Ninefox Gambit (Machineries of Empire Book 1) by Yoon Ha Lee

Author:Yoon Ha Lee [Lee, Yoon Ha]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2016-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

“IT’S NO USE,” a man was saying. “Look.”

Nerevor was staring straight ahead at a gray wall, in a room of gray sodden shadows. Restraints of cold metal held her fast, and the shift they had given her was too thin. Her shoulder hurt, and something about her jaw felt wrong, but it was only pain. She was Kel. She would survive as long as it was given her to survive.

“Your name.” It was the man again, impersonal.

He was not Kel. She did not have to answer.

This time a woman spoke. “We already know who she is.”

“That’s not the point. The point is getting her to respond.”

“In that case, scare up a uniform and try again.”

“She’d know the difference,” the man said. “There’s a baseline body language that’s imprinted on cadets along with formation instinct, subtle stuff. A good Shuos infiltrator could fake it. An Andan could enthrall their way around it. We’re just stuck. She’d break all the bones in her body to please a Kel officer, but we’re short of those. Jedao was making sure we were getting nothing but a warm body with the commander’s face attached, and he can undoubtedly restore her, but we can’t. At least the DNA matches records. Cold bastard.”

Nerevor wasn’t sure what Shuos Jedao had to do with the situation, but she made a note of the mention in case it became useful later.

“He said nothing about wanting her back,” the woman said. “Probably got all he wanted out of her or he wouldn’t have dumped her on us.”

“Don’t get ideas.” The man’s voice was still impersonal. “We can get the technicians on the problem and see if they can work her out of fledge-null. There’s a small chance useful information’s buried behind those glassy eyes. We can hold her as long as it takes.”

The woman had been thinking about something else. “Doesn’t a high officer have to authorize fledge-null in the first place? Who the hell did the Immolation Fox subvert up there?”

“Subvert or bribe or coerce,” the man said. “We don’t know which.”

“I’m surprised you wanted to talk in front of her. You’re normally obsessed with discretion.”

“I wanted to see if there’d be a reaction. Depending on where in the calendrical zones he wiped her, the fledge-state might have chinks. A problem for the technicians, as I said.” The man tapped on the door. “Anything you want to say, fledge?”

Nerevor didn’t like being called “fledge” by this stranger, but it didn’t matter. He was not Kel. She did not have to answer.

After they were gone, she listened for gunfire, footsteps. If the Kel meant for her to die here, then she would die here. But she could not help but comfort herself with the idea that her people would come for her if she was brave enough, if she endured enough, if she proved herself worthy of the Kel name.

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