasty. It’s got a small radius, but it’s highly effective on anything with soft tissue.”
The demon was stirring. It coughed. The sound was so pedestrian. Then its equine half started to twitch. Its hooves scraped against the concrete floor. Its head snapped up, eyes open wide.
It snarled something that was all spittle and consonants.
“Good morning,” Selena said.
The demon tried to lunge forward, but the chain held it in place. It touched the links around its neck, eyes widening in astonishment.
“What is this?”
Selena folded her hands on the table. “Supposedly, it’s designed after the chain that held Fenris, the wolf who devoured the moon. I think our version is made of a mystical polymer, though.”
“Am I supposed to be impressed?”
“Maybe a little.”
“And you think this curtain of particles will stop me from killing you?”
“I think it’s a safer bet than Plexiglas. And you don’t actually want to kill me. If you kill me, you’re trapped here forever. How many lifetimes do you want to spend in a maximum-security basement? It would get pretty boring after the first century.”
It smiled suddenly. “You look exhausted. Have you been up all night?”
“Yes. I’m very dedicated.”
“How long do you think all of this will hold me?”
“We’re not sure yet.”
“It’s quite a risk you’re taking. You must need information badly.”
“Are you interested in working out a deal?”
“Sure. Until I discover a gap in your defenses. After that, I’ll kill everyone in this building, starting with her.”
Its golden eyes held me. I swallowed.
“You won’t be the first who’s tried. I can pencil you in, if you like.”
“You smell familiar.” Its eyes narrowed as it looked at me. “Sometimes you mixed-bloods reek of ambergris. But you’re different.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Yes. Considering the fact that the rest of you, the human half of you, smells of decaying matter and garbage. Your entire civilization smells, like spoiled meat. It’s difficult just to be in the same room with you.”
“We’ll get you an air freshener,” Selena said. “In the meantime, maybe you can breathe through your mouth and answer a few questions.”
“Of course. I have absolutely nothing better to do.”
“Excellent. Let’s start with your name.”
“Basuram.”
“Age?”
“Irrelevant.”
“Just ballpark it. A thousand? Are we talking pre–Dark Ages?”
“Yes.”
“Late antiquity?”
“More or less. Although, as far as I’m concerned, your entire civilization has been one long, depressing dark age. You’re very far behind most respectable life-forms.”
Selena wrote something down. “You work for the Ferid, correct?”
Basuram stiffened slightly. “We don’t work for them. We manage their forces.”
“And you’re satisfied with that relationship.”
“For now. There are benefits. We’re well compensated for our service.”
“Why are the Ferid after Ru?”
It smirked. “Ru? Is that what he told you his name was? I suppose that is the closest approximation.”
“Ru described a place called Ptah’l. Have the Ferid made contact there?”
“The Ferid are everywhere.”
Selena flexed her shoulders. “I’m not interested in every place they’ve set down roots. I just want to know what they’re doing in Ptah’l.”
“What they’re doing,” Basuram said, “is none of your concern.”
“Actually, it’s a pretty big concern. If Ru is a refugee, we’ll need to take steps in order to guarantee his safety.”
“What you call Ru is a criminal. He’s wanted in multiple worlds.”
“What crime has he been convicted of?”
“Sedition. Grand theft. And attempted murder.”
“Murder of whom?”
“The Ferid chancellor.”
“Was this chancellor performing experiments on them?”
Basuram laughed. “Do you believ
e whatever a child with fangs tells you? He’d say anything to protect his coconspirators.”
“Shouldn’t they also have the chance to stand trial in a court of law?”
“We were collecting them for just that purpose. Every member of the terrorist cell received a summons to the Highest Court. But when we arrived to transport them, they attacked us. The boy escaped. The others died.”
“I don’t see why that had to happen,” Selena said. “Judging from Ru’s physiology, your species vastly outpowers his own. You should have been able to subdue them without killing them. Unless someone got whip-happy. Maybe it started out as a routine maneuver, but then everything fell apart.”
