Lily was too. Grabbing a spoon, she began tucking into the stew; there were neither knives nor forks. ‘It’s actually not bad,’ she said. ‘Not exactly up to Twill’s standards, but I might mention these biscuits to her. Interesting change.’
Ceri sat down after a couple of gulps of water and started eating. ‘Could you read them?’ she asked. Lily nodded. ‘So that explains the screening. Magical senses work okay and they don’t want us detecting anything outside the room.’
Lily nodded. ‘It did seem like overkill.’
Reluctantly, Nita joined them at the table. Her first mouthful of food seemed to remind her of how hungry she was. Ceri watched her bolt her food for a second. ‘Well, if it is drugged, we’ll be able to tell when Nita falls over.’
Stopping mid-chew, Nita looked at her with a pained expression, and then continued shovelling food into her mouth.
~~~
Exactly how long it was before the shield finally rose up behind the meshed window was difficult to determine. The lights were always on and the only breaks from the tedium were the random meals brought in by the guards. They always got stew and biscuits, so that was no indication of the time of day, but they were given three more meals before the shield went up.
Behind the glass were two men in non-descript grey suits, both wearing sunglasses; Ceri almost laughed. One was a bit older than the other. Both looked fit. FBI or CIA, maybe Secret Service. Ceri doubted they were going to identify themselves.
‘Oh!’ Lily said in mock surprise. ‘Visitors. Isn’t that nice?’
The men ignored her, but the older one leaned forward and pressed a button. ‘Doctor Ceridwyn Brent, you have been indicted for Treason. Specifically that you attempted to murder the current President, George Wilson on January thirtieth. Do you have anything to say?’ The sound came from speakers hidden somewhere near the ceiling.
Ceri sighed. ‘You have perfectly good evidence to say I didn’t, so how about you tell me why you’ve been so enthusiastic in trying to get me onto American soil?’
The man leaned forward and pressed the button again before turning to his colleague. Ceri was surprised they actually needed to consult on the matter. The speakers were turned on again. ‘Who are you working for, Doctor Brent?’
‘I work for the University College of London’s thaumatology department, and I have a second job as a waitress at the Jade Dragon in London. The second one pays better.’
‘We know you’re working for Chinese Intelligence…’
Ceri laughed. ‘No you don’t. First, I’m not. Second, you have no evidence to that effect which stands up to investigation or my own government would have locked me up by now. And third, don’t ask questions you know the answers to, it makes you look stupid.’
‘Do you really think you should annoy them?’ Nita said in a low voice.
‘Do you really think anything we do is going to make matters worse?’ Lily replied.
‘We have been given wide leeway in the methods of persuasion we use in obtaining the information we want,’ Older Guy said.
‘Well since I didn’t attempt to assassinate Wilson,’ Ceri said, ‘and I’m not working for the Chinese, and you know that, you also know that you’re going to have to move on to the electrodes and thumbscrews fairly soon. I suspect you’re going to enjoy it because only someone who’s a perverted freak tortures someone to get them to say something they know is false.’
Ceri watched the older man’s face tighten. His colleague showed no sign of emotion at all. The speaker was cut off as the shield began to settle back into place.
‘Well, that went well?’ Ceri said.
‘They’re going to torture us?!’ Nita squeaked. She really was quite a good actress.
‘Probably just me,’ Ceri said. ‘Again.’
‘Again?!’ Nita’s voice was getting higher.
‘She gets tortured a lot,’ Lily said. ‘She’s practically an expert. I just get people altering my memories.’
Nita looked between them frantically. ‘Who are you people? What have you got me into? How the Hell am I going to get home? What are you g-nnnnnnggggg…’ Her hysterics faded as Lily cranked up her defensive aura to full power and she dissolved into a puddle on the bed.
Ceri looked at Lily. ‘What?’ Lily said. ‘She was annoying me.’
‘Actually I was thinking that your aura still works.’
‘Good point... You’re fascinated by this place aren’t you?’ Lily’s voice was half accusation and half amused.
