The Betrayal Chapter 44 snippet

The sound of someone entering her cell awoke Jennifer for a tortured sleep. Nightmares from the escape from Necko she and Kate had done flashed through her head. The image of Kate’s body flying through the air, limply, after the blast had knocked her over replayed time and time again.

Time to go from one form of torture to another form, she told herself as she opened her eyes.

Two agents moved towards her, another man and woman, different from the one’s the day before. With rough hands, they pulled her from the bunk, causing her to cry out in pain as she came to her feet. They certainly didn’t know how to do things gently around there, she mused as she wavered on her feet.

“Get moving,” the woman said.

Jennifer took a step forwards, and the room started to spin in her. Reaching out to grab the entrance to her cell, she leaned her head down until the spell had passed. The beating the interrogator had put her through, she reflected, had definitely done a number on her!

I just hope I can make it through this one, she thought as she felt the agent’s hands in her back.

“I thought I said move it,” the woman said again, obviously the superior.

“All right, all right,” Jennifer muttered as she staggered forwards. “Don’t get your panties in a knot.”

Each step forwards felt like an eternity to her as she made her way down the corridors. There wasn’t a place on her body that didn’t hurt from the previous beating and she heading for more torture. At least she knew from that strange vision she had, that Kate was still alive and as long as she was alive, there was hope!

Passing along the same route they had earlier, Jennifer took the time to examine everything. Intelligence had painted the corridors black instead of navy gray, she noted as she walked. The red lighting that was spaced evenly in the halls made the black uniformed agents seem like they were escaped demons from the bowels of hell. Adding to the satanic feel of the building was the evil that they were perpetrating for Carver and his cadres.

Throw in the torture, Jennifer thought. And you’ve got a perfect recipe for horror.

As they walked, she counted the number of people that passed her. While not as numerous as she would have thought for a facility like this, there were more then on the Roanoke. Some of the passersby were agents like the two guarding her; others she could tell were medical due to the Red Cross on their uniform collars. Still others were techs of various fields and trades, which told her they had a bustling base surrounding her.

I’d say they have easily two to three times the number of people we had on the Roanoke, she thought as the computer on her brain crunched all the facts together for her.

Rounding a corner, they stopped before a door, and she found herself taking a deep breath. So, they were back at the site of the previous beating, with another soon to commence. However, as long as Kate was alive, she could keep herself from breaking. No matter what the man did, as long as she had her hope, then she knew she would be able to keep from breaking.

The door slid aside and the agents behind her gave her a shove in the back. With a sigh, she took the hint and stepped forward into the interrogation room. After the agents entered, the door slid shut behind them, leaving them sealed in the nearly dark room.

In the center of the room was a tank of water with a metal board at one end. On the board were straps to tie down a person’s arms and legs to it. Looking at it closely, she could see where the board could pivot and be used to drop the person’s head into the water. With a silent groan, she shut her eyes to what was before her.

Never thought I’d see one of these myself, she told herself with a slight shudder.

Water boarding prisoners, while an ancient torture, had continued right into the twenty-fourth century in some cases. Fighting an urge to shake her head, Jennifer looked at the water boarding apparatus and groaned. They were certainly bringing out the artillery, she mused, in the attempt to make her speak.
Suddenly, she realized the holding out for Kate was going to take a lot more effort then she had already guessed it would take.

The trick to remember, she told herself. Is the fact that they don’t want to kill me-yet. They need to the information I know, so they won’t want to kill me until they get it.

“So nice of you to join us, Lieutenant,” her interrogator said.

“You know,” she said, the bravado both act and real. “How could I refuse to come when you made the invitation so hard to refuse?”

To her surprise, he started to laugh at her answer. However, it wasn’t one of humor, but one of both contempt and disregard for human feelings. So, she mused, this was the true side of her interrogator: a sociopath who had been given power by a corrupt government leadership. Wasn’t that how they all started, as a sociopath who then get power?

“So you have your spunk back,” he said. “I like that. Too bad you won’t feel spunky for long.”

“Don’t underestimate me,”

“Oh I don’t,” he admitted. “Do you know what this is?”

She kept her mouth shut as she watched him walk up to the machinery. He ran his hands over it like one would a lover, his fingers caressing it. That was just plain sick, she told herself, as she watched him. It just proved the point to her that the man was psychologically unstable.

“Yes, I know what it is,” she said. “It’s a device for water boarding prisoners.”