The demon shrugged. “It’s meaningless. Ru is in your space now, and he needs to be returned to ours, so that he can face the court.”
Selena looked at her papers. “As far as we can tell, we’ve never encountered your species before. So we don’t have a formal treaty with you. But other demonic communities have agreed to recognize our world as an asylum space. As long as Ru remains here, he should be safe and unharassed.”
“What others? If they’ve managed to convince you of something so ludicrous, they must want something from you.”
“So you’re not interested in being our new neighbor.”
“I’ll sign nothing and promise nothing. My mission is to extract the boy, and as soon as I can do that, I will.” It leaned forward. Selena didn’t move, but I felt her body react slightly. A nervous twitch.
“You know as well as I do,” Basuram said, “this motte-and-bailey shithouse you call a ‘facility’ won’t hold me for long. I can hear the sinus rhythm of every human being on this floor. I can smell the odor of their fear and taste the disgusting buccal texture of their throats. The moment I break this chain, I will rush through each floor like a bloody wave, killing anything and everything I touch. And I’ll accomplish it in less than five minutes.”
“ ‘Bloody wave.’ I’ve written that down.” She met the demon’s gaze. “You don’t have to convince me that you’re a fine killing machine. I know that. I’m afraid of you, and you know that, too. Most living things must be afraid of you. But I’m not intimidated, and that’s the difference. Threatening me won’t help you.”
This time she leaned forward. I couldn’t believe it. Her eyelashes were practically touching the baryon field. I could hear it humming. Basuram looked at her with great interest.
“Because,” she said, “even if you manage to get off this floor, our backup defenses will come sweeping down on you. And that is a world of hurt. You don’t think we’ve stolen technology from your kind in the past? We’ve even improved some of it. We’ve got weapons that will liquefy your spinal column. There’s one that turns your insides into a Crock-Pot and then kills you at a slow boil. If you don’t believe me, read my mind. It’s wide-open.”
Basuram stared at her for a moment. Then it smiled. “I believe you. There’s a considerable chance that I won’t make it out of the building. But as soon as you kill me, two more will take my place. Eventually, we’ll overrun you.”
“I’m not sure about that. There’s a lot of us.”
“Then we’ll kill all of you.”
“It’s not going to happen. We both know that.”
It licked its lips. “All right. So you have a few contacts. It doesn’t matter. You can’t withstand what the Ferid will throw at you.”
“Do you believe everything they tell you?”
“I’ve seen what they can do, and there’s a reason they don’t mingle with your kind. It’s because they don’t even give one percent of a shit about your species.”
It seemed to be staring at both Selena and me at the same time. I believed that it could be in two places at once. Its mind seemed to weigh upon me from all directions. I could feel it seeping through the cracks in me, tonguing the grooves of my defenses, just looking for a way in.
All I had to do was relax my guard for one second, and its will would slip into me like a curl of steam. It would even be sweet-smelling at first, relaxing, like settling into a warm bath. Then I’d go numb.
After that, it would have control of my body. Just a heavy pinch, like the dental needle passing into your gum, swiftly, a flash of silver and the feeling of sudden coldness. The tug of anesthetic. Then the undulating swell of you, everything that was you, spreading out slowly in a blank pool. And once the pool dispersed, you were gone.
Basuram was staring at me again. “Where do I know you from?”
I tried not to look at it. “Maybe we went to school together.”
I didn’t like the pressure of its eyes. But I couldn’t look away. I kept breathing, kept covering my defenses. There couldn’t be any weak spots. It sensed what I was working on, but didn’t push too hard. It was still playing with me.
“Your odor makes me remember something.” Its eyes widened. “I recognize it now. You’re his daughter.”
Selena looked at me sharply.
I swallowed. “Whose daughter?”
Basuram leaned back with a smile. “If you don’t know his name, I’m not going to be the one to tell you. But I can see the resemblance now. It’s undeniable.”
“Tell me his name.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Are you afraid of him?”
“Yes.”
I approached the table. “Tell me.”
