Three - Michael Jan Friedman [36]
Then he caught Ejanix’s eyes and saw that his mentor didn’t share his concern. He looked annoyed, even a little fidgety, but hardly in fear for his life.
Vigo didn’t understand. As he was trying to puzzle it out, his interrogator leaned closer again.
“It’s only a matter of time before you tell me,” he insisted. “Why not save us all some trouble?”
Vigo averted his eyes.
When he sabotaged the shuttle, he had wondered if the intruders had another one at their disposal. Judging by the intensity with which he was being questioned, he guessed that they didn’t.
So until they could fix this one, they were trapped here.
The muscles in the intruder’s jaw rippled. Then he smiled, though his eyes remained hard with restrained anger.
“We have an interesting situation here,” he said. “There are three of you I can question—three of you who sabotaged the shuttle. However, I only need an answer from one of you, which makes the other two expendable.”
That got Vigo’s attention. Still, he kept his eyes turned away from the intruder.
“Maybe you don’t think I’m determined to get an answer,” said the fellow with the scar. “Maybe you require [106] a demonstration. Or maybe you would like to be the demonstration.”
Vigo remained silent.
His interrogator grabbed his face suddenly, as if he had every intention of tearing it off. His fingers were strong, viselike, even by Pandrilite standards.
“I’m warning you,” he said, his voice low and dangerous.
But Vigo didn’t talk. Nor would he.
The intruder studied him for a moment, his eyes full of cold fury. Then he let go of Vigo’s face, took a step back, and said, “Kill him.”
“No!” Ejanix blurted, stepping in front of Vigo as the intruder’s men raised their weapons. He looked horror-stricken. “What in the name of the Virtues are you doing?”
The scarred man didn’t take his eyes off Vigo. “Eliminating a nuisance,” he responded evenly.
“You promised me no one would die,” Ejanix protested. “You said that, Kovajo.”
The intruder’s men looked to him. He considered Vigo a moment longer, his lip curling as if in disgust. Then he gestured for his subordinates to lower their weapons.
Kovajo turned to Ejanix. “I’m sorry,” he said, though he didn’t sound especially remorseful. “You’re right. When we discussed the ways in which you could help us seize this installation, I said no one would die.”
Suddenly, his fist was hurtling at Vigo. The weapons officer barely had time to turn his face to avoid the impact. Still, the blow was a heavy one. It dazed him, sent the chair he was in crashing to the floor.
A moment later, he felt himself being picked up. The [107] front legs of his chair hit the floor again, and he again found himself facing the man Ejanix had called Kovajo.
Vigo tasted blood as he braced himself for another blow. But it didn’t come. At least, not right away.
“On the other hand,” said Kovajo, his voice marked by an eerie calm, “I didn’t promise that no one would be punished.” His left eye twitched as if with barely restrained fury. “And punished they will be.”
“There’s no need,” Ejanix insisted. “They’re your prisoners already. They can’t hurt you.”
“Maybe it’s not for what they’re going to do,” said Kovajo. “Maybe it’s for what they’ve already done.”
“I did it by myself,” Vigo insisted through the thickening bruise on one side of his mouth. “The others had nothing to do with it.”
That elicited a smile from Kovajo. “How noble,” he said. “You have a lot to learn.” He glanced at one of the Pandrilites behind him. “Take him away.”
Vigo turned to his mentor. Ejanix looked torn, conflicted. But he didn’t say anything more as Kovajo’s men untied Vigo and pushed him out the door.
As Gerda always did when she sat down at her navigation console, she checked all her monitors for problems. Then she ran a quick diagnostic to make sure all her instruments were working as they should have been.
Since there were neither problems nor malfunctions, she turned to her sister. Idun was finishing her own set of diagnostics at the helm controls—her face caught in the glare of the bridge’s forward