‘I’ve never even seen a null-magic zone, Lil. The research I could do here…’
Lily giggled. ‘Research in the face of torture. That’s my Mistress.’
~~~
They came perhaps two hours later, it was still hard to tell. Two guards entered the room, covering Lily and Nita, followed by two more, one armed, the other pushing a high-tech, stainless steel wheelchair.
‘Doctor Brent, please sit here?’ the man pushing the chair said.
‘I’m quite capable of walking,’ Ceri replied, standing up.
‘Sit down,’ the man repeated. Shrugging, Ceri complied. It was not actually uncomfortable until they tightened the waist strap and cuffed her wrists and ankles down.
Ceri looked at Lily, trying not to let the terror which was building show. It was not going to do any good, their bond was still working. Ceri could feel Lily’s anxiety… ‘I’ll be right back, love,’ Ceri said.
‘I’ll be waiting,’ Lily replied as the chair was rolled out of the room.
The corridors were as plain and unmarked as the rooms. Ceri was wheeled down one to a door, pushed into the room beyond and steered into a position where she was left facing a metal screen which looked like it actually divided the room in two rather than being a real wall. The brakes were set and the men left her alone. She was expecting someone to come in and begin the stuff with the matches under her fingernails, but nothing happened for what seemed like hours.
The door opened and the younger of the two men who had been behind the window walked in. He took something about the size of a mobile phone out of his jacket and showed it to her. Ceri looked at the gadget, which had a dial and a single button on it, and then at him, raising an eyebrow.
‘This,’ Young Guy said, ‘is a device someone at MIT invented. Well, actually someone at Langley developed this based on MIT research into neural induction. They were trying to create a computer interface which would talk directly to your brain.’
‘Interesting, but electronics and computer interfaces are not exactly my speciality.’
‘Let me demonstrate.’ He placed the head of the device against Ceri’s left arm and pressed the button. Ceri screamed. It felt as though someone were playing a blowtorch over her skin, but it stopped as suddenly as it had started, leaving her panting. ‘Are you ready to tell me who you’re working for?’ Young Guy asked.
‘You know who I work for. I’m not going to start lying so you’ll go away this early in the game.’
‘We did some research on you, Doctor,’ he said. ‘That’s why we have Miss Carpenter here. Your friends used her to trace you last time. We read the reports on your experience with this “Witch Hunter,” you’ve been through torture before and withstood it. I’m quite sure we can break you, but I believe there’s an easier way.’ He turned toward the steel wall and it started to retract into the ceiling. Beyond it was Nita, strapped into another wheelchair, but she had a large, red, ball gag strapped tightly into her mouth. She looked terrified. ‘I believe,’ Young Guy said, ‘that you will find it far more difficult to resist watching someone else receiving the treatment instead of you.’
‘Look… whatever your name is,’ Ceri said, ‘tell me what you actually want? We both know you don’t want to know who I work for, because you know who I work for, and it’s not Chinese Intelligence.’
Young Guy walked over to Nita, pressing his device to her arm. She was screaming, the sound turned into a muffled groan by the gag. Her body bucked a
gainst the straps. It looked like he had turned the power up. He looked back at Ceri. ‘Who do you work for, Doctor Brent?’
‘Are you fucking nuts?!’
Reaching out, he yanked the zip down on Nita’s jumpsuit and placed the device against one of her breasts. ‘Who do you work for?’
Ceri sagged. ‘Sorry, Nita. I really don’t know what they want.’
The dusky-skinned woman looked imploringly across the room at Ceri; it was almost as if she was really being tortured. Then the dark eyes rolled back in her head and she was screaming into the gag again.
~~~
‘I’m not sure about this,’ Ceri whispered. She was lying on her bunk, curled up beside Lily. Nita was on the other side of the room, sobbing into her pillow. Lily had tried to comfort her but had been rejected. If the CIA agent was acting, she was going for an award. ‘I’m not sure she’s faking.’
