Chimera Company: Deep Cover. Issue 8: A sci-fi adventure serial. (Chimera Company Season 2) by Tim C. Taylor

Author:Tim C. Taylor [Taylor, Tim C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Human Legion Publications
Published: 2019-11-25T22:00:00+00:00

VETCH ARUNSEN

Halfway through the morning’s confession practice, Lantosh walked into the claustrophobic room and leaned over Vetch’s table. “Follow me,” she whispered into his ear.

He glanced up at the re-educator technician and the REED guard who completely ignored Lantosh’s presence.

In these confession sessions, you read your prepared speech and didn’t let another word slip past your lips. Beatings for any exceptions would be savage.

Obedience to the rigid regime had become so ingrained in the short time they’d been here, that Vetch found the idea of walking out that door was inconceivable. It just wasn’t… what he was supposed to do.

“That’s an order,” snapped Lantosh.

Yeah, she sounded like an officer all right.

After another nervous glance at the re-educators, who were still pretending they couldn’t hear, he glared up at Lantosh. “I don’t work for you.”

“Yes, you do. The moment you told me that phrase you’d overheard, you were mine.”

Was he?

He decided he was. He’d repeated Sybutu’s words on the cusp of the moment, but he didn’t regret it. He’d gotten Lily and Darant incarcerated here, and he would damned well get them out. But for that, he needed allies.

He complied, following her out of the confession complex and across the exercise grounds to a row of storage sheds that the guards sometimes used for beatings.

They never hit you in your face or your hands, but the REEDs were determined that you would always be hurting and could never feel safe from a beating.

He’d been beaten in public. Sometimes indoors in tiny cupboards. He’d been dragged from his sleep one night and taken to one of these storage sheds where they’d strung him up by his beard. He’d had to stand on tiptoe for hours on end to avoid ripping his beard out of his chin.

Damned REEDs thought that was funny.

They were just the random beatings. Actual punishments were far harsher.

And still no one had asked Vetch who he really was. Nor had they shown any signs of connecting him to the events in Kaylingen, or those at Krunacao.

He followed Lantosh into a shed that was cool and musty. Under a single, flickering strip light, random stacks of boxes topped with discarded machinery dominated the gloomy edges of the shed. At its center, two REEDs faced each other across the room.

Knowing A-10, the darkness – and the sense that this place had been abandoned and then forgotten – had all been carefully constructed. This was the kind of place where prisoners might disappear.

Uh, oh! What have you led me into, Lantosh?

The former Legion colonel walked into the space between the two REEDS and faced the one standing with their back to the north wall. Vetch joined her. The REED ordered them to stand at attention and keep their mouth shut if they didn’t want a shock stick rammed down their throats.

Somewhere behind that black gas mask helmet and the shiny hazmat uniform with the blood red cross was a human woman, or what had once been, judging by her voice. Vetch found it hard to consider the person inside to be human.

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