Engineman - Eric Brown [112]
Ella turned, knowing what she would see. Conchita Rodriguez stood before the blast-barrier. Her daughter grasped her legs, face buried in the folds of her skirt. Conchita laid her hands protectively on Maria's head. She seemed to be staring straight at the control tower, through the window, at Ella.
"No..." She shook her head. "No, you wouldn't..."
Forster just looked at her. "No?" he asked.
"But they're innocent. They've done nothing-"
"Rodriguez harboured Disciple terrorists," Forster snapped. "And that's a capital offence."
"But Conchita isn't even a Disciple. She doesn't believe! You can't do it-"
"Harbouring terrorists is a capital offence,." He paused, considering. "But... I might be able to see my way to commuting the sentence. What do you think?"
Ella looked from Forster to Conchita. There was something noble, almost arrogant, about the way the woman stood, straight-backed, holding her daughter to her skirt, her head high.
"What do you want?" she asked, knowing with a sick inevitability full well what he wanted.
"I want answers - answers to every question I ask. Correct answers, this time. Then Rodriguez and the girl survive. If the answers are not the ones I want, or prove on investigation to be false, then all three of you die." He walked to the window, turned. "What do you say?"
Ella looked past him to the woman. She recalled their conversation. Conchita was not a Disciple - she had no religious beliefs. For her, this life was the only one. Ella could only imagine the woman's terror.
She shook her head wearily. "I'll tell you everything I know, but I know nothing about my father. Please believe me."
Forster was nodding. "We'll begin at the beginning, Shall we? Question number one. Who were your contacts on the Reach?"
Ella hesitated. "Max Klien, Emilio Rodriguez and David Jerassi."
Forster nodded. "The terrorists who sabotaged the interface. Did you accompany them?"
"I left them in the morning, rode to the Falls."
He stared down at her, as if considering her reply. She looked through the window, at Conchita, her heart beating rapidly.
"Very well. Question two. Where is your father, here or on Earth?"
She looked up at him. "I have no idea... I thought he still lived here. I came here to meet him. That's why I went to the Falls-"
"Careful, Hunter. Be very careful. That's a minus point. More than just your survival rests on your answers. You can't play the martyr now."
"It's true. I thought he was still at the Falls."
"When did you last see your father?"
"Ten years ago, a few months before I left for Earth."
"When did you last hear from him, and contact him yourself?"
Ella hesitated. "I contacted him seven years ago. I sent him a photograph. That was the last time. Then he contacted me a month ago. He sent me a disc."
Interest quickened in Forster's jet eyes. "What did he say?"
"Just that he wanted to see me."
"Nothing more - on a thirty minute disc?"
Ella looked up at Forster, tried to hold her tears back. "I wiped the rest of the disc without listening to it. I just heard him say... say that he wanted to see me. Then I wiped it. We never got on... we were never that close."
Forster paced the room, stroking the line of his jaw. "Did he tell you where you were to meet him? Was it here, on the Reach?"
"I don't know. I told you, I wiped the disc."
"Hunter..."
"It's true! I don't know. All he said was... he wanted to see me." She heard then the sound of her father's voice, strong, confident...
Forster considered, tapping his pursed lips. "Did he tell you that he'd converted, joined the Disciples?"
"No - I mean, not in so many words." To hear from Forster's lips that her father had defected, gone over to the other side, made her heart race with joy. "He told me that he'd seen the light. That's all. I thought maybe he'd converted, but I wasn't sure."
More to himself, Forster said, "He's converted, all right." He ceased his pacing and paused before Ella. "Who are your father's contacts on Earth?"
Ella stared, open-mouthed. "I don't know! I haven't seen or spoken to him