Engineman - Eric Brown [109]
Ella just stared at him, knowing that however contemptuous her expression he would have seen it before on the faces of his many victims.
"How do I know," she began, her voice steady and calm, much to her surprise, "that even if I do answer the questions correctly, you won't kill me all the same?"
Forster flashed a white grin. "You don't. You'll just have to take the risk. It is, after all, your only chance."
"Go to hell," she said, her voice almost cracking. "You can take me out now and get it over with."
"Noble sentiments, Hunter. But you haven't heard the questions yet."
Ella shook her head. "Shoot me."
"The first question. With whom did you spend your first night on the Reach? Name your contacts."
"I spent the night alone. I contacted no one."
Forster inclined his head. "Minus one point. Question two. Where is your father, on the Reach, or on Earth?"
"My father?" She stared at Forster, surprised. "What do you want with him?"
"Answer the question, Hunter."
She shook her head. "I don't know. I've no idea. I haven't seen or spoken to my father for ten years-" Why the hell was her father so important to them? Surely the conversion of a Danzig executive would be no great tragedy for the Organisation?
"Minus two points, Hunter. Question three. Who are your father's contacts on Earth?"
"Ella stared at him. "Contacts? On Earth? I've no idea! I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Minus three points, Hunter. I think a little inducement might be called for. Corporal."
One of the guards, immobile until now, stepped forward and reached out to Ella. She never saw the neural incapacitator in his hand, but she felt it.
Her arm burned and her brain exploded. She hit the floor, her neurones misfiring, and convulsed with an induced grande mal epileptic seizure. She thought later that it was like being insane for thirty seconds. Her chaotic mind, incapable of coherent thought, peered over the edge of everything known and looked upon oblivion or hell.
Then she was back in the hangar, looking up at her tormentors, her spine arched in pain. She collapsed, sobbing. "You... you-" She wanted more than anything to call them bastards, but the word would not form.
Forster smiled, kneeling beside her. "How do you like the game so far, Hunter? That was just a little encouragement to play by the rules. We have a long, long way to go yet. There are many more questions. Now, let's go back to the beginning. Who were your contacts on the Reach?"
Ella closed her eyes, gritted her teeth. She hissed, "We give thanks to the Continuum/ The Infinite, the Sublime/ Into whose munificence we pass/ At the end of this cruel illusion-"
"Again. Where is your father, on The Reach or on Earth?"
"We have lived, we are mortal/ For our mortality we give thanks/ Without this cruel illusion we would be without immortality-"
"Again! Who are your father's contacts on Earth?"
"All essences unite in the Continuum/ Regardless of circumstance/ For all flesh is heir to the vagaries of conditions/ All flesh is capable of evil-"
"Corporal!"
"No!" Ella screamed.
The Corporal advanced.
A firestorm of pure pain raged through her; it was as if her very soul were ablaze, might burn away to leave nothing of her essence to be saved. Her neurones fired at random, filling her head with a kaleidoscopic nightmare of irrational memories. She was a little girl again, screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Her father was walking away from her, pacing towards the cobalt screen of the interface. Despite her screams he kept on walking, and exploded in a terminal