Port Casper

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The first thing Grace felt was her tongue probing the crusty flakes of blood in the corners of her mouth. She opened her eyes, but couldn't see. Was it wave blindness, or just a dark room?

Her legs and arms were weighted down. She exhaled hard through her nose. By the sound, she decided she was in a small space. When she arched her right shoulder, she felt a wall. Her knees also scraped a hard surface. Was it the same wall she bumped when she moved her head?

Grace remembered a hazing experience at Red Fox. She woke one morning to find herself locked in her footlocker. Flora suffered the same fate that night, and Grace remembered her panicked screams. She'd felt panic bubbling up too, but she had to keep calm for Flora. Perhaps even hazing had been training, Grace thought. All I need is someone to keep quiet for.

Maud. Had Grace seen correctly, at the end? The red hair? The satisfied smile on Maud's face? She unwound the past week in her mind. Had Maud seen her plant the liquid computer? Didn't matter. Maud had found out.

Raj? Tim? Were they okay?

Grace tensed, feeling her muscles strain against the container. So I still have some strength, she thought. She relaxed and decided to wait for her prison to open.

Then she would pounce.

• • •

Distant mechanical clicking. Grace blinked in the darkness of her coffin, wondering how long she had been sleeping. She strained to hear. Click, click. Grace caught the distinct odor of ozone and the sound of an electrical arc. The clicking stopped.

Her body convulsed and slammed against the walls as waves of electrical energy swept through her. She shrieked in agony, shocked to find she no longer had control over her emotions. She wanted to break her hands free, but found them tightly constrained. Her wrists burned.

The current stopped and she fell back. Pain channeled directly to anger. Maud. I'll find you and strap you in here.

Was Raj being tortured somewhere, too? Was Martin still alive? She had misjudged Martin. He wasn't a hotel manager for ITB; he was a protector with better skills than she. He hid in the open and nobody knew.

Click. Grace involuntarily winced, preparing for another assault. Another click, followed by the low hum of plasma lights. It took a few seconds of blinking until her vision cleared. She lay in a transparent crystalline box, her limbs strapped with electrodes. She had full view of the room beyond. Equipment lined the walls. Some looked like the surgical gear Raj used. But she wasn't in a hospital. It looked more like an industrial space. In the corner of the room, two technicians in lab coats spoke to a tall woman with red hair.

Maud Van Decker turned to Grace and smiled smugly above her crossed arms.

"Donner, Grace, by Cloister Compromise, you--" Grace found herself blurting out the words by rote but stopped as Maud shook her head.

"No, Donner," Maud said, walking over to the crystalline coffin. "This is no sanctioned interrogation. You will not be appointed representation. After I have the information from you, you'll disappear." She grinned. "Just like Tannenbaum."

Grace expected threats, and had even thought of comebacks, but...Tannenbaum? Grace searched Maud's face. Did she really know something about Flora?

"How do you know Flora?" Grace asked. The words came out slowly. Her mouth felt dry.

Maud leaned on the surface of her prison. "Tannenbaum didn't cut it. She cheated on a training run a week ago."

Grace searched Maud's face. No facial tick. No forced grin.