Julia Surd's hand shook slightly as she rank the doorbell to Rina's house. Her mother had advised against her coming here, as had the butler who drove her here, but she had to. She had to know what had really happened to Rina, who had been her friend, despite the fact that the other girl was two years younger. It took several minutes before the door was opened, and then it was by Ambassador Krace himself. Julia looked around as she stepped inside, searching for Lance, the butler who usually opened the door. She saw no one. "Where's Lance?"
"I'm not certain. The Alliance started arresting my servants, for questioning, and they all disappeared," Mr. Krace said, rubbing the back of his neck wearily. Julia took a closer look at him. He looked terrible - he hadn't shaved in the several days since Rina had been captured, and he didn't look like he'd slept since then either. "Julia, you shouldn't be here. Anyone who's exposed to me is in danger. The Alliance hasn't arrested me yet, but they could any day now."
"I need to talk with you about Rina, and I didn't want to do it over the phone."
Mr. Krace shot a guilty look around as he quickly closed the door. "Julia, you have to leave now," he said, his words contradicting his previous action. "There are people watching this house, and if they find out you've been asking about Rina..."
"I'm not leaving," Julia said in what she hoped was a firm manner. "Rina was... is my friend, at least I think she's my friend, and I want to know the truth about her."
Mr. Krace sighed wearily. "Then come into one of the center rooms, it's safer to talk there."
He led her into his study, a small room in the center of the house with no windows and not enough ventilation. Mr. Krace sat in one chair and gestured for Julia to take another. "I don't know what you expect me to know," he said. "I haven't had any communication with Rina since they took her, and they haven't told me anything about her, either. I don't even know where she's been taken."
"Mr. Krace, was Rina really a Rebel?"
He closed his eyes. "Yes." There was a note of certainty in his voice that Julia didn't expect, which led her to ask a second question.
"Did you know?"
He now opened his eyes to stare at her. For several seconds he said nothing. Finally he answered in a very low voice. "Yes."
"Yes?!" she asked, astonished. "But... at the party... she apologized. She said that she should have told you."
"That scene was staged for the benefit of the Alliance, so that they would think I knew nothing of value. It was mostly for my protection."
Julia stared at him. "But... you knew? And you let her join the Rebels? Didn't you know how dangerous that was? Didn't you tell her?"
"She knew the risks."
"But she's just a child!"
To her surprise, he let out a short bark of bitter laughter. "Rina's a special girl."
Julia didn't know how to respond to that, so she asked another question. "When did you find out that she had joined the Rebels?"
"I knew from the beginning."
"When was that?"
"A little less than nine years ago."
"Nine years?" Julia repeated. "You mean nine months, right?" Nine years ago Rina would have only been seven.
"Yes, of course," he answered. "Julia, I'm sorry. Rina spoke often of her friendship with you, and her fondness for you. I know she regretted not being able to tell you the truth, but there isn't much more I can tell you. Rina and I both agreed that it would be best if I didn't know much about what she did, so that if this happened I wouldn't become a target. I don't know anything else to tell you."
"You're sure there's not anything else?" Julia beseeched him. She hadn't found out anything, really. And nothing about what was happening to Rina.
"Tell her the truth," said a low voice from behind her. Julia jumped to her feet and turned around, frightened at the sudden interruption. She'd thought they were alone in the house. For a moment, light shining in from the corridor blinded her, and all she could make out were two figures. As her eyes adjusted, she realized that they were two boys, about Rina's age, both colonists like herself. It was the one in front who'd spoken.
"Who are you?" she gasped, backing up a few steps. There was something frightening about them, despite the fact that they were just boys, little more than children.
"Heero, are you sure about this?" the second boy asked the first as both moved forward into the room.
"Do it," Heero instructed, and Julia noticed his comment was directed at Mr. Krace. Who did he think he was, to order the Ambassador around like that?
But Mr. Krace didn't scold the boy for his audacity, he just frowned. "Heero, she isn't one of you."
"But she was observant enough to notice that you held something back when you said Rina was a Rebel, and her instincts are good. Also, she's quickly moving into her father's position - it's common knowledge that in a few years she may become a Representative herself. More than that, she's known to be a friend of Rina's. They won't be able to break Rina with the usual methods. We expect they'll try to manipulate her through her emotions and her ties to humanity. They'll see those as her weaknesses."
