Kingdom of Cages(158)
“How much did you know?” she asked the woman, not really expecting an answer.
“I only know what Aleph tells me.” She extended a hand, gesturing for Chena to descend the stairs. Chena looked down and saw Aleph’s arrow waiting for her on the floor, ready to guide her steps in case she got lost.
Chena fixed her gaze on that arrow as if it held her entire world. She let it lead her through the shifting noise of the laboratory and back out into the quiet, green-scented foyer. She heard a door open ahead of her.
Then the floor around the arrow turned yellow.
Keeping her eyes on the arrow, Chena walked into the involuntary wing. Her mind tilted and spun, all her thoughts thrown into chaos by fear.
Maybe I’ll get to see Sadia again, she thought almost hysterically. The sudden, clear memory of Sadia’s blank eyes brought all her thoughts crashing back together.
“In here, Chena,” said Dionte.
Chena halted in midstep. A door had opened to her right. Beyond the threshold, she saw a windowless yellow room and a table with two chairs facing each other. In the far corner waited yet another chair, this one fully rigged out for image projecting.
Chena’s mouth went dry and she whirled around. There might be one chance for help, or at least leverage.
“I want to see Tam Bhavasar.”
Dionte frowned. “Tam? Chena, I don’t think you understand—”
“He’s my case supervisor, isn’t he?” she pressed. “Isn’t he the one who should be evaluating me?” Chena scanned the walls, trying to see a speaker grill or some hint of an input terminal, even though she knew there would not be one. “Aleph, shouldn’t my case supervisor be evaluating me? Don’t I get that much?”
There was a pause, and Chena’s heart hammered hard as she clenched her fist around her false fingernail. I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, but I can’t let them keep me here, I can’t let them get me.
“Yes,” said Aleph at last. “It is right that your case supervisor continue with your evaluation.”
A frown flickered across Dionte’s face and Chena felt a stab of hope. Maybe there was something going on here. Maybe something she could use.
Maybe I’m not trapped.
Dionte lifted her hand. Chena saw how slick and shiny her fingertips were. Dionte pressed them against the wall, and the faint reflection of the light distorted around them. The hairs on the back of Chena’s neck prickled with the knowledge that secrets were being passed around her.
“Your case supervisor will be sent to you, Chena,” said Dionte as her hand lowered to her side.
Anger flared inside her as she walked into the blank yellow room. You think I’m stupid, then? You think I’m still just down from the pipe and I haven’t got a spark between my ears yet?
Whoever they were sending her, it wasn’t going to be Tam, that much was sure, or they would have used his name.
Dionte looked on impassively for a moment before the door slid shut between them.
Chena collapsed into one of the chairs by the table. She rubbed her forehead and then stared at her hand and the false nail on her little finger. Maybe she should take the poison now. Check out into the dark, and they’d never touch her again.
No. They were still telling secrets about her. They still knew who had killed Mom and she was not going to let them go until she knew, until she’d taken their plans down. They weren’t getting away with it. She would make sure. They could make mistakes. They could be lied to. She would find a way out of here, and with all their secrets.
Then her spine straightened. She still had not only her poison, but her pocketknife, and the packet of compounds that she had brought in case she needed extra leverage with her client. They had not searched her at all. Why not?
The door opened silently. Chena watched without surprise as Teal’s old spy, Tam’s cosupervisor, walked in.
“Hello, Chena.” He smiled as he sank into the chair on the other side of the table. “I don’t know if you remember me, but my name’s Basante.”
Chena looked him up and down and said nothing. They are trying to play you. Make him talk. Make him tell you what he wants.
“I don’t suppose you’re willing to tell me why you really came back?”
Chena shook her head, her eyes flicking to the walls, watching for any change that would indicate Aleph was listening in.
Basante followed her gaze.
“I see.” He nodded and laid one hand on the wall. “Deaf and dumb,” he said. Chena cocked her head inquisitively toward him. “Aleph has now forgotten this room.”
“Nice trick,” said Chena, keeping her voice very bored.