Folding his arms, Balidor looked at the Lao Hu infiltrator, assessing.
As of that morning, Ditrini had been approved for an interrogation protocol that included mind-altering drugs. Balidor himself made the call, and about three weeks earlier than he would have normally. According to the Adhipan’s ethical code, common decency and whatever else, Balidor would usually proceed in carefully escalating stages whenever a fellow seer required interrogation.
This time, he wasn’t feeling quite so courteous.
What he’d seen on the Lao Hu seer so far had not inclined him towards leniency in much of anything, really. Ditrini only seemed to revel in the fact that his thoughts made so many of them uncomfortable, and Balidor more than suspected he went of his way to intensify those reactions, particularly when it came to his very vivid memories involving Allie.
Balidor had known that not everything that occurred within the auspices of the ‘contract’ Allie signed with the Lao Hu had been strictly consensual. It may have started out that way, more or less, but after Allie killed Shadow’s employee, Gerwix, her status abruptly deteriorated inside Forbidden City’s walls. Balidor had also known, from Wreg and eventually Dehgoies himself, that part of that had involved Voi Pai giving Allie to Ditrini for a time.
What Balidor hadn’t realized, at least not until they captured Ditrini himself, was that Voi Pai allowed Ditrini to turn Allie into his own personal slave.
They’d taken the most revered soul of the seer race, and handed her around like some kind of toy, like an object of amusement...a party favor.
It sickened Balidor, to the point where he’d been forced to walk out himself more than once. It sickened him enough that he had to very carefully watch his own decision-making processes, when it came to how best to extract information out of Ditrini.
Maybe for the same reason, he had zero remorse about the drugs.
He was already preparing protocols that would involve using wires, too, and he’d only resorted to using those machines twice in his entire military career, at least on a fellow seer.
Anyway, they were running out of time. All of them felt it.
Things were getting ugly in China, and fast.
From preliminary reports, Beijing didn’t get the head’s up that New York and the other safety zones did, despite the supposed alliance between the Lao Hu and Shadow. The irony of that, given that Voi Pai’s attempts to stay in Shadow’s good graces largely accounted for her extremely poor treatment of the Bridge, was not lost on Balidor, but it didn’t exactly make him feel better about the risks China’s current situation posed.
Beijing’s water supply had been targeted right along with Shanghai, Chengdu and Guanzhou’s. From what Balidor had discerned from his contacts overseas, it might be too late for them to lock down any part of China at all, apart from Hong Kong, where there appeared to be another safe city set up, but without the involvement of the Chinese government at all.
Clearly, the Lao Hu and the human communist government were making a last ditch effort to preserve the Forbidden City, but Balidor had no idea if they would succeed, despite the near impregnability of the outer walls under normal conditions.
Balidor couldn’t help wondering what had turned Shadow so clearly against his Lao Hu ‘allies,’ and in such a seemingly short span of time. He and the rest of the Adhipan and Seven infiltrators had previously operated under the premise that the reason for much of Voi Pai’s odd behavior stemmed from the Lao Hu’s foreknowledge of some of these events, and a desire to be on the safe side of the quarantine walls when they came crashing down.
Now, Balidor wasn’t so sure.
Sighing a bit, Balidor brought his mind back to the present, and the senior infiltrator sitting in front of him.
Ditrini still hadn’t condescended to meet his gaze.
Well, not for this particular interview, anyway. Balidor could see the faint glass in the older seer’s eyes, though, and recognized the odd dips in his aleimi from the drugs. Even so, he couldn’t help but be grudgingly impressed with the other infiltrator’s resistance to the drug’s effects. No one would be able to resist them totally, of course, not even Dehgoies himself, but Ditrini was a reasonably close second.
Those eerie, mercury-colored eyes still held a sharp awareness, however.
Ditrini knew Balidor, of course.
Even if he didn’t remember him from their one and only in-person meeting before all of this, Ditrini would have been aware of Balidor, regardless. Since they’d begun these sessions, Balidor had discovered that Ditrini’s knowledge of Balidor’s own comings and goings over the years appeared to be fairly complete, and surprisingly accurate. He even seemed to know some personal details, which told Balidor that the Lao Hu infiltrators hadn’t been as indifferent towards the Adhipan’s inner circle as they pretended.