‘I don’t know,’ Lily said softly. ‘Her desires are confused. She’s still got it in the back of her mind to get in with us. She wants us, y’know, in bed. She wants to never go through that again.’
‘You think they really tortured her?’
‘Yes, but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.’
‘Huh?’ Ceri frowned. She had just watched a woman being driven to the point of insanity for… well, a long time. Her brain was not functioning that well and her ability to determine motives was right out the window.
‘They came and took her after you, and left me here to think. I suppose they could have wanted to isolate me and make me worry, but, well, if they wanted you to break watching someone being tortured, wouldn’t it have been better to take me?’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
‘So they take her, hurt her in front of you, and you sympathise with her.’
‘Crap,’ Ceri growled. ‘So that gets us nowhere.’
‘Not really. I don’t know why they want you to say you’re a Chinese spy, but they’re going to keep doing this until they get what they want. They probably will take me next.’
‘And I’ll feel most of what you do. Besides, I couldn’t stand watching that happen…’
‘Then we need to tell them what they want. Maybe then they’ll tell us what they really want.’ She paused. ‘I was also thinking… you don’t generate your power the way a normal practitioner does, right?’
‘No,’ Ceri said, grateful for the chance to think of something other than their situation, but not clear on the point. ‘I catalyse T-Null decay directly, more like a demon than a normal… Oh!’
‘We’re still in a screened room, but maybe it’ll be useful.’
‘First we have to see what they’re up to. I guess it’s time to start telling lies.’
Almost as if they had been heard, the door opened, but it was just the guards with their next meal. Ceri looked up at them. ‘Tell your spook friends that I want to talk to them,’ she said.
~~~
They were finished with their food, the plates had been cleared, and they had been sat waiting for what seemed like ages before the shield lifted to reveal the same two men. The younger one had a smirk decorating his face.
‘You wanted to tell us something, Doctor Brent?’ Older Guy asked.
‘Yeah,’ Ceri replied. ‘All right, under the direction of Chinese Intelligence I attempted to assassinate President Wilson.’ She looked around at Nita. ‘I can’t let you go through that again.’
‘Thank you, Doctor Brent,’ Older Guy said. ‘That’s what we needed. Someone else will be along to continue the process shortly.’ He reached forward and pressed a button, and the shield fell back into place.
Ceri raised an eyebrow. ‘That was it?’
‘For now,’ Lily replied.
‘I guess I should thank you,’ Nita mumbled from across the room.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t do something earlier,’ Ceri told her.
Nita looked at her, her brow furrowed. ‘You lied, didn’t you? You told them what they wanted to stop them doing more.’
‘Yes.’
‘They’ll shoot you, or something.’
Ceri settled back against Lily and looked up at the ceiling. ‘Somehow, I kind of doubt it,’ she said.
~~~
By the time the shield rose once more Ceri was beginning to think they had been left to rot. The person they saw on the other side of the window was something of a surprise, however.
Joshua Levy was smiling as he leaned forward to turn on the microphone. Ceri glanced over at Nita; she was looking too surprised to be faking it. ‘Hello, Doctor Brent, I’d imagine you’re as surprised as Miss Grey is to see me.’ Nita Grey, huh? She never had mentioned her surname.
‘That depends on what you’re going to say next,’ Ceri replied.
‘I wanted to be the one to tell you what’s going to happen to you,’ he said. Ceri glanced at the cameras in the corner of the room; the lights indicating they were functioning were out. ‘Your stunt in London blocked our original, and simplest, plan,’ Levy went on. ‘However, the confusion allowed us to form a new one. When your government wouldn’t play ball we had to invoke extraordinary rendition protocols to get you here, but everything is in order again.’
‘Extraordinary rendition,’ Ceri said. ‘That’s what you call kidnapping three people?’
‘Your confession, along with the evidence we’ve manufactured, will be presented to Wilson tomorrow. He will have to retaliate against the Chinese, but he can’t do it alone. I will give him his way out, an alliance with the Brazilian government.’
‘And now I’m not surprised to see you,’ Ceri said.
