Trickster

The only question is how miserable I will make you in the process. How miserable do you want to be?'

In the corner, Ben shifted with obvious discomfort. Kendi, however, paid him scant attention. Isaac Todd was an illegal slaver found on the same planet in the same city at the same time his brother and sister had been kidnapped. The coincidence was simply too much to ignore, and every instinct Kendi had said that Todd knew something about Utang and Martina. The only question was how much he knew.

'I have rights,' Todd said. 'You can't do this to me.'

'To whom will you complain, husband?' Harenn asked. 'The police? Perhaps we should call them right now and see what they say when I tell them we have a man who is wanted on many planets for kidnapping and illegal slave trafficking.'

'Who do you work for?' Kendi asked.

Todd remained silent. After a moment, Harenn reached for an instrument tray and came up with a hypodermic needle long and thick enough to puncture bone. It glittered in the harsh overhead light.

'That's not a dermospray,' Todd yelped, pushing himself backward on the bed until his back was against the wall.

'How observant you are,' Harenn said. 'I do have dermosprays, but I am not inclined to use them.'

'Harenn,' Kendi warned. 'The Children have rules about this kind of thing. We don't torture people.'

'I am not a Child,' Harenn pointed out.

'But you work for us and you do have to operate by our rules,' Kendi said.

'Thank you,' Todd sighed. But his eyes never left the needle. His face was pale, and a thin sheen of sweat had broken out on his face. Phobic? Certainly seemed to be.

'However, Mr. Todd,' Kendi continued, 'Harenn is the only one qualified to administer interrogatives. If, in her considered opinion, the best way to give one to you is by a needle, I can't say I'm qualified to counter what she says.'

Harenn touched the hypodermic to Todd's arm and he jumped as if she had touched him with a hot iron. 'For subjects who aren't cooperative,' she said, 'the needle is unfortunately the best method of delivery. It ensures the drug gets into the bloodstream instead of pooling beneath the skin.'

'I'll talk!' Todd shouted. 'Just get that thing away from me.'

'Who do you work for?' Kendi repeated. 'Keep in mind that we're going to check what you say, and Harenn won't be happy if you're caught in a lie.'

Todd licked his lips. 'I work for Silent Acquisitions.'

Lucia raised her eyebrows and Kendi clenched a fist. Silent Acquisitions was a megacorporation that dealt in Silence in all its forms-communication, research, genegineering, and slaves. They were known galaxy-wide as being worse than ruthless. Kendi and Ara had between them stolen away more than a dozen slaves from them and their subsidiaries over the years, and he had no doubt that both of them were high on the corp's most wanted list, though Ara was now beyond such considerations.

'What do you do for them?' Kendi said.

'I'm a scout for the Collection.'

'And what's the Collection?'

Todd shifted nervously on the bed. 'Look, if anyone finds out I'm talking to you, I'm dead meat, all right? I've already told you enough to earn me five years in the corp's waste pits.'

'And you have kept silent about enough to earn you five stabs with my knife,' Harenn growled.

'You may as well keep on going,' Kendi said, taking on the part of good cop to Harenn's bad. 'You've gone this far, and we're going to get it out of you either way with the drugs. We won't tell anyone where we got the information. What's the Collection?'

Todd hesitated. 'I have your word you'll keep where you found out to yourself?'

'Absolutely,' Kendi said, tapping his amulet and raising his right hand. 'I swear by Irfan herself.'

Still Todd hesitated. Kendi suppressed an urge to wrap his hands around the man's neck and throttle the information out of him. Finally Todd cleared his throat.

'After the Despair,' he said, 'functioning Silent suddenly became really rare and valuable, right? Everyone at Silent Acquisitions is pretty worried about that. I mean, the few Silent we have left will die eventually, and we won't have anything at all. Silent Acquisitions will eventually disappear.'

'SA has people working on that problem,' Todd said, 'but until they solve it, the company need a short-term solution, and that's the Collection. Right now, SA will go pretty far to get its hands on new Silent. We need Dream access and genetic material and all that to stay afloat while we look for a solution.'

'Genetic material,' Kendi repeated, barely keeping the distaste for this man out of his voice. 'Right. So?'

'So the company decided we have to be a little more… aggressive.'

'Don't be cute,' Kendi told him. 'Be specific. What do you mean by aggressive? Kidnapping? Murder? Theft? What?'

'All of the above,' Todd said. 'Once I find functional Silent, the acquisition team is authorized to use whatever methods necessary to acquire them. The team takes them back to SA station for indoctrination. The goal is to make them into loyal workers for Silent Acquisitions.'

'Brainwashing?' Lucia said.

'Hey, I never hurt anyone, I swear. I'm not part of any of the acquisition or indoctrination teams. I just scout out potential personnel.'

Harenn made a low, cold sound in her throat and Kendi was seized with sudden fury at Todd. Forgetting his role as good cop, he grabbed the front of Todd's shirt and shook him once. 'Did you 'scout out' my brother and sister?'

'I don't know,' Todd squeaked. 'Who are they?'

'They were both enslaved by DrimCom,' Kendi snarled, twisting Todd's collar. 'Was it your Collection that took them away?'

'I can't… breathe,' Todd choked. 'I can't… '

'Ken,' Ben said from the corner. 'His lips are turning blue.'

Kendi released Todd so fast the man fell backward onto the examination bed. Ben pursed his lips. Todd sucked in great gulps of air and massaged his throat.

'Prep him, Harenn,' Kendi said. 'I want him coked to the gills and ready to talk fluidly and easily by the time I get back. I'm going for a walk. Maybe in the Dream.'

'With great pleasure, Father,' Harenn said, raising her hypodermic.

'You said no needles if I talked,' Todd cried, trying to push himself away. His back was already against the wall, however, and he had nowhere to go.

'Dermospray, Harenn,' Kendi said over his shoulder as he left the medical bay. 'But use whatever drug you like.'

The doors snapped shut behind him, cutting off Todd's protest. Kendi started to stride away but halted when a familiar voice called out behind him. Ben put a hand on Kendi's shoulder.

'Not right now, Ben,' Kendi said tightly. 'I'm too pissed off to be rational.'

'I was scared you'd let Harenn torture him,' Ben admitted. 'I'm glad you're better than that.'

'Have to set an example, right?' Kendi almost snarled. He turned and abruptly strode up the hallway. 'He's filth, Ben. He bred his own kids for slavery and arranged for Utang and Martina to be kidnapped, but I'm supposed to be nice to him.'

'You're getting what you want,' Ben pointed out. 'That's all that matters.'

'That's what Ara always said.'

'Actually I think it's a quote from Irfan's writings,' Ben said. 'In any case, it's true. We'll find out what he knows and we'll find your brother and sister.'

'I know where they are,' Kendi growled. 'They're being held by one of the most ruthless megacorps in the galaxy in what I imagine is one of the highest security areas of one of the biggest stations in human space. The trouble won't be finding them. The trouble will be getting them out.'

'You're going to take on Silent Acquisitions?' Ben asked.

'I have a choice?'

Ben paused. 'I'm not sure whether to talk you out of it or egg you on,' he said finally.

'Doesn't matter,' Kendi told him. 'I'm doing it. I just need some time to come up with a plan.'