Balidor was still watching him warily, when a series of images flickered past his awareness, sharp enough that he actually winced.
When he glanced up that time, meeting those silver irises, the seer was smiling.
Balidor never really had a heart-to-heart with Allie about her time with the Lao Hu. Truthfully, he’d never really wanted to know that much about it, and he knew he wasn’t the only one. He certainly didn’t think he was the right person to help her with it, in any case.
Balidor suspected, just from things Dehgoies said here and there, that her husband hadn’t pressed her for details, either.
Balidor wasn’t entirely oblivious, however...or unobservant to Allie’s own reactions whenever the topic came up. He knew, for example, that Allie had been deeply unhappy during her time there. He’d picked up enough from her, when she let in stray thoughts or squashed unconscious associations, memories, or images, to know that much with absolute certainty. He’d felt trauma of some kind, too, the type of deeply hidden trauma that she might have closed herself off from feeling entirely, whether consciously or not.
Allie hadn’t once asked to speak to Ditrini, or even inquired about where they held him, since they acquired him on that boat in San Francisco. She hadn’t asked how the interrogations were going. She hadn’t even asked if he was still alive.
Those facts alone were telling enough.
Allie had a tendency to want to be involved in every aspect of their intelligence operations. At minimum, she would want to be kept up to date at the level of findings and overall progress. She’d wanted every piece of information they gleaned from Surli and even Raven in as real-time of a fashion as possible, and would actually come down on them pretty hard for withholding or delaying transmission of any new facts or even theories from their interrogations.
With Ditrini, she hadn’t asked him a single question. Not once.
When he’d tried to interview her to glean background on the Lao Hu infiltrator, she hadn’t exactly cooperated, either. Instead of agreeing to let him scan her, Allie directed Balidor to Wreg, to whom she claimed she’d told the basics.
Wreg did know a few things, it was true, but there had been some pretty significant gaps in his chronology of events. Even so, Wreg shared enough that Balidor had no doubt as to what he would be dealing with in Ditrini.
Wreg had his own opinions on the subject too, of course. He told Balidor in no uncertain terms that the guy was a sadist, one who got off on torturing female seers in particular, especially powerful ones. Wreg knew a few stories from his rebel contacts, too, so he was able to guess some of the areas where Allie might have been deliberately fuzzy with the details.
Balidor hadn’t scanned the Bridge outright to verify his suspicions, but if he had to guess, he would say that Allie was afraid of Ditrini...and truthfully, before now, Balidor would have said that Allie wasn’t afraid of much of anyone.
She hadn’t even been afraid of her husband while he was under the influence of the Dreng...or of Wreg, or even Salinse himself. She still seemed more pissed off at Shadow than afraid of him, unlike pretty much everyone else on their team, apart from maybe Jon.
But
Ditrini, Allie wanted no part of.
Strangely, Allie herself had been the one to give the order to bring him in, though, rather than kill him on the spot, as Balidor suspected Dehgoies would have done. Ever since then, she’d avoided any mention of the Lao Hu infiltrator’s name, however.
Balidor almost wondered if she preferred to think of him as already dead.
The more Balidor learned about Ditrini, the more he felt sympathetic to that sentiment. The realization that this bastard still got off on what he’d done to her, that he still enjoyed thinking about it and fantasizing about it, brought a disgust so deep that, at times, Balidor tasted bile at the back of his throat. Wreg told him that Ditrini would likely view breaking Allie as the culmination of his life’s work, given what he’d done to other powerful female seers in the past. He said it made total sense he would fixate on her, given his tastes. The fact that she’d already been bonded to another would only intensify his obsession with making her his.
It had been rare that he’d had an honest-to-gods psychopath under his care, but Balidor had no doubt that he was looking at one now.
