Johanna twisted in the tied cloaks and whispered screams. Something was wrong with her; it was like shouting on empty breath. One of Vendacious paced the hut's upper level. Daylight splashed across its muzzle as it peered out first one and then another of the narrow slits cut in the timbers. "Ah, it's good that you don't pretend. I could see that you somehow guessed about my second career. My hobby. But screaming -- even loud -- won't help either. We have only a brief time to chat. I'm sure the Queen will come visiting soon ... and I will kill you just before she arrives. So sad. Your hidden wounds were tragically severe...." Johanna wasn't sure of all he said. Her vision blurred every time she moved her head. Even now she couldn't remember the details of what had happened back in the hospital compound. Somehow Vendacious was a traitor, but how ... memories wriggled past the pain. "You did murder Scriber,
mbt chapa white, didn't you? Why?" Her voice came louder than before, and she choked on blood dribbling back down her throat. Soft, human, laughter came from all around her. "He learned the truth about me. Ironic that such an incompetent would be the only one to see through me.... Or do you mean a larger why?" The three nearby muzzles moved closer still, and the blade in one's jaw patted the side of Johanna's cheek. "Poor Two-Legs, I'm not sure you could ever understand. Some of it,
mbt kisumu sale, the will to power maybe. I've read what Dataset has to say about human motivation, the 'freudian' stuff. We Tines are much more complicated. I am almost entirely male, did you know that? A dangerous thing to be, all one ######. Madness lurks. Yet it was my decision. I was tired of being an indifferently good inventor, of living in Woodcarver's shadow. So many of us are her get, and she dominates most all of us. She was quite happy about my going into Security, you know. She doesn't quite have the combination of members for it. She thought that all male but one would make me controllably devious." His sentry member made another round of the window slits. Again there was a human chuckle. "I've been planning a long time. It's not just Woodcarver I'm up against. The power-side of her soul is scattered all over the arctic coast; Flenser had almost a century headstart on me; Steel is new, but he has the empire Flenser built. I made myself indispensable to all of them: I'm Woodcarver's chief of security ... and Steel's most valued spy. Played aright, I will end up with Dataset and all the others will be dead." His blade tapped her face again. "Do you think you can help me?" Eyes peered close into her terror. "I doubt it very much. If my proper plan had succeeded, you would be neatly dead now." A sigh breathed around the room. "But that failed, and I'm stuck with carving you up myself. And yet it may all turn out for the best. Dataset is a torrent of information about most things, but it scarcely acknowledges the existence of torture. In some ways, your race seems so fragile,
mbt m walk women, so easily killable. You die before your minds can be dismembered. Yet I know you can feel pain and terror; the trick is to apply force without quite killing." The three nearby members snuggled into more comfortable positions,
Cardio Abs, like a human settling down for serious talk. "And there are some questions you may be able to answer, things I couldn't really ask before. Steel is very confident, you know,
mbt tariki walnut, and it's not just because he has me with Woodcarver. That pack has some other advantage. Could he have his own Dataset?" Vendacious paused. Johanna didn't answer,
mbt sandals kisumu, her silence a combination of terror and stubbornness. This was the monster that killed Scriber.
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