Engineman - Eric Brown [128]
A period of silence, then, "You were found with the Lho in the jungle. What did they want with you?"
Mirren hesitated. Even if he told them the truth, he doubted if it would help the Organisation's cause. But the thought of capitulating, bowing to the coercion of these thugs...
"Go to hell!"
Silence. He trembled with fear.
The blow came, all the more shocking for being unexpected. Pain shot through his jaw.
"We'll try again, Mr Mirren. What did the aliens want with you?"
He heard the percussion of a safety-catch being switched, felt a cold circle of gun-metal against his temple.
He hated himself for giving in, but the instinct for survival overcame his conscience. "They... they wanted to get me to Earth-" He stopped himself.
"Why?"
"To tell the free worlds of the slaughter you're committing here."
Calmly, his interrogator asked, "And what did they tell you of this slaughter?"
Mirren remained silent.
"Did they tell you the reason for our offensive, Mr Mirren?"
He shook his head. "No."
He sensed his tormentors' retreat. A muttered discussion took place at the other side of the cell. Someone returned. Mirren was expecting another blow - not the fine, wet spray that filled his nose with a stinging, antiseptic scent.
He passed out.
When he regained consciousness he felt lethargic, heavy-limbed, and filled with a curious sense of well-being. He also felt amenable. He knew, then, the nature of the spray.
"Glad to have you back with us, Mr Mirren," said the voice from the darkness. "Now, please, tell me who you met in the jungle and what they told you."
He felt as if he had been split into two separate identities. One understood what was happening, and wanted more than anything to resist the drug, to tell his other half not to capitulate - but was prevented from doing so by an overwhelming lethargy. He heard his amenable self talking, telling his interrogator about the crashlanding and the trek through the jungle, his witnessing of the massacre and his audience with the Lho.
"What did they want with you, Mr Mirren?"
"To get back to Earth, to tell the free planets what is happening here. And..."
"And, Mr Mirren?"
"They wanted to take me to their mountain hide, to commune with their Effectuators."
A silence. He could almost sense their anticipation. "Where precisely is their mountain hide?"
This, Mirren felt, was what the Organisation really wanted. He comforted himself that the information he had supplied already would be of little use to them.
He shook his head. "I don't know-"
The interrogator said, "Where, Mirren? Tell me!"
"I said, I don't know. They didn't tell me-"
He sensed their impatience, their anger.
A silence followed, stretched, until it came to him that they must have left the room. Perhaps an hour later, they returned. He guessed he was in for another bout of interrogation. Instead, he felt something being fitted around his head, cold metal bands pressing against his skull, electrodes at his temples.
He knew what was happening to him, and felt relief that they were sparing his life...
He slipped into unconsciousness.
He came to his senses in a hospital bed in a room filled with sunlight. He tried to sit up. An orderly was on hand to restrain him, gently.
"Where am I?"
"On Earth, Mr Mirren."
He fell back, tried to collect his thoughts. His most recent memories were of Paris, the party before his last push for the Canterbury Line.
The orderly was explaining. "Your 'ship crashlanded on an uncharted Rim world, Mr Mirren. You were uninjured, but the trauma of the accident induced comprehensive amnesia..." The orderly went on, but Mirren wasn't listening.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kelly brought the flier down on a spur of rock overlooking the massed tree-tops of the jungle that extended towards the great ball of the setting sun. Ella stretched, her tired muscles protesting at the effort. The Engineman jumped from the flier and strode across to a rock pool, where he knelt and splashed his face with water.
Ella climbed out. The