Unfortunately, he also had a sight rank that rivaled Balidor’s own. The Lao Hu were cagey to the point of outright dishonesty about the rankings of their infiltrators, even deliberately adopting a system unlike that used by the rest of the seer world, just to obscure those abilities from view. Even so, Balidor had gotten pretty good at guessing over the years.
Ditrini’s rank was high. Eleven at least. Perhaps even twelve.
Higher than Varlan. Perhaps even higher than Dehgoies, and not only in actual.
Touching his headset, Balidor used the link to ping Tenzi in the Barrier.
Is Anale there yet? Yumi?
Yes, the seer answered at once. Loki, too.
Balidor nodded. Good, he sent. Tell them I appreciate their putting off their much-deserved breaks. Feed me anything that looks promising. Anything I miss.
Very good, Adhipan Balidor. Tenzi’s thoughts turned wryly humorous. Although it’s pretty hard to imagine one of us catching something you miss, sir...
Balidor smiled politely, inclining his head in the space, but it didn’t really touch his light. He needed them sharp, not assuming he didn’t need the backup.
He felt Tenzi notice his reaction, right before the businesslike cadence returned to the younger seer’s thoughts.
Of course we’ll be watching, sir. As carefully as we can...
I appreciate it, Balidor sent, letting his guard down that time. I’m as tired as the rest of you, and I confess, this dugra d’ aros pushes my buttons more than any seer in the last one hundred years. A part of me would as soon as shoot him as continue this little exercise...
Balidor felt Tenzi’s vehement agreement, even before it turned into words.
Let me know if you want my gun, he sent. I think the boss would only buy you a drink, if you did. Unless he’s got his heart set on doing it himself...
Balidor silently agreed.
He couldn’t help finding it amusing that the Adhipan and Seven infiltrators had taken to calling Revik ‘the boss’ in Mandarin, just like all of the ex-rebels. Allie, who was ultimately in charge, remained ‘The Bridge’ to both groups, but it wasn’t from a lack of respect. Really, she’d delegated most of the dissemination of commands to Revik, Wreg and Balidor himself, anyway, providing direction at the top levels almost solely. Most things got to Allie through Balidor, Dehgoies or Jon going the other direction, too.
More and more, access to her had to be limited.
That would only get worse, now that...
Ditrini broke out in a harsh, grating laugh.
The sound made Balidor flinch, just as it had the first time he heard it.
There was something deeply unsettling behind that laugh, and not only the flavor of triumph he could see in the Lao Hu infiltrator’s eyes.
"D'lanlente a guete..." Ditrini said in accented Prexci, his deep voice harsh, almost jarring, even with the smoothing of the drugs. "Thank you for showing her to me, brother...is that a sight for sore eyes..." His lips lifted in a thin smile that Balidor now knew, too. It appeared on the infiltrator’s face whenever the Bridge’s name came up. "When is he coming, anyway? The Illustrious Sword?"
His laughter devolved into a huskier chuckle.
"...Truthfully, I had thought I would see him next. Probably with a crowbar and a blowtorch. I was expecting quite a few rounds between us, long before he let me anywhere near our precious girl..."
Balidor bit his tongue, fighting not to curse at the other seer for the endearment alone.
Even so, he couldn’t quite make himself stay silent that time.
“If you think that the Esteemed Bridge will ever step foot anywhere near that door,” he said coldly. “You are deeply, deeply deluded, my brother.”
“Yes,” Ditrini said. “I heard that, too. Interesting theory. Trauma. Fear...” Studying Balidor’s face, likely for a reaction to his revelation, Ditrini winked at him then, his mercury-colored eyes still sharp through the drugs. “...I don’t know why. My precious girl knows I’d do anything she asked. Anything at all...”
Suppressing the desire to move his chair a few feet further away from the other seer, Balidor only clenched his jaw a little. Most of what he felt was irritation that time.
Glancing at the mirrored window, he gave a short nod.
He’s more emotional today, sir, Yumi volunteered through the open Barrier thread. ...He might be picking up on more than we’d like through the collar, but the drugs are definitely having an effect. It looks like most of his resistance is on the surface, so nothing close to the training the boss received from Menlim. He’s likely to react more than his surface appearance might suggest, too, if you were to goad him into a response...