"You're Rebels, aren't you?" Julia asked, breaking into the conversation between the boy and Mr. Krace.
"Yes."
"What are you doing here?"
"We were talking to the ambassador about his daughter, but you may be useful. Tell her about the Phoenix," he instructed Mr. Krace again.
"The Phoenix?" Julia repeated in a gasp, turning back to Mr. Krace. "You know who the Phoenix is?"
Mr. Krace glanced at the two boys, then nodded. "So do you."
It took Julia several seconds to find a possible meaning behind his strange words, and then she shook her head. "Mr. Krace, you aren't talking about Rina, are you? You can't be."
"She is quick, for a human," the second boy said.
"For a human?" Julia repeated. "What's going on here? Why did they arrest Rina? And how did she manage to... to..."
"Kill," the first boy, Heero, replied in an emotionless voice. "The word is kill. She did fairly well, she eliminated more than half of the enemy before she was captured. We might have done a little better, but it was still well done."
Julia backed up, horrified. "She killed eleven people!" the words burst out of her, and in that one instant found herself at the heart of the matter that had brought her here. She'd seen Rina do things that were impossible, had seen a childhood friend kill many people, then jump like a kangaroo to the second floor. It wasn't possible. "How can you say it was well done?"
"She eliminated the enemy, and managed to salvage something out of the situation even after she was captured," Heero said. "It was well done."
"My God, what are you?" Julia cried. There was something... something very wrong with this boy, something that made her instinctively draw away.
"Heero!" the second boy said sharply. He took a few steps towards her, then stopped as she tried to back away from him. "Rina wasn't who you thought she was," he said quietly with an apologetic glance at Mr. Krace.
"I knew that. Who was she?"
"She is the Phoenix."
"That's impossible," Julia said, shaking her head.
"No, it's not." He walked over to a metal fixture decorating the wall, and with his bare hand casually crumpled some of the metal.
"How did you do that?" she asked, staring at the metal. "Are you..." she trailed off, trying to think of some explanation for what she'd just seen, and failing.
"I... we were genetically engineered," he said, glancing at Heero. "We were created, not born. We were completely conscious at birth and more intelligent than any human alive. We never forget anything, we have strength beyond any normal human, and speed, too. We were raised by the Alliance to do their bidding, before we became Rebels. Rina is also one of us, and would have been just like us except that she was raised by Jules instead of the Alliance doctors. She is the Phoenix, and has been since she was twelve. She is the one who captured us and taught us the truth about the Alliance and what it does."
"But she's just a kid!"
"No, she isn't. She never has been a kid, none of us has. She pretended to be normal to hide who and what she was."
Julia turned shakily towards Mr. Krace. "Is this true?"
He nodded. "It was nine years ago that she first started helping the Rebels, not nine months. Going to school was just a cover for her. She already holds several college degrees in a number of fields, and has since she was seven."
"It's not true," Julia whispered, willing it all to go away, for everything to go back to the way it had been a week before. She couldn't face the thought that Rina, her friend... at least she'd thought Rina was her friend... was some sort of inhuman monster.
"I wish it wasn't," the second boy said. "I wish... There are many things I wish, but that Rina, that we all could have had normal lives is one of the things I wish for most, but it didn't happen that way."
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked in a harsh whisper.
"Because we need your help," Heero said.
"What?" she asked, drawing back another step. She was getting rather close to the wall.
"They won't be able to torture information out of Rina the normal way," the second boy explained. "She trained herself and we trained her to resist that sort of thing. So they'll have to try other methods. We think that they might come to you for information."
"I won't give them anything, if that's what you're worried about."
"No. What we want is anything you can tell us about whoever comes to you. A picture, a voice recording, even a verbal description."
"Why?"
"We know that they've taken her to the Alliance's headquarters, the real place where the Chancellor lives, not in the mansion. It's the one Alliance base we've never been able to locate. We're not even sure who's on the staff there. If you could help us locate one of them, one that leaves the base, we might be able to capture them and find out where the base is," Heero said, still sounding like a robot.
"You mean torture them for information," she cried. "I won't do it!"
They were silent for a moment, then the second one spoke again. "Julia," he said softly, persuasively. "Do you have any idea what they're doing to Rina right now?"
