Khuv smiled coldly. ‘Why, we’re here to talk to you about your D-cap, Michael – among other things. Your very interesting, very ingenious D-cap.’
Jazz fingered the left side of his face, his lower jaw, and worked it from side to side. ‘Sorry, but I’m afraid you’ve already got it,’ he said, a little ruefully. ‘And the tooth next door, too. But we’re healing nicely, thanks.’
Vyotsky advanced menacingly. ‘I can very quickly stop you from healing nicely, British,’ he growled. ‘I can fix bits of you so they’ll never heal again!’
Khuv restrained him with an impatient sigh. ‘Karl, sometimes you’re a bore,’ he said. ‘And you know well enough that we need Mr Simmons fit and alert, or our little experiment won’t be worth carrying out.’ He looked pointedly at the prisoner.
Jazz sat up straighter on his bed. ‘Experiment?’ he tried to smile enquiringly and failed miserably. ‘What sort of experiment? And what’s all this about my D-cap?’
‘Let’s deal with that first,’ Khuv answered. ‘Our people in Moscow have analysed its contents: very complex but completely harmless drugs! They would have put you to sleep for a few hours, that’s all.’ He watched the other’s reaction very closely. Jazz frowned, displayed open disbelief.
‘That’s ridiculous,’ he finally replied. ‘Not that I’m the sort who’d ever have used it – at least I don’t think so – but those capsules are lethal!’ His eyes narrowed. ‘What are you up to, Comrade? Some silly scheme to lure me over to your side?’
Again Khuv’s smile. ‘No, for I’m afraid we’ve no use for you, Michael – certainly not now that you’ve seen the inside of the Perchorsk Projekt! But don’t be so scornful of the possibility. I don’t see that our side could be any worse than yours. After all, they haven’t treated you too well so far, now have they?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Jazz shook his head, stopped acting the comedian. ‘Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?’
‘But I have,’ Khuv answered. ‘Part of it, anyway. As for what I’m talking about: I’m telling you that your people expected you to be caught! They couldn’t be sure what sort of reception you’d get, however, and they had to be sure that you wouldn’t kill yourself too soon.’
Jazz’s frown deepened. ‘Too soon for what?’
‘Before they could use you, of course.’
The frown stayed. ‘What you’re saying feels like it’s making sense even though I know it can’t be making any sense,’ said Jazz. ‘That is, if what you’re saying is true!’
‘Your confusion is understandable,’ Khuv nodded, ‘and very reassuring. It tells me you weren’t a party to it. Your D-Cap was meant to fool you – ensure you’d play out your part to the full – just as it was meant to fool us! It was designed to slow us down as much as possible. I would guess your espers, British E-Branch, rigged the whole thing. And sooner or later they would also find a way to get through to you, if they had the time. But they haven’t. Not any more.’
‘E-Branch? ESP?’ Jazz threw up his hands. ‘I’ve already told you I don’t know anything about that sort of thing. I don’t even believe in that sort of thing!’
Khuv sat down on a chair beside Jazz’s bed, said: ‘Then let’s talk about something you do believe in.’ His voice was very quiet, very dangerous now. ‘You believe in that space-time Gate down in the magmass bowels of this place, don’t you?’
‘I can accept the evidence of my own five senses, yes,’ Jazz answered.
Then accept this also: tonight you go through that Gate!’
Jazz was stunned. ‘I what?’
Khuv stood up. ‘It was my intention all along, but I wanted to be sure you were one hundred per cent recovered from your injuries before using you. Another three or four days at most.’ He shrugged. ‘But now we’ve had to bring it forward. Whether you “believe in that sort of thing” or not, the world’s E-Branches are very real. I am the appointed monitor and watchdog over just such a group of psychics, and several of my espers have been deployed here with me. Your people in the West are trying to use you as a “mirror” on our work here; so far they have not been successful; tonight we will ensure that they never are.’