Wounds - Book 2 Read Free

they stay alive long enough to die of complications, as you call them. So, is this for them, or you?”
    Lense had no answer for that. “Fine, whatever. Let’s just give this guy a nice scar.”
    “A scar,” said Mara. “And here you were so worried about fitting in.”

Chapter
2
    “Y ou are out of your element, Colonel.” Security Director Blate’s face looked more squashed than usual on Colonel Idit Kahayn’s vidcom, those walleyes so magnified she thought of some ancient, bottom-dwelling flatfish. “You’ve had almost six weeks. Your tactics are completely transparent. Stalling my inquiry does not change the fact that your patient is my prisoner.”
    “Oh, come on, Blate. I haven’t stalled anything.” From his seat across her desk, Major Arin’s eyebrows reached for his hairline, but Kahayn ignored him because she had to concentrate on phrasing her lies just so. “Three weeks ago, he got short of breath just walking to the bathroom.”
    “He doesn’t have to run a marathon, Colonel. All he has to do is answer questions.”
    “He’s answered questions.”
    “But I am not satisfied. That accent, for one…have you ever heard anything like it?”
    “No.”
    “Are you at all satisfied with his story?”
    She hedged. “Care to be more specific? Bashir’s told us what he remembers. I can’t help it that the poor man’s got retrograde amnesia. People with head injuries can have huge gaps—”
    “I’ve consulted with other physicians, Colonel. So let me ask you. What are the chances of complete and total retrograde amnesia?”
    He had her there. “Small.”
    “Try slim to none. How many reported cases in the records since the Cataclysm?” He held up his good hand, the left. “Three. Now your records clearly document that this…Bashir,” he made a vague conjuring gesture, “if that’s even his name…suffered minimal traumatic damage, correct?”
    She said nothing.
    “In fact, didn’t your own brain imaging studies reveal several anomalies? Neural functions that have no correlate in our database?”
    “Anomalies happen, Blate. We call them mutations. We call them syndromes. For all I know this is something that’s already been described but the data was lost after the Cataclysm.”
    “Perhaps,” he said, like he’d sucked on something very sour. “But no damage other than the usual EEG slowing seen after a concussion, isn’t that so?”
    “Yah. And, Blate, well, I’m impressed. Soon you’ll have my job.”
    “No, Colonel. Soon, I will have your patient.”
    “Care to make a little wager?”
    “Bashir is lying. You know he is. And I have eyes and ears, Colonel.”
    “As do I, Blate. Torturing Bashir won’t get you anywhere. Keeping him alive and cooperative is much more in our interests. His physiology alone merits further study—”
    “You’ve had time to study. But you and Major Arin withheld information—”
    “Hold on. Dr. Arin was following my orders, Blate. You have any quarrels, you have them with me.”
    “No, I don’t think so, and do you know why?” Blate laced his fingers, like a professor. “Because loyalty is key. Loyalty is the glue that binds us Kornaks together and makes us strong. Loyalty allows us to function as one, with one goal, one mind, one purpose.”
    “But there’s the individual, Blate. You can’t control hope, or fantasies, or dreams.”
    “But we’re well on the way, aren’t we, Colonel? You’ve had your failures, of course.” He paused. “But your primates, they’re an example, yes?”
    “I still can’t separate them for long.”
    “A problem you’ll solve, I’m sure. Besides, perhaps autonomy is not desirable.”
    “People have to be able to choose, Blate.”
    “You didn’t always think so.”
    “But I think so now. Besides, we only know of one donor, and now he’s gone. I can’t replicate someone so unique. We need a single voice to direct the others. If not, then what’s the point? The others might function as a