"Holding her until her trial," Julia said. "That's what the news reports say."
"The news is controlled by the Alliance, like almost everything else here," Heero stated darkly. "There won't be a trial. They can't afford to have the public know that a child was making them look like fools for so long, and of course, the details of our creation are classified."
"Then why hold her?" Julia asked, although she already knew the answer.
"Rina holds enough information in her mind to completely destroy the Rebels, if that information ever fell into Alliance hands," the other boy continued. "They need that information, and they're torturing her for it. I know the methods they're using on her - I perfected many of them myself. Do you want to know what they're doing to her?"
Julia shook her head, but she couldn't find her voice to say anything out loud. He continued, "It will start with basic techniques. She was shot twice - they won't treat the wounds. They won't let her get enough sleep, or give her enough food, and they'll bring in interrogators on a random basis to try to keep her confused, and give her regular beatings to make sure she's always uncomfortable. None of those techniques will work, so they'll proceed to others. Hallucinatory drugs, electricity, emotional torture... they'll use them all on her. She'll resist. She'll resist for a long time, much longer than anyone they've ever met. She might be able to resist for months, maybe even as long as a year, but every person has a breaking point. Sooner or later they'll wear down her resistance to the point where she caves in and tells them what they want to know. We've already changed as much as we can, access codes, locations of arms, but there are other things we can't change, and a lot of people - innocent people who've never had a thing to do with the Rebels - are going to die when she breaks."
Julia didn't want to believe it, didn't want to imagine that anyone could be so cruel to a sixteen-year old girl, but the image of Rina being abruptly cut off as one of the soldiers slammed his fist into her stomach kept replaying in Julia's mind. "What do you want me to do?" she whispered.
"Just what we said before. Don't do anything rash. We don't even know for sure if they will come, but if they do, try to give us some way to identify them. If we can find the base we can hit it, try to rescue Rina, but we have to find it first."
"What will you do to whoever comes?"
The two boys exchanged a glance. "We've promised Rina that we wouldn't use the techniques they'll use on her on any of our prisoners, but there are less painful methods to find out what we want, methods that will work on normal humans."
Julia considered. "I don't think I can do it," she said, her voice trembling a little.
"If you can't do it for Rina, do it for your father," Heero said.
"My father?! What does he have to do with this?"
"The Alliance had him assassinated because he was too loud in his protestations about the way the colonies were treated."
"I thought that the Rebels killed him because of the time he spent on Earth!"
"That's what the Alliance wanted you to think. The time he spent on Earth was really spent trying to gain support for the colonies."
"How do you know that?" she demanded.
"I..." he was suddenly cut off by the other boy.
"I knew the person who assassinated your father," the boy said quickly.
"You did? Who was he?"
"A pawn of the Alliance. He's dead now, but the Alliance that killed your father is now holding Rina. Will you please help her?" there was sincerity in his words.
Julia came to an abrupt decision, momentarily reliving those moments when her father's head exploded as he stepped up to the podium. They'd never caught the assassin. "How do you know that he's dead?" she asked.
The boys exchanged another glance. "Rina felt very guilty about what happened to your father," the boy said. "She tracked down and personally destroyed the guy who killed him. The Phoenix is very thorough with that sort of thing."
"Then I owe her that much. I'll do what I can, both for Rina and for my father."
"Thank you," the boy said. "Give us a few minutes, and then leave. Don't come back here, if they see too much communication between you and Mr. Krace, they'll get suspicious."
"Give you a few minutes to do what?"
"One of the agents watching this house saw you enter, and another saw you climbing the stairs. We've got to eliminate them before they can report back that you were here." Heero glanced at his companion, who nodded gravely.
"We can't spare their lives," he said, as if talking to himself. "They know too much - they can't report back at all."
"You're going to kill them?" she asked, her voice rising shrilly.
"Don't have a choice," Heero said, turning to leave. "Go back out the way you came."
The second boy paused on the threshold for a second. "I'm sorry - about your father, I mean. And about some other things. But thank you for helping us." Then he, too, disappeared.
Julia started to lurch after them, but Mr. Krace reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "No, please don't stop them!" he cried, his voice breaking. "For Rina's sake."
"But, you heard them..." Julia protested weakly.
