A Dark and Hungry God Arises 18 - Davies [2]
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:00 pm
Davies Hyland is pacing in his cell within the Bill's stronghold. He is dealing with his confinement by exercising out his frustration, and is dealing with the contradiction of being in a male body whi8le clearly remembering being a female. He doesn't know what the stakes are in his situation, but comprehends he has the stamina to resist insanity by virtue of inheriting his father's stubbornness and the results of his mother's zone implant experiments. He hopes to postpone rest so he can be awake when next the Bill interrogates him.
The Bill informs Davies that his theory that Morn and Nick are working together appears flawed, because Billingate's cameras recorded Nick turning Morn over to the Amnion. As best he can, Davies hides his intense dismay at learning this, and he speculates Morn is working with Nick against the Amnion because she's immune to mutation. This shocks the Bill, but his female ally says Davies' statement makes sense.
She postulates that the UMCP wants Billingate destroyed while the Amnion want the antimutagen. So, she reasons, Nick was going to offer the antimutagen to the Bill to give the Amnion an excuse to destroy Billingate, and Nick would spread the tale about selling the antimutagen to justify the Amnion action to the human pirates so that they'd still have dealings with forbidden space. This complicated theorizing is something I found quite entertaining.
Davies knows his father is dangerous, but knows his father's arrival on Billingate as his mother was delivered to the Amnion can't be a coincidence. Davies admits he didn't know his father was on Thanatos Minor, but adds that maybe Nick needs people to spread the story that the Bill has antimutagens for sale. The Bill explodes in frustration at this, accusing both his ally and Davies of constructing theories on the thinnest of situational hints. In disgust, he tells his ally to get the truth form Davies, then leaves the cell.
The woman stares at Davies and tells him Nick hates her because she gave him the cheek scars. She states she'd have killed Nick if he had looked at her like Davies is presently doing, and then leaves and closes the cell door.
Davies does pretty well for him self in this chapter, it seems to me, considering he doesn't know what is going on. And I find that suspense in the story is increased by the obvious nervousness that is pouring out from both the Bill and his ally.
So Davies asks the Bill what he wants to know. The Bill wants to know why Nick went to Enablement. Davies says he guesses that it was to induce his birth and then force-grow him. The Bill believes Davies is concealing something, but Davies proclaims his force-growing process left holes in his copy of his mother's memory, so that he can't know why the cops would want Nick and Morn to visit Enablement. The Bill speculates Nick offered the Amnion what he was about to offer the Bill, before the Bill's lady ally walked into their meeting.Nevertheless he did need rest. Despite his conditioning, he was only human.
No doubt because the Bill wanted it that way and was willing to wait for the opportunity, Davies was asleep when his captor came to talk to him.
Lost in dreams of sweat and Amnion, he heard the Bill's mocking voice. "Ah, the innocent slumber of the young." At first he thought it came from an Amnioni. But it smelled like the souring musk of his own body. "What a joy to be able to sleep and dream so cleanly."
Adrenaline brought him back to consciousness like an electric charge. Nevertheless he was cautious. With deliberate slowness, he opened his eyes.
Tall and incongruously enthusiastic, as thin as a cadaver, the Bill stood by the door. This time his only guard was the woman Davies had seen with him before--the beautiful middle-aged woman with the rich voice and the stiff carriage. She had a stun-prod tucked into the front of her shipsuit as if she felt sure she wouldn't need it.
Davies knew nothing about her, not even her name. But she was the Bill's ally. On Thanatos Minor, in Amnion space, anyone who needed an ally was vulnerable.
Totally alert, and determined to conceal it, Davies fumbled for the edge of the cot to pull himself into a sitting position. Scrubbing at his face as if he were trying to wake up, he muttered, "What do you want?"
Sounding deceptively happy, the Bill said, "I want to ask you some questions. Be a good boy and answer them."
Davies made an effort to look bleary-eyed. "Are you going to let me out if I cooperate?"
The Bill chuckled shortly. "Of course not."
Groaning, Davies stretched back out on the cot. "Then why should I bother?"
"Because it's less painful," the Bill replied with a grin. "If I were feeling charitable--which I'm not--I could give you drugs to make you talk. Or I could install a zone implant in your ugly skull and take the matter out of your hands. Or"--he shrugged--"I could do BR surgery on you until you begged me to let you cooperate."
"Sure, sure." Davies dismissed the threat. "You could do all that. But I'm only merchandise here. You made that clear. If you want to make a profit on me, you won't damage the merchandise."