Focusing back on the task at hand, Balidor sent a silent affirmative.
Record everything, he sent to Tenzi and Anale. ...Every second. I want the others to look this over when I'm done. Including the Sword. And Tarsi, when she gets back...
Tenzi sent a reassuring pulse. We're recording, he confirmed. Don’t let him rattle you, sir. We’ve already seen that he’s spooky good at guessing and letting us fill in the gaps. He might have felt the barest flavor of the Bridge, through that Lao Hu connection, and just extrapolated to get a reaction...he’s done it before... Tenzi added.
Balidor nodded perceptibly. Of course, he murmured.
Didn’t mean to presume, sir... Tenzi began, more hesitant that time.
No, no, Balidor said at once. I very much appreciate the reminder, brother. Thank you.
When Balidor refocused on Ditrini that time, the Lao Hu infiltrator was staring at his body with those dead, silver eyes. Before Balidor could speak, he felt a hard coil of pain leave the other seer’s light, invasive yet somehow cold. Ditrini shifted in his seat, spreading his legs enough that he clearly wanted Balidor to look down.
He didn't.
“You fucked her, too,” Ditrini observed. “She told me.”
Balidor folded his arms, without changing expression.
“She told me you were a narcissist,” Balidor said, although it had been Wreg who told him that, too. “She also said that you would likely bore me to death, talking about yourself. She said you rarely talked about anything else.”
Ditrini only smirked, his thin lips lifting a little as he inclined his head.
“Love and hate...it’s such a thin line...” he murmured.
Balidor’s eyes focused briefly where the other seer’s wrists and ankles had been bolted to a much heavier chair than the one they'd used with Surli. Also unlike Surli, they hadn't left any part of Ditrini’s body free to move more than a few centimeters in any one direction, not even his hips. His ankles, knees, elbows, upper arms, shoulders, chest, abdomen, hips and throat had all been secured with different types of locks and cuffs, each dead-metal, each with connected but separate links housing organics tied to the room's defense mechanisms, including and especially
the gas. It didn’t much matter if the collar didn't hold, when it came down to it. Ditrini wasn't going anywhere.
Still, the thought didn’t reassure Balidor as it should have.
As if following his assessment, the Lao Hu seer smiled. Unlike Wreg, or even Balidor himself, who were on different ends of middle age, Ditrini was edging into old age, even for a seer. Balidor didn't know his precise age, though, any more than he knew Ditrini’s exact sight rank, but he guessed Ditrini had over a hundred years on him, at least.
Ditrini hadn't been there the day the Sword took Allie out of the Forbidden City, a fact for which Balidor himself had been immensely grateful, even at the time.
"I suppose it's a nice change for her," Ditrini said, smiling that faint smile. "Me being the one tied up for a change."
Balidor brushed aside the images Ditrini thrust into the foreground of his thoughts.
Ignoring the seer’s words, too, Balidor let out a deliberately impatient sigh.
"I want to ask you a question, Ditrini of the Lao Hu," he said. "It would save us both a lot of time and trouble if you gave me the courtesy of a straight answer."
"Anything, my dear brother...anything at all." Ditrini smiled again, leaning back into the chains. His eyes flickered over Balidor again, his lip curling in that predatory smile. "...But you know the price, of course, my dear friend..." He inclined his head towards his own crotch, not taking his eyes off Balidor’s. “I talk only to her...and only after you strip off her clothes. Bring my precious girl to me, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know, brother...”
Balidor felt his jaw harden. "Brother Ditrini," he said coldly, hearing the edge creep back into his voice. "...What's going to happen is this. You tell me the truth or I, and my infiltrators, will know if you do not. If that happens, then I will have some of my people increase the dosage of drugs. We will spend approximately twenty-four hours on this approach. Then we will put you on wires, until you are ready to try having this conversation again...”
Ditrini’s smile widened. He was leaning back in the chair again then, remembering things loudly enough that it had to be deliberate.
Allie's War Season Three Page 98