"It's no game we play," he said. "It is literally life and death for hundreds, if not thousands of people. Julia, you would have done best to refuse them, but for Rina's sake I thank you. You have no idea what the Alliance has done to the colonists without anyone realizing."
"Did Rina..." Julia cut herself off. She knew the answer to that question - she'd seen Rina's skill at killing at the party. She must have killed before. But still Julia couldn't picture the younger girl as a killer. "I want to know," she said quietly. "Everything."
"I don't know everything. What I told you before, about Rina keeping me out of her work for my own protection, that was true."
"Then I want to know everything you know. I want to know what, exactly, Rina is. They kept referring to me as human, that implies that they are not human, doesn't it?"
"It does."
"Then I want to know the whole story before I leave here."
"The whole story will take time you don't have. There's only a short window of time before the other agents realize what has happened and take up new positions. If you don't leave before then, the boys will have to kill more people."
"Then give me the short version."
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Rina managed not to cry out in pain as the door to her cell opened again. This morning they'd switched tactics, moving her from a cell that was brightly lit at all times to one that was almost completely dark. The light shining in from the doorway nearly blinded her, and she raised her hands to protect her eyes, trying to make out the figures entering the cell. She hoped that it was more guards come back to beat her. That was all it had been for the last week - the bright cell, drugs injected into her, little food and water, and the beatings. She knew that this was only preparation, and for that reason had maintained a fairly good humor for the past week, because as long as they were preparing her, it meant that she had a little more time before she became really uncomfortable.
It was guards, but Yirtz was with them. He was carrying one of those damn pain-rods with him. "On your feet!" he snapped, reaching towards her with the rod. She evaded it, slowly getting to her feet. Sometimes she cooperated with them, sometimes she didn't. She was trying not to establish any patterns that they could try to judge her by, at least, not yet. Rina was saving that tactic until she found out what sort of torture they were going to use, then she intended to give them clues to point them in the wrong direction. She had one advantage over her captors - she knew all about every one of their techniques, from Arthur, while they knew nothing about her. Unfortunately that was an advantage that time and persistence on their part would take away from her.
She noted the slight frown of displeasure on Yirtz's face when she immediately obeyed, not giving him an excuse to hurt her, so she wasn't surprised when he planted the rod on the top of her right shoulder, forcing her to her knees. A scream burst out of her lips, entirely for his benefit, she barely even felt it anymore, not on top of all of her bruises. While she screamed, she wondered why he was here. She hadn't seen him since that first meeting with the Chancellor - he'd left all of his dirty work to the guards, although he had no doubt been watching the beating sessions on cameras. He was twisted.
"You're weak," Yirtz growled at her as she lay on the floor, gasping for breath. "Now get up!"
Rina glared at him, and got shocked again. She stood up again, eyeing him warily. He wouldn't try the same trick again, would he? she decided, seeing him glance into the corner where she knew a camera was hidden in the darkness. Yirtz apparently came to the same conclusion, because he merely jerked his head at her. "Bring it."
Rina felt fury rise in her, and then turned it on herself. There was nothing that angered her so much as when he called her 'it', and it made her even angrier that she allowed herself to be manipulated like that.
They picked her up and put her in a wheeled chair, strapping her down securely. Rina tested the bonds, and realized that while he might be insane, Yirtz did know her tolerances. Under normal circumstances she might have been able to break free, but all of the drugs in her system were messing up both her mind and body, so that she couldn't bring on enough strength.
She kept her face immobile, but inside she quaked with fear. This could mean only one thing - that they were done with preliminaries, and ready to start questioning her in earnest. One main fear clawed at her mind - would she be able to resist? Arthur had described the various stages of torture that the Alliance used. The first several she would be able to resist, of that she was confident. But every person had a breaking point...
Her body tensed slightly as she thought of something. The later stages she couldn't resist, but for now... what if she got them to stick to these stages longer? That might buy the others a little more time, maybe even let them figure out some way to hide Refuge, something she hadn't thought of. That was all she had left to hope for, but it was something. They would wait longer in this stage if they thought they were getting to her... she mentally reviewed information that she already knew had been compromised to the Alliance. She could give them drips and drabs of that, she decided as they wheeled her into a brightly lit room. In the center of the ceiling was a huge lamp, pointing down on the floor beneath it. They wheeled her under the lamp, and immediately she could feel the heat on the top of her head.
