Gemini Cell (Reawaking Trilogy 01) by Myke Cole

Author:Myke Cole [Cole, Myke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller
ISBN: 9780425269640
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2015-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XV

OCONUS

Schweitzer offered no resistance as they moved him from the damaged cold-storage unit to a reinforced cell farther down the hall. This one had no transparent panel, no slot in the door. A narrow cage occupied the center of the room, well away from the walls. The cage’s bars were thick, stretching from the ceiling to the floor, where Schweitzer knew they were probably anchored several feet deep. He wasn’t sure if he could bend them with his newfound strength, but he doubted it.

Burn and freeze nozzles covered the walls, newly painted, layers of deck gray that were unable to fool Schweitzer’s enhanced vision. He could see the deep furrows in the reinforced concrete behind them, smell the faint, acrid odor that wafted from the scorch marks. The room’s burn function had been used, and recently.

I think they’re done fucking around, he said to Ninip.

No cage can hold us, Ninip answered, but the jinn’s voice lacked its usual razor edge, seemed muted somehow. Quieter.

Schweitzer paused, tried to goad the jinn into speaking again. I don’t know, those bars look pretty thick.

Ninip didn’t answer.

You think you can bend them? Schweitzer tried again.

Perhaps, Ninip said.

Definitely quieter, and there was something . . . smaller about Ninip’s voice, a hair less arrogant. There was the hint of a reverberation, as if the jinn were speaking from the bottom of a very wide well.

Schweitzer tentatively reached out into the darkness they shared. The presence still dominated it, but there was a bit more space for him to slide into. The sense of being pressed into the edge of their shared body had abated a fraction. Was the jinn some kind of vampire? Did he need slaughter to sustain himself? Had the revelation of the death of his civilization sapped his will? Schweitzer reached into the presence, fumbling for a grasp on the jinn’s thoughts and memories.

Ninip came alive at that, snarling and slapping him away. Down but not out, then.

I was a millennium in the storm when your ancestors were a hope of generations distant. Do not presume to match your strength to mine. Your precious professionalism will not help you here.

Schweitzer raised phantom hands in a placating gesture. Okay, okay.

Ninip gave a final growl and settled back. It was a little while before Schweitzer realized with a start that the jinn hadn’t tried to push him out again. For all Ninip’s bluster, Schweitzer still had his extra share of the darkness.

He batted away a thousand questions. The only one who could likely answer them was the jinn. He could ask Jawid, or Eldredge, but he remembered his old adage from the counterintelligence portion of his indoctrination. Need to know, his instructor had said. I don’t care if it’s the guy standing right next to you. The essence of compartmentalization is only revealing that which must be revealed. That way, if your buddy’s compromised, the mission isn’t. Treat everyone like mushrooms, keep ’em in the dark and feed ’em shit, until the mission absolutely requires otherwise.

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