City of Ruin - Mark Charan Newton [145]
‘Leave her alone,’ Voland cautioned, looking from her to Jeryd, and back again.
‘You’re not in a position to give orders,’ Jeryd declared. ‘Talk, or her cell gets smaller than yours, by a considerable amount.’
Voland sighed deeply and Jeryd knew that he would provide answers soon enough. He might be proud and determined, but he seemed to be too much in love with Nanzi to have her suffer any further.
‘All right,’ he conceded. ‘But please refrain from harming her.’
‘Harm her?’ Jeryd asked. ‘We’ve reason to believe her responsible for the murder of dozens of innocent civilians, as well as military personnel.’
For a while, Jeryd could hear nothing but his own feet as he walked back and forth through the room. ‘First thing I want to know is how does Nanzi change her shape from this one to . . . that creature? I’ve heard how certain members of the underworld haven’t been too happy with your shoddy work in creating hybrids.’
‘That’s absolutely outrageous.’
Jeryd smiled. ‘You admit to constructing hybrids then? Did you make Nanzi into a monster?’
‘It’s a difficult art . . .’ Dejectedly, Voland went on to relate the couple’s history, about the collapsed wall on the harbour, and her damaged legs and his talents as a surgeon. He confirmed that Nanzi possessed this innate ability to change physical state between that of a spider and that of a human being – aside from her new legs, which remained arachnid.
‘Touching,’ Jeryd added sarcastically. ‘So, tell me, where do you live?’
Voland gave the address of the building that Jeryd had been loitering outside only recently, the one into which the dead garuda had been taken.
Jeryd rested an arm on the bars as he leaned towards his captives. The wall of purple light gave off a deep warmth and a faint hum. ‘We have witnesses stating that Nanzi, in her other form, has committed the murder of military personnel. We also have reason to believe that she has been responsible for numerous other deaths. What do you want to say on the matter?’
Voland peered at her, through the light, then back towards Jeryd. He merely gave a brief nod, and pressed his fingers to his eyes as if to prevent himself from becoming overly emotional.
‘How much control do you have over her?’ Jeryd asked.
‘I don’t know what you mean?’ Voland replied.
‘Did you force her to serve you in some way?’
Nanzi suddenly spoke up for the first time. ‘I did what I did because I loved him, and I did it for myself, because it was the right thing to do. We work as a team.’
‘So you confess, then?’ Jeryd offered, unmoved, unflinching.
There was venom in her eyes, as if the satanic creature she once was had resurfaced. Jeryd was glad of the bars between them, and suddenly he realized the meaning in her last words. ‘You were a team? You worked together? What on earth were you both doing, just killing all these people for sport?’
No reply.
‘We’ll have your residence searched immediately, you realize. Whatever you’re hiding there, we’ll find it. We’ll dig up every last piece of information and, if we don’t find enough, the next procedure is to commence torture.’
As if to hammer her point home, Bellis made the light-bars flare even hotter, and Jeryd could see the resignation in the man’s eyes. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to Nanzi.
What Voland told him next stunned him. ‘We’ve nothing to lose, not now anyway. So, to business. I am working on a high-level contract from Villjamur.’
‘What kind of service is required?’
‘I’m a specialist surgeon,’ he replied proudly. ‘I don’t just make hybrids for the underworld. Although my current work now is highly