They fixed the wheels on the chair so that it wouldn't move, and then left her alone with Yirtz, but her mind was elsewhere. If she told him that information a little at a time, like it was being forced out of her, they would confirm it against what they already knew, and might think they were getting somewhere. She could even tell him the old codes for their computer system, for by now Arthur had surely changed them. She could draw that little bit of information out for a long time, she thought.
Just thinking of Arthur caused more pain than she liked to admit, as she faced the certainty that she was never going to see him or any of them again. She refused to let herself dwell on that. Her life was over, the sooner she accepted it the better. All that was left to her now was to do the best she could to help them by resisting for as long as she could.
As Yirtz stepped up to her, an eager expression on his face and that damn rod in his hand, Rina did the best she could to wrap herself in the lessons Arthur had given her on resisting torture. Maybe if she was lucky she could bring on one of those memory-flashes now...
Then the rod was flying at her, and Yirtz was demanding answers to questions, as the world seemed to descend into a sea of pain.
-----------
Cambel watched the monitors with a sort of fascinated disgust as Yirtz tortured the girl, spacing out his questions between her screams. It was difficult to keep that in mind - she looked so ordinary, so helpless, especially now. He had been right to keep away from her - it was a sign of how dangerous she was that he was unable to keep in mind what she truly was. he thought.
"Chancellor, Commander Laskin is here and is requesting an audience with you," said his secretary.
"Send him in right away," Cambel said, turning off the monitor and sitting up a little straighter. He was the Chancellor of Alpha colony, and Head Chancellor of Centari, but it wasn't often that he had visitors from Earth, particularly not ones as unusual as Laskin. He'd accessed the man's files when he'd received word he was coming from Earth, and what they revealed was quite interesting. Laskin was viewed as a prodigy, maybe even a genius of some sort. He was barely old enough to be an officer, but in those thirty short years he'd already made his mark in the galaxy, first in the Alliance's Academies on Earth, scoring the highest marks anyone had ever seen, and later on in helping to put down the Asian Rebellion just a year after he graduated out of the Academy. Then he'd disappeared, at least from the public eye.
Now Cambel found out what he'd been up to - he'd been the link between Project Titan and Earth Command for almost ten years now, and God knew what else he'd been doing. Even Cambel was on a need-to-know basis concerning Laskin, who was one of the most dangerous men in the Alliance. It put him in an awkward position now. Technically, Laskin was only a Commander, well below his own rank, but he knew that if Laskin made any 'suggestions', he'd do well to follow them. It left him without a clear view of their comparative ranks, and that bothered him - it had been a long time since he had to salute anyone.
He remained in his seat when Laskin entered. The man looked very young, with a mop of blond hair cut as long as Alliance regulations would allow, and a slight spring in his step. He saluted Cambel without any hint that there was a doubt as to their comparative ranks. "Commander Laskin, at your disposal, sir."
"Pleased to meet you, Commander. Please, be seated..." Laskin immediately seated himself, looking completely at ease. "It is an honor to have you here, but I am curious as to why you came. I was only told that you had your own orders, and would carry them out when you arrived. If you are free to tell me what those orders are, I will be better able to accommodate you." Cambel wished he was confident enough of his position to demand that Laskin tell him the orders.
To his dismay, Laskin chuckled once, as if he'd said something amusing, then smiled. "You are quite free to know what my orders were, the reason they could not tell you them when I left was that I had not yet determined what they were. I have been given complete discretion here."
Cambel managed to keep his jaw from dropping. Complete discretion meant that Laskin was, for all intents and purposes, in command here. He could order Cambel himself arrested and would be instantly obeyed. Things had just taken a turn for the worst.
Laskin saw his expression. "Don't worry, Chancellor. I rarely use all the authority I am given. My mission here is twofold. The first part is that I am, on express order of Earth Command, to investigate the cover-up that occurred here sixteen years ago that allowed Subject Eight, a.k.a. Rina Krace, a.k.a. the Phoenix, to remain hidden for so long. I may have many questions, but I doubt they will involve you, sir, because you were not involved in Project Titan in any way, nor were you in command when the cover-up occurred, so you would have no responsibility there." Cambel just barely managed to conceal his relief. "The second part of my mission is to observe and advise you concerning the interrogation of the Phoenix, specifically where Director Yirtz is concerned." Now he frowned in distaste. "I had the distinct... pleasure of working extensively with Director Yirtz during most of the duration of Project Titan, so I am well aware of his strengths and weaknesses. I may be able to... advise him on how to proceed. I also wish to speak to the prisoner myself."