“Tess.” Selena gave me a warning look. “Let me handle this.”
“I’d much prefer you let Tess handle it.” Basuram was smiling. “I can’t believe I’m looking at you in the flesh. His own daughter. And you weren’t even hard to find.”
“How do you know him? What is he? One of the Ferid?”
“What are you willing to give up for that information?”
“Do not answer that.” Selena glared at me. “Tess, you need to leave.”
“Not until he tells me—”
Basuram moved so fast that its arm was a blur. One second it was standing still. Then its hand plunged through the curtain of force that separated them. The baryon field devoured its hand, stripping the flesh and muscle tissue. It kept reaching, until its hand was almost entirely skeletonized.
I don’t know how Selena anticipated it, but she managed to move out of the way. Its ruined fingers closed over empty air. Snarling, it withdrew its hand. The flesh was already regenerating.
Selena hit the intercom button on the far wall. “Reactivate it!” she yelled.
I felt a subtle vibration in the air. Nothing changed, but Basuram’s eyes suddenly went blank. It stood absolutely still for a moment, hanging like an aimless puppet. Then its body slumped over the table. Its eyes remained open.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Selena.
“It was goading you. Just smoke and mirrors.”
“All of it?”
“Come on, Tess. I doubt it knows your father. Basuram was messing with you. It sensed that you’re mixed-blood, and it wanted to manipulate you.”
“Are you sure? We thought Ru was telling the truth, and now he may be hiding a weapon on us.”
“I don’t think either of them are telling the truth. And they’ll keep lying until it profits them not to. For now, all we can do is explore every possibility.”
We exited the interrogation room. Selena sealed it behind us. The elevator doors opened just as we were reaching the end of the hallway, and a group of agents poured out, all carrying athames.
“Don’t wake it up,” Selena said simply. “Call me once it’s been transported.”
They nodded and filed past us.
“What if something goes wrong?” I asked her.
She stepped into the elevator with me. “Something already has gone wrong. We’ve got one demon that we won’t be able to hold for long, another who’s probably lying to us, and a security leak on top of it all.”
The doors closed. I leaned against the paneled wall. “You want me to check up on Rashid tonight? It may be tricky if he’s still in custody.”
“No. It can wait until tomorrow morning.”
That was good. I had to meet with Mr. Corvid soon. I hadn’t seen Corvid since the demon had given me Hex two years ago. It promised to be an interesting conversation.
“For now,” Selena said, “I need you to come look at Ru’s test results.”
“Something weird?”
“That doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
“Can we get something to eat first? I’m starving.”
Selena looked like she was about to say no. Then she blinked suddenly. “I wouldn’t mind that, actually. I’ve barely eaten anything.”
“I have an apple in my bag.”
“I’ve got some instant oatmeal packets in my office. And soda crackers.”
“That sounds amazing.”
7
When we got to the serology lab, we saw Linus standing over a gas chromatograph, his back turned to us. He placed something in the injector port and switched on the heat. The chemicals grew volatile as they were heated, separating from one another. Then a rush of carrier gas swept them away in a stream. When they reached the chromatography oven inside the heart of the machine, they would enter their own steel capillary column and begin to simmer.
Linus turned to face us. His blond hair was getting longer, and I wondered if he was growing it out, or if he’d just forgotten to cut it. Sometimes I liked shoulder-length hair on guys. It was tricky, though. It had to be well kept. And Linus obviously took care of his hair. It was so shiny that I wanted to touch it.
“Liking the jeans,” I said.
He didn’t quite smile, but I saw the pleasure in his face. “Thank you.”
“Did you process that last round of samples?” Selena asked.
“Nearly.”
“ ‘Nearly,’ as in, you’ll be done in the next hour?”
“No. Each test has its own quirks. If you want a detailed restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, you have to deal with the time-consuming process of electrifying a plate of gel and plotting out the numbers yourself. It’s not fast food.”
“The STRs must be almost done, though. Short tandem repeat testing is always a lot faster than—”
