“Did you at any time meet the person who was referred to as Otter? His real name was Reyvek, formerly with the security forces.” Cade didn’t answer. The man nodded to one of the guards behind. A pain like a three-second migraine headache seared through Cade’s skull, then stopped. Just a warning. He realized that the rush of fear had almost caused him to loose bowel control. A sour taste welled in his mouth. His chest was pounding, palms slippery.
“I’m not here to do all the talking,” the interrogator told him. “You will tell us, so you might as well make it easy on yourself. Again, did you at any time meet Otter?”
Cade licked his lips. Conflicting impulses tore at him. He had never known that the urge of self-preservation could be so strong. In his confusion he couldn’t form a coherent answer. The pain began again, rising slowly this time, like a dental drill probing a nerve, only in his head. “No!”
“No, what?”
“No, I never met him.”
“Did you talk to him at all—by phone, maybe?”
“No.”
“You will tell us,” the interrogator reminded him again.
Cade felt sweat running down his back inside his shirt. “I didn’t talk to him! What else can I say?”
“CounterAction arranged his defection. Weren’t you involved with that?”
“I don’t know anything about CounterAction.”
“Don’t give us that,” the colonel said from the corner. His voice was clipped. “You’ve been an undercover informer of theirs for years. That’s what that whole setup of yours is in California. Isn’t it?”
“No. That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” the interrogator at the desk echoed. The drill started probing again.
“It’s not true, I told you!” The drill stopped. Cade gasped for breath. “You’ve had your spy there for a year. What did she see?”
“Why did you go to Chattanooga?” the interrogator asked.
“You just told me a few minutes ago. I didn’t intend going to Chattanooga. Only Atlanta.”
“That was the story,” the colonel said. “We want the real reason.”
“That’s all there is.”
“Wasn’t it to rendezvous with Kestrel, your former wife, whom you’d been in communication with all the time?”
“No. I didn’t even know she was there.”
“You expect us to believe that?” the interrogator asked.
“Probably not, if you’ve already made your minds up. . . . But it’s true.”
The interrogator glanced at the colonel, apparently deciding not to pursue the point for the time being. He jotted something on the papers in front of him and looked back up. “Where were you in the three days after Chattanooga—before you showed up in St. Louis?”
“I don’t know.” Cade felt a tingle building up. He gulped. “It was dark. We followed a car somewhere.”
“So you were still in the general area,” the colonel said.
There couldn’t be any denying it. “Yes.”
“How many hours did you drive from Chattanooga? Which direction?”
“One, maybe two. North . . . I think.”
The interrogator made more notes, then consulted something on the laptop. “Vagueness won’t get you anywhere in the long run,” he murmured, still looking at the screen.
The colonel moved across the room to stand looking down at Cade, giving him no respite. “Where did Vrel go?” he demanded.
“When?”
“Quit stalling, Cade. Vrel wasn’t at Corto Tevlak’s house. Where is he?”
“He went to check up on some things.”
“Back to Uyali?”
“He didn’t say exactly where, and I’ve already been mixed up in this long enough not to ask.” Cade looked up. The colonel was watching him distastefully. “Look, whatever you think, I haven’t been working with CounterAction. I just make trading deals and mind my own business. If Julia’s been any good to you, you know that.”
“Who was the other Hyadean who disappeared with him?”
“I’d never met him before.”
“I didn’t ask that. What was his name?”
Cade couldn’t bring himself to answer. He gripped the edges of the chair and stared at the front of the metal desk, feeling himself perspiring in rivers. “It doesn’t matter for now,” the interrogator’s voice said tiredly from above. Cade raised his eyes, half expecting a trick. “We don’t want any undue unpleasantness here. This is only a transit facility, you understand. Shortly, you’ll be taken to a more permanent location, where they have experts who are more skilled at this kind of thing than I. I’m sure you’ll be more cooperative by the time we next meet.” He eyed Cade dourly for a moment. “Even if you do discover a reserve of unsuspected heroics, there are usually other avenues of weakness that can be explored. The other person that we’re holding, for example, seems to be becoming an object of restored affections, even assuming that your alleged estrangement was genuine. I trust you take the point?”