The Bill studied Davies for a moment. Then he remarked to his companion, "Snotty little bugger, isn't he. Maybe you should tell him why he wants to cooperate."
The woman didn't hesitate. "Davies, you're smart enough to understand the position you're in. Nobody ever accused your father of being stupid, and if your mother were, she wouldn't have made it through the Academy. Sure, you're nothing but merchandise. But you care who you're sold to. Believe me, you care."
"What has that got to do with answering questions?" Davies interrupted. "You're just trying to figure out how much you can get for me. You aren't going to let me choose who buys me."
"It's not that simple," the Bill snapped; but his tone wasn't angry. "Events are moving in too many different directions at once. There's too much at stake. I'm not worried about how much profit I'll make on you. I'm worried about selling you to the wrong party. Until I know what's going on, I can't decide whether to deal with Captain Nick or the Amnion."
"If you're sold to Succorso," the woman put in, "you'll go back to your own people. The cops. That is, if you're telling the truth about Succorso and Morn Hyland working together. But if you go to the Amnion, you'll end up like Marc Vestablule."
Davies remembered Vestabule. Noradrenaline crackled through his synapses like static. The pressure in his veins was too intense to let him remain horizontal. Surging off the cot, he gained his feet and retreated to the wall opposite the door. With his back to the concrete, he faced the Bill.
Succorso intended to give him to the Amnion. Davies had told the Bill the lie that Nick and Morn were working together in a blind effort to weaken Nick's hand, strengthen Morn's. From that point of view, he had no reason to care who got him.
But if events were moving in too many different directions at once, the Bill might soon be forced to a choice, regardless of whether or not Davies cooperated with him. Then Davies' relative safety in his cell would end.
And he did care. The route which led to the Amnion through Succorso was less direct, maybe less inevitable. If he went by that route, he might live a little longer. He might even get the chance to do Succorso some harm along the way.
The Bill informs Davies that his theory that Morn and Nick are working together appears flawed, because Billingate's cameras recorded Nick turning Morn over to the Amnion. As best he can, Davies hides his intense dismay at learning this, and he speculates Morn is working with Nick against the Amnion because she's immune to mutation. This shocks the Bill, but his female ally says Davies' statement makes sense.
She postulates that the UMCP wants Billingate destroyed while the Amnion want the antimutagen. So, she reasons, Nick was going to offer the antimutagen to the Bill to give the Amnion an excuse to destroy Billingate, and Nick would spread the tale about selling the antimutagen to justify the Amnion action to the human pirates so that they'd still have dealings with forbidden space. This complicated theorizing is something I found quite entertaining.
The Bill shouts that her theory is baseless, but she responds by asking what Nick was doing meeting Angus and Milos. The Bill admits his spying equipment didn't pick up their conversation in a public bar, and that Angus ran off his employee wearing one of Billingate's surveillance wires. The Bill's female ally utters her concern that Nick is using Milos and Angus for some plan of revenge against her. The bill asks Davies to account for why Nick met with Angus and "Taverner".In silence Davies pleaded with the Bill to believe her. He wanted to believe her himself.
"It still doesn't--" the Bill protested.
"Listen!" the woman insisted. "It does make sense. Politicians think the same way you do. The fastest way to get rich is to work the middle between enemies. But that's less effective if the enemies are actually fighting. To really get rich you need the conflict--and you need peace. You need the kind of peace that preserves the conflict. What Succorso and Hyland are doing gives both sides something they want. The cops get rid of us--the Amnion get the antimutagen. Which makes a war less likely in the short term, and makes both sides stronger over the long haul. If you were in Holt Fasner's position, you might do the same thing."
Davies knows his father is dangerous, but knows his father's arrival on Billingate as his mother was delivered to the Amnion can't be a coincidence. Davies admits he didn't know his father was on Thanatos Minor, but adds that maybe Nick needs people to spread the story that the Bill has antimutagens for sale. The Bill explodes in frustration at this, accusing both his ally and Davies of constructing theories on the thinnest of situational hints. In disgust, he tells his ally to get the truth form Davies, then leaves the cell.
The woman stares at Davies and tells him Nick hates her because she gave him the cheek scars. She states she'd have killed Nick if he had looked at her like Davies is presently doing, and then leaves and closes the cell door.
Davies does pretty well for him self in this chapter, it seems to me, considering he doesn't know what is going on. And I find that suspense in the story is increased by the obvious nervousness that is pouring out from both the Bill and his ally.