Dreamfall by Joan D. Vinge Read Free Book Online Page A

terrorist—she’d looked terrified. Looked
like my mother, on the night she was butchered by strangers because no one had
been there to save her ....
    But she wasn’t my mother. It wasn’t even her child. I’d been
nothing but a fucking mark, letting her slip me that databand. I wondered
suddenly why she’d done it to me; why she hadn’t just teleported herself and
the boy away, and left the Corpses behind.
    But I couldn’t answer that any more than I could answer
Borosage’s questions. I was under arrest on a world where I didn’t know anyone,
didn’t have any rights; I was in shit up to my neck and I didn’t know how the
hell I was going to get out of it.
    Borosage slapped me again when I didn’t answer him.
    “I. Didn’. Know!” I shook my head. “Prove it! Use ...
truth-tester!”
    “They aren’t reliable with psions. There’s only one thing
that always gets the truth out of a Hydran.” Borosage held out his hand; one of
his men put something into it. This time it was a prod. Borosage flicked it on.
    I sucked in a breath. I didn’t need him to show me what one
of those could do. I had scars to remind me.
    “That’s right—squirm, you little mindraper,” Borosage murmured.
“You know what I can do to you with one of these. The Tau Board is up my ass
over this kidnapping. They make me report to them every hour on the hour. They
want that stolen child back yesterday, you know what I mean? They put their
trust in me. They told me, ‘Do whatever’s necessary.’ I intend to do that ....”
    The prod kissed the palm of my right hand. I cursed, jerking
at the restraints as it ate its way into my flesh.
    Borosage gestured. Fahd moved in on me, pulled open my expensive
jacket and shirt. I heard something rip. “You understand us—?”
    I nodded, feeling the muscles in my chest and stomach
tighten with anticipation. Wanting to kick him in the balls, except that I knew
what he’d do to me if I did.
    “I’m going to hear everything you know, boy,” Borosage said.
“Or I’m going to hear you scream.” His eyes begged me to give him an excuse.
    I swore under my breath, wondering what in the nine billion
names of God I was going to tell him; worse, how I was even going to get words
anyone could understand out of my mouth.
    A beeper sounded on someone’s databand, loud in the agonizing
silence. I looked down at my own band with my heart suddenly in my mouth. The
call function was still dead.
    Borosage clapped his hand over his databand, held it up to
his face, muttering, “What—?”
    Somewhere in the world outside of this room a voice said,
... making inquiries about the prisoner, sir.”
    “God damn it!” Borosage shouted. “Tell them he’s not here. I
said nobody’s to disturb us during the interrogation!”
    “Administrator—”
    Borosage canceled the link with a word; swore, &s his
band-phone began to beep again.
    “Draco’s Chief of Security is here, Administrator,” the
voice said, overriding his shutoff.
    “What?” Borosage’s face went slack with disbelief. “Why the
hell didn’t you say so? Send him in.” He looked back at me and brought the prod
up close. “You hear that, freak? Maybe you thought you were in trouble before.
You’ve got the mother company down your throat now, you half-breed mindfucker.”
    I watched the room’s single door, clenching and unclenching
my burned hand.
    The security field at the door blinked off. Sand was waiting
beyond it. Kissindre Perrymeade and her uncle were with him, and Protz. I
looked back at Borosage, wanting to laugh, but afraid to.
    Borosage made a salute, half frowned as he saw that Sand
wasn’t alone. “Sir,” he said, “this is one of the kidnappers. We’ve just begun
to interrogate him.” He jabbed the live end of the prod at me; I cringed.
    Someone gasped in the doorway behind Sand. Sand stood staring
at Borosage, at the prod in his hand, at me. The disbelief on his face was
almost as complete as Kissindre’s or her