“I doubt you even know what we want.”
“Not true!”
The door swished open, and guards turned to regard us. They eyed Armel and the rest of us warily.
“What’s this about, Tribune?”
“This is a Legion Varus matter. This prisoner has performed unacceptably. We’re here to punish him.”
“Ah-ha! Flogging, shocking or…?”
“We’ll flog him.”
The hog looked kind of excited. He got out a leather whip with three tails on it. Each tail was weighted and barbed.
“They used to go with a nine-tailed whip, you know,” he said as he smoothed out the straps in a loving fashion. “But we’ve advanced in our techniques over the years. This tool will do the job, and I prefer the weight of it in my hand to a true cat-o-nine.”
Galina looked at the whip with mild curiosity. “That will do. McGill? Take the whip.”
I reached for it, but the hog looked surprised and disappointed. He didn’t hand it over right off.
“Uh… Tribune? I’m a trained professional with this device. If you want an amateur to swing it, well… I wouldn’t do it, if I were you. It’s liable to get messy.”
“I don’t care. McGill has a good arm. Hand it over, please, and give us a private room to work in.”
With his eyebrows riding high in resigned surprise, he handed me the whip and signed us into a room. As we walked away, I overheard the hog talk to his partner. “That gorilla is going to take the guy’s head off.”
“Suits me,” said the second man. “Varus people deserve each other.”
We stepped into a sterile white room at the end of the hall. Everything was stainless steel or white-painted brick in here.
“Looky here,” I said, pointing. “There’s even a steel drain in the floor, and a spritzer thoughtfully racked on that wall for clean-up. They thought of everything.”
“Everything except my reaction,” Armel said with a hint of bitterness. “You’ll get nothing from me this way, Turov. I—”
Crack!
I’d positioned myself behind him, and the first blow laid his shirt open almost down to his waist.
“Gah!” Armel pitched forward on his knees. He almost fell on his face, what with the gravity cuff keeping him from using his hands and all.
“That hog was right. This thing works great.”
Galina’s hand went high. “Hold on, McGill. You’re as over-eager as that pig of man outside. I haven’t even asked him any questions yet.”
“Okay, okay. So ask. My wrist is getting itchy, here.”
Experimentally, I slashed the air with the whip. It made all kinds of cool slashing sounds.
“This is pointless, Turov,” Armel gasped from the deck.
“On the contrary. I’m enjoying myself immensely. This is worthwhile, if only for the entertainment value.”
He glared up at us. “Animals. This is why I left Earth.”
“Oh really?” Galina stooped down. “I thought you got paid better. Did the bears really treat you with kindness and consideration?”
“They were at least predictable and rational to deal with.”
That seemed to sting Galina a little. She didn’t like being called crazy. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about crazy ladies, it’s this: never call them crazy.
“Can I hit him again?”
“No. I’m going to ask my first question.”
“Don’t bother,” Armel said. “I know what it is. You want to know how to get to Green World.”
“Wrong. McGill?”
Crack!
I did a side-swipe this time. “Damn if that did draw lines!”
“Bastard!”
“We already know how to get to Green World, Armel. We’ve pin-pointed it. What we want to know is—”
“Yes, stupid woman! I know what you want! You want to know how to get across the Skay province safely, without tripping any alarms. I can tell you that, if you would only listen. I can give you our friend-or-foe codes. I was, after all, the chief enforcer of Province 926.”
“Hmm… so you were. What’s more, you’re right. That is exactly what I wanted to know. Unfortunately, I don’t like being called stupid.”
She signaled me again, and one more time the whip rose and fell.
Crack!
-26-
We exited the detention center, collected a copy of the video, and moved toward the elevators. On the way, the sadist hog tapped my arm.
“The whip, please, Centurion?”
I handed it over. He looked at it, then up at me. “You know Varus, I was wrong about you. That was good work. If you ever need to do some moonlighting… well, we could us a man like you.”
Shaking my head, I tried to explain. I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at Armel. “That man is a traitor. He and I—we’ve killed each other more than once. I wouldn’t feel right about beating on a stranger who might not deserve it.”
“I see. But just remember you’ve got a talent in that arm of yours. Don’t waste it.”
Shaking my head, I hurried after Galina, half-dragging Armel behind me. He wasn’t in mint condition anymore. I thought that was a rather weak showing on his part. After all, I’d taken thirty lashes before and still walked out with my head held high. Of course, the blows might not have been delivered with quite so much force…
When we were in the elevator again, we starting going up. We went a long ways, and finally even Armel became curious about our destination.
“What next? Are we going to the very top?”
“Almost,” Galina told him. “We’re going to meet Drusus.”
“Really? Is that a good idea? His instinct will be to perm me.”
Galina shrugged. “Possibly. That’s why we beat you. This capture has to look convincing.”
Armel stared at the floor. His eyes were a little glassy, and sweat mixed with blood dripped onto the floor. After about ten seconds of that, he straightened suddenly.
“No! That’s a lie! You