"I will arrange it as soon as possible, but Director Yirtz, by order of Earth Command, has been given control over her... its... interrogation. You may have to get his permission."
"Don't worry, I have the authority to deal with him. Where is he now?"
"He is currently interrogating the prisoner," Cambel said, switching on the monitor. There was no sound, but they could both see the girl's... the Phoenix's mouth open wide in a scream as the pain inducer was driven into her stomach.
"He hasn't lost his touch, I see," Laskin observed dryly, but something in his voice caught Cambel's attention. It almost sounded like disapproval. Laskin turned back to Cambel. "I still wish to speak with the prisoner, but I will not interrupt or interfere with the schedule that Director Yirtz has set. Please tell him that I wish to speak with him as soon as he is finished."
Cambel nodded. Then, observing Laskin's dispassionate face as he watched the torture session, Cambel finally realized why Laskin so unsettled him. He was the human version of Project Titan, or at least as close as any human could get. He was brilliant, and had demonstrated his ruthlessness on many occasions. But even as he made those disturbing observations, Cambel smiled slightly. Perhaps he would be able to break the Phoenix where it already seemed to Cambel that Yirtz was doomed to fail.
-------------
Michael hooked his hand around the ledge at the top of the building, and pulled himself up. He knew Arthur liked to come up here to think some nights... there was no way a normal human could have made the climb, not without a good deal of climbing equipment, so it guaranteed him privacy most of the time. As he dusted himself off, Michael looked around. For a minute he didn't see Arthur, which was unusual. Finally he spotted him. Arthur was sitting on the roof of the building, gazing up at the starry sky. There was a good reason that Michael, whose eyesight was as good as anyone's, had missed Arthur on his first glance. Arthur had turned his skin and hair pitch black to match the sky, and he was sitting with his back towards Michael, so his white eyes wouldn't show.
"Arthur."
Arthur turned to look at him, his white eyes even more startling with that skin in these surroundings. "Hello, Michael." He allowed his skin to return to normal. They were all still practicing doing that, trying to attain the proficiency Rina had at the unusual skill. So far they could all change to any color they wanted, but had a hard time maintaining it for more than a couple hours. It was like flexing a muscle, and it was difficult to keep that muscle flexed for such a long time... Rina assured them that it was possible to get so proficient that you no longer had to think about it, but she was the only one to reach that level, so far. Michael closed his eyes for a second, trying to drive her image out of his mind. Thinking about her would do no good, they either had to save her or move on and figure out how to do without her. Right now it looked like it would have to be the latter. The Alliance had already been holding Rina for three weeks.
"What are you doing out here?"
"Just thinking."
"About Rina?"
A hint of pain passed over Arthur's face. "Yeah, and other stuff. I think I have an idea on how we might be able to save Refuge if... when they break her." The pain in his voice was obvious, and Michael would have moved to try to comfort him if the impact of what he'd just said hadn't been so dramatic.
That came as a shock. Michael and the others had been under the impression that Arthur just came up here to cry, or sulk, or whatever it was people with normal emotions did in a situation like this. Michael thought, remembering Jules Krace the last time he'd seen him. They were taking turns providing very discreet protection for him, now that all of his former servants were now among the Rebels. So far they'd foiled at least two assassination attempts. It was the least they could do, and not nearly enough.
"What's your idea?" Michael asked. They'd all been wracking their brains, trying to figure out some way to protect Refuge. How could Arthur have suddenly come up with something on his own?
"We were thinking about it the wrong way," Arthur said as if he could read Michael's mind. "That's the problem. Refuge's greatest protections has always been it's secrecy, and everything we were thinking of kept that secrecy intact."
"You want to let the Alliance know about Refuge?" Michael asked doubtfully. He'd never known Arthur to make such a blatantly stupid plan, but there was a first time for everything. Maybe losing Rina had done something to him.