‘I’m a religious man, Doctor. A vast empire taking up most of the Far East and ruled over by demons? It’s an abomination. You are an abomination.’ Ceri raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Oh, Angelica told me what you are. A thing. A creature no more human than your pet demon there. If I had my way, we would burn you both alive, but the Church wants you as part of the deal. You’re not officially here, of course, so we can’t publically execute you for treason. Someone will be along to see to your shipping soon. Goodbye, Doctor Brent.’ He reached forward and stabbed at the button to lower the shield.
‘See you again, arsehole,’ Ceri said.
‘What did he mean?’ Nita asked. ‘About you not being human.’
‘The less you know about that,’ Ceri told her, ‘the less likely someone will decide you need to be dead.’
‘That isn’t comforting.’
‘Wasn’t meant to be.’ Ceri turned to look at Lily. ‘They’ll come soon.’
Lily just nodded in reply.
~~~
The door opened to admit two guards. Ceri kept the smile off her face; they were considering them no more a threat now than before. She waited for the three wheelchairs to be wheeled in and then stood up.
‘All of you,’ the first wheelchair pusher said, ‘sit down.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Ceri replied. A pair of rifles moved, aimed at Ceri and Lily. Nita, apparently, was not a threat. ‘I think you boys look tired,’ Ceri went on. ‘You should rest.’
Five men simultaneously slumped to the floor, Lily and Nita grabbing the sub-machine guns from the guards. ‘If you’re escaping, I’m coming too,’ Nita said. ‘Hey! I thought you said magic doesn’t work here?’
‘I said most practitioners can’t generate power here,’ Ceri replied, taking an identity card from one of the wheelchair men. ‘If you’re coming, come.’ She headed off into the corridors outside the room, walking past the torture room at a swift pace. There was only one way to go and Ceri followed it, around a corner and to a lift which the ID card opened.
There were five buttons on the panel, none of them labelled with a ‘G’. ‘Which one’s ground?’ Ceri said, frowning at the buttons.
Nita reached out and stabbed ‘1’. ‘We label them from one on the ground level.’
‘Right… Weird country.’
‘Hey, it took me a while to get used to the off British stuff, y’know?
Biscuits instead of cookies, driving on the wrong side of the road and not being able to drive through red on a right turn… except it’d be a left turn…’
Lily giggled. ‘We’re escaping some high security government facility and you two are going on about cultural differences?’
‘I talk too much when I’m nervous,’ Nita explained. They seemed to be going up a fair way. ‘And I’m really kind of nervous.’
‘We’re here,’ Ceri said just before the doors opened.
There was a man behind a desk in the room outside the lift, but he fell asleep before he could even think of raising an alarm. ‘The null zone is up here too,’ Ceri said as they let themselves out and into what looked effectively like an office building. There was no one about in the corridors and no room lights were on. ‘I think it’s night. That’s good, I hope.’
‘Do you know what you’ll do once you we do get out?’ Nita asked.
‘One step at a time,’ Ceri replied. ‘We’ll have to find out where we are. Figure out how to get out of the country.’
‘That isn’t going to be easy. They’ll have an APB out on you as soon as they discover we’ve gone.’
Ceri considered it for a second. ‘I might have a way, but I wouldn’t be able to take you.’
‘I’ll be okay,’ Nita said, shrugging. ‘If I had to I could head into the tribal territories…’ She stopped, looking at a “You are Here” sign on the wall. ‘It’s Black Fields. We’re in Black Fields.’
‘Sorry?’
‘Black Fields Army Base, it’s an ultra-high security facility near Chesapeake, or what’s left of Chesapeake. During the Shattering they detonated some kind of bomb here. It was supposed to destroy some monster which had taken up residence. It didn’t, but the entire area was flattened and left for dead.’
‘Now you know why,’ Lily said.
‘They made a null magic zone,’ Ceri added, nodding.
‘Well,’ Nita said, ‘the way out is up here. There’s going to be a guard on reception.’
Thaumatology 07 - Eagle's Shadow Page 12