Kendrick stared at the door of his cell and listened. But he heard nothing beyond the occasional whine of aircraft engines starting.
Once he was sure that the soldiers weren't likely to reappear any time soon, he stepped forward and studied the lock on die door. He'd already noticed that it was electronic.
Kendrick shook his head – were these people idiots? They'd have been better off leaving him locked in the boot of the car. It was almost as if they wanted him to escape. And he was more than happy to oblige them.
Kendrick knelt down next to the lock – a smooth, oblong steel box that did not require a keyhole – and fingered its cool surface, searching for its electron pulse with his eyes closed.
Nothing came to him. His brow furrowed as he pressed both hands against its surface. Still nothing -the cell door remained resolutely locked. A chill rushing up his spine, Kendrick hammered at the lock with the heel of his hand in sudden frustration, then rolled himself into a ball on the floor, cursing and gasping at the pain of it.
Augments or no augments, that had definitely hurt.
They had finally invented the Labrat-proof electronic lock.
A couple more hours passed, which Kendrick spent lying stretched out on a narrow folding bunk fixed to the wall by chains. Then Helen returned, accompanied by Hardenbrooke and some soldiers. Kendrick sat bolt upright when he saw the medic.
This time, Helen too was dressed in combat gear, a crucifix stitched onto her tunic just over the heart. Hardenbrooke avoided Kendrick's gaze, but she eyed him frankly.
'I don't see why I need to get involved in this,' Hardenbrooke whined as they halted outside Kendrick's cell.
'Because I say so,' Helen snapped. 'Besides,' she said, studying Kendrick through the bars, 'anything he knows about the other Augments, we can use. Isn't that right, Mr Gallmon?'
Inwardly Kendrick's soul shrank, wondering what would happen to him when they realized he probably knew less about what was going on than they did.
When he didn't answer after a moment Helen shrugged, producing some kind of gun which she pushed through the bars and fired. Kendrick felt a sharp pain in his arm and looked down to see a tiny dart embedded in his skin.
The drug rapidly paralysed his muscles, leaving him awake and aware. He slid off the bunk and onto the floor, watching helplessly as they unlocked the cell door.
'What about the zero-point technology?' probed Helen.
'What?'
'The zero-point tech on board the Archimedes,' she repeated impatiently.
'I don't know anything about it,' Kendrick answered truthfully.
'He genuinely doesn't know about that,' he heard Hardenbrooke say.
There was a pause. 'He doesn't know about it?' Helen snapped. 'Then what the fuck does he know?'
Hardenbrooke replied, sounding almost apologetic. 'Look, I'm sure there's a lot he knows which he's holding back. That stuff you shot him up with, sometimes you need to think about how you phrase your questions. Context.'
'Peter McCowan told me about all the rest,' Kendrick said. 'He told me about the Bright, how they found a way to the end of time.'
Rustling noises, and he looked up from the chair he'd been dropped into, searching his captors' faces. A soldier lurked in the shadows nearby.
'Who's Peter McCowan?' Helen demanded.
'A friend of mine. He spoke to me while I was locked in the trunk of your car.'
Another brief silence. 'Tell me more about your friend.'
'He died in the Maze.'
'Fuck.'
Helen covered her eyes with one hand, quietly repeating the word 'Fuck' over and over, under her breath.
'Okay. Let's start again,' she continued after a bit. 'The Bright – what are they?'
'They live on the Archimedes. Draeger designed them to find God. I…' A wave of nausea surged through Kendrick. He heard himself groan.
Someone nearby was muttering under his breath, in a rush of words that sounded like a litany. It was the soldier, and he looked as though he was weeping. Helen turned to bark something at him that Kendrick couldn't make out. When she turned back to Kendrick, her eyes were shiny.
'And that's what they call themselves – the Bright?' she asked.
'Yes.'
Now she turned to Hardenbrooke who was leaning against a wall, his arms folded, watching. Night had fallen and pale moonlight spilled through the high-up window of the cell.
'We should give him some more shots of another inhibitor,' Hardenbrooke muttered. 'His augments will have dredged most of what we've already given him out of his bloodstream. That's how he's managing to hold so much back.'
'Fine. Do whatever you need to,' Helen said impatiently. Hardenbrooke stood up and stepped forward. A moment later Kendrick felt a tiny sting in one arm, followed by a numbness spreading through his thoughts.
'Okay, then,' Helen said brightly, sounding like a teacher instructing a class of pre-schoolers. 'He obviously doesn't know anything new about zero point. Okay… so how long have you known about the Archimedes?'
'About the Archimedes?' Kendrick asked.
'Anything, Mr Gallmon.'
'All I know is, Buddy says those things that I've been dreaming about found God at the end of time. It meant something to Caroline, too – before you took her. The others think they could live for ever, if only they could get there.'
Kendrick could see the incredulity written on Hardenbrooke's features. Helen's expression, by contrast, was fervent, almost ecstatic. She muttered something that sounded like a prayer.
'This is insane, this is bullshit,' said Hardenbrooke. 'What does this have to do with zero-point weapons?'
'Shut up,' Helen snapped. 'This is important.'
'Oh Christ, sometimes I can't believe you people really believe this shit.' Hardenbrooke looked ready to tear his hair out. 'We're not here to talk about religion. We're here to find a way to win.'
'If we win, it's because God smiles on us, and not on you,' Helen said evenly, still staring down at Kendrick. 'Hardenbrooke, I'll ask you not to take the Lord's name in vain again.'
'Let's be clear,' Hardenbrooke said carefully. 'Zero-point tech is the purpose of this interrogation. Any more of this flagrant bullshit isn't. So keep your religious beliefs out of this, okay?'
Helen ignored him, leaning over Kendrick and peering into his eyes, as though she might find secrets lurking there. 'Draeger thinks you're special,' she muttered, just inches from his face. 'Maybe you're not. Maybe he's wrong, and we're all barking up the wrong tree.'
She looked off into space for a while, saying nothing, before finally shaking her head and standing upright. 'This is useless. Look, he's no use to us if he doesn't know anything more than we do.'
'But Draeger thinks he's important, you said.'
'So what? Draeger is an egomaniac. You know, you haven't exactly earned your money yet – or don't you understand that?'
Hardenbrooke blinked. 'I don't know what you mean.'
'You told us that Draeger thought this idiot was essential to regaining access to the Archimedes. So far, he doesn't come across as very fucking essential to me. That means his friends can still take the Godhead away from us, regardless of whether we have him here or not. What are you going to do about that?'