"No," Arthur said patiently, and Michael was convinced he also knew what was going through Michael's mind now. "Not now. But..." he swallowed painfully. "When they break her, I can take over the satellites before they can attack. I can use them, either directly against the troops, or I can hold some of the Alliance installations outside of the main dome hostage, threaten to do to them what they've done to other smaller settlements. We use the time I buy to open up Refuge to everyone, the public, the media, everyone, and make sure that word of it makes it to Earth, too. The Alliance is in control there, but they can't openly show what they really are without starting a rebellion. They'll be forced to 'protect' the people in Refuge, and if we keep the public eye there long enough, the Alliance won't dare destroy it." Arthur bit his lip and looked at the ground.
"The problem is that we'll be turning Refuge over to the Alliance, along with all the people in it. We can't possibly retain control over it. The people there will be crushed emotionally, but they'll be alive. If we spread word quickly enough, we can even save Dr. Green's work. There are people there who have been exiled by the Alliance, we'll have to hide them, maybe even fake their deaths, depending on how thorough the Alliance is. But it is a way to save Refuge. They can't kill or imprison tens of thousands of people, either, so the majority will be safe. But not all of them..." Arthur sighed. "Rina would hate it, but she would see that it's the only way. And the Rebels will be able to survive as well. Heero is right about that, we can't sacrifice all of the Rebels to protect those in Refuge. There has to be someone to fight the Alliance, and if the Rebels aren't here, who knows what the Alliance will try to get away with?"
One of the suggestions that had come up rather briefly during the debate on how to protect Refuge had been the idea of all of the Rebels turning themselves in, in exchange for all the lives in Refuge once it was found. Heero had immediately vetoed the notion, for a number of very good reasons - the thing Arthur had just mentioned was one of them. Another was that the Alliance was certainly duplicitous enough to accept the Rebel's surrender, and then destroy Refuge anyway.
"So, what do you think?" Arthur asked when Michael remained silent after nodding his agreement to the last statement.
"I think it has a good chance of succeeding," Michael said, refusing to get excited until they proposed the idea before everyone and let them all have a chance to shoot it down. But it was the best he'd heard yet. Arthur nodded, looking slightly pleased with himself. He knew enough not to get too excited yet.
Then something occurred to Michael. Arthur had only referred to Rina once by her name, and that was when he was talking about her imaginary reaction to his plan. When he spoke of what the Alliance was doing, it was always 'to her', not 'to Rina.' He mentioned this to Arthur, who nodded slightly, looking embarrassed.
"I know that it's foolish, but I feel like, if I actually say that they will break... her, that it might make it come true." Arthur flushed bright red and looked at the ground again. "That's why I come up here so much now."
"Excuse me?" Michael was unable to find any logic in that last sentence.
"I... Sometimes, if it's quiet enough, I can close my eyes and see Rina, right now. I feel like... somehow, I'm closer to her. I can't explain it."
Michael didn't know how to respond to that, but an idea was beginning to form in his mind. So when Arthur asked him if he thought that it was all in his head, that emotions really did make him weaker and were doing something to his mind, Michael replied, "I don't know, yet. Maybe you really are closer to her, somehow. Don't stop just yet. And I don't think your mind is going, not yet anyway."
That earned him a wan smile, which made Michael feel warm inside. Arthur had never smiled when he was with the Alliance. It was the truth, which surprised him. Then Arthur's smile died as he turned to stare at the sky again, darkening his skin. Michael saw a slight frown on his face as he closed his eyes, and perceived that Arthur was thinking about Rina. A flare of anger rose within him at the Alliance, but he let it pass through him, the way he always did. Anger would do none of them any good now. Now he had to work. "Tomorrow you'll present your idea to the others?" he asked, and Arthur nodded.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Arthur responded in a murmur.
Michael turned to climb back down. He had some research to do.
-------------
Rina hid her eyes again as the door opened, flooding light on her for the first time in days. In those days she'd given serious thought to the idea that Yirtz was trying to permanently damage her eyes. She had a hard time imagining that sort of idea coming from him - he was more likely to try to destroy her mind and then experiment on her body than the other way around. On the other hand, she'd been resisting him for over a month now, and he was getting rather irrational.
