James Axler – Rat King

barely controlled fury, twisting her arm at its socket. Krysty felt the tendons

and muscles tear inside her arm, blood vessels exploding and veins and arteries

rupturing.

With the sickening, crunching squelch of bone and flesh mixed with the tearing

of fabric and fur, Krysty’s arm came off in Tyas McCann’s hands. She opened her

eyes to see him fling it away into the trees. There was a rustle, like animals

descending on carrion.

She looked down at her exposed shoulder joint, blood pulsing onto the earth,

steaming as her body temperature met the cold night air. She should feel pain,

shock…but nothing penetrated her consciousness. She was perfectly calm.

Tyas McCann looked perplexed.

Krysty smiled. It was beatific. Even though she had not called upon the power of

Gaia to give her strength, she could feel the energies running through her

veins, helping her to see through her course of action.

Tyas McCann snarled at her and repeated the procedure on her right arm. Once

again she heard the severing of the limb but felt nothing.

A haze began to descend over her, something that she put down to the loss of

blood. Even though it wasn’t her real physical sense, or a real death, she knew

that she had to see it through to the end. She had to call the bluff of whoever

was playing with her mind.

“You will not fight?”

“I will not fear,” she replied, her voice sounding distant in her own ears.

The darkest night slipped away into a blackness darker than anything she had

ever imagined.

“SHE’S BEATEN THE COMP,” Dr. Tricks remarked, watching the signals on the

console.

Wallace pulled a face, his tightly pursing lips making his multiple chins

wobble.

Tricks raised an eyebrow. “Two out of seven isn’t bad.” She looked at Krysty,

naked and encased in a skein of wires and electrodes. Unlike everyone except

Jak, Krysty had not one drop of perspiration on her body. “It’s probably

something to do with their mutie blood. I’d like to study them some more, Gen.

The mutie outsider scum we usually get die very quickly. These show more

resilience.”

Wallace shook his head. “No deal. These will be recycled in another manner.

They’re necessary for my plans, and as Gen I pull rank on you every time,

Doctor.”

“Just what are your plans, sir?” Murphy asked.

“Now that they’re suitably softened up, I want you to extract their backgrounds

from them. Particularly the old one. He may be of the greatest use.”

“If I may beg your indulgence and ask, sir, why didn’t you just hand them over

to me?”

Wallace fixed Murphy with a sneering stare that bespoke contempt. “Time is of

the essence, Sarj. To get quick results you may have to harm them physically.

And I cannot have that.” He turned to survey Krysty with a cold, emotionless

eye. “At least, not yet.”

Chapter Six

The disorientation and mental stresses of the brainwashing process softened them

all. It was distressingly, boringly easy for Murphy to interrogate them. The

level of resistance was low, and some of them he hit just for fun. Particularly

the one-eyed man, whose name he discovered was Ryan Cawdor.

The interrogation room was constructed just as Murphy’s forefathers had wanted

it: like something out of the crumbling pages of the books that he kept in his

quarters and would sometimes thumb through. It made him feel more in touch with

the world before skydark, the world on which his world view was based.

Ryan was tied to a metal chair with a cane seat. He was stripped naked, his

hands bound behind the back of the chair, wrists pulled low so that his posture

was slouched, his shoulders wrenched if he tried to move on the seat. It was a

simple torture tactic, and one that didn’t take a lot of effort while becoming

quickly effective.

“It’s quite simple, you murdering son of a bitch,” Murphy said quietly, wiping

the blood from the rings on his fingers after slapping Ryan backhanded. “You

just tell me all about yourself, and I release you from the seat before your

balls strain through the little holes. Uncomfortable, isn’t it?” he continued,