But it wasn't Yirtz in the doorway, she discovered as her eyes cleared. It was a young man, an Earthling like all the other Alliance soldiers, but there was an air of confidence about him that was unusual in one so young, and disconcerting, as well. He studied her without speaking for several long minutes, then turned his head to the side. "Turn the lights on, I want to have a good look at her."
"Yes sir." Rina heard, and those two words told her a lot. First of all, he was an officer, and high-ranking enough to gain access to her cell. He was also powerful or important enough that people would disregard Yirtz's current orders without hesitating. For a human to come by such power so young in the Alliance meant that he was exceptional, in one way or another. She was about to find out.
When the lights came on, he walked into the room, and the door closed behind him. He was apparently unarmed, but was careful to stay beyond the length of chain that tethered her to the wall as he walked in a slow, half-circle around her. Then he leaned back against the wall and waited.
A minute passed, then another. Ten minutes passed, and still he said nothing. As they passed the fifteen-minute mark in silence, Rina realized that this was some sort of test, to see how patient she was. What should she do about it? Should she give in and speak first, to let them think she could be manipulated like that, or would it be too obvious? she decided. Yirtz was probably watching, and if he wasn't, he'd hear about this and jump to the wrong conclusions. Misdirection had kept him in the earliest stages of their torture methods for over a month now, there was no reason that it shouldn't continue to work.
Rina thought with an internal frown. If he had enough power to get around Yirtz, then he might be taking over her interrogation, and in that case, it would be foolish to make so obvious a move until she knew more. Twenty minutes passed, then twenty-five. Rina continued to sit with her back against the wall staring into space. She looked absolutely still, but she was carefully clenching and unclenching various muscle groups so that she didn't get too stiff. She didn't think Yirtz knew she could do that, and you never knew when a little bit of extra mobility might come in handy.
At the thirty-minute-mark, he finally spoke. "Impressive. I was half-expecting you to give in so that old fool Yirtz would go running off in the wrong direction again."
Rina felt a chill. He knew what she'd been doing to Yirtz!
"Oh, don't look so surprised," he said. "It isn't really your fault I saw what you were doing. You had to be fairly obvious for him to catch on, obvious enough that it was easy for me to see you." He gave her a wicked smile and started tapping his fingers against his own leg, obviously mimicking her, and Rina realized what had given away her surprise. She stopped tapping her fingers against her knee, but didn't give any sign of her irritation.
"You are quite impressive," he repeated, almost to himself. "You are what the subjects of Project Titan should have become, if the project wasn't managed by an arrogant, sadistic man who was more interested in hurting things than in truly serving the Alliance. Luckily for you, his methods were just good enough that I couldn't protest, otherwise he would have been removed from the project and replaced with someone who could have turned them into the weapon that you are. Independent, aggressive, and with a full range of human emotions. I always knew the training was a bad idea." He sighed. "Of course, none of that matters any more, now that we have you."
"What are you doing here?" she asked in a low voice.
"Oh, so she finally speaks! I am here to advise Yirtz, to correct the mistakes he makes so we can speed up the process of breaking your mind." He frowned slightly, almost to himself. "Then we will be able to destroy the Rebels."
"You sound as brain-washed as the boys did," she observed darkly.
"But I came to my own conclusions on the topic," he told her, a frown etched across his face. There was something deeply disturbing to him here, something long since over and quite emotional that was driving him. She could tell because of the frown, because of the way his entire body tightened up and his breathing became heavier. Definitely something old and emotional.
"And how did you do that?"
"It was easy enough," he said. "When they ki..." he cut himself off, but not before she guessed that someone he'd known and loved had been killed, and he believed it was by the Rebels. "You're very good," he said admiringly. "But so am I. You're lucky that I wasn't put in charge of Project Titan."
Rina knew that. She knew exactly how lucky she'd been, how lucky they'd all been. If Project Titan had come around ten, even five years later, he probably would have been put in command, and she never would have been able to turn them. None of this was much of a relief now, though, as she faced an opponent who had actually learned something about her, the real her.
He studied her face, although Rina knew that her expression hadn't changed in the slightest. "Finally, an opponent worth fighting," he said with a smile, for a second reminding her of Kan. "Don't you have anything to say?"
Rina shook her head, assuming a defeated look. His smile died for a second, and she knew she'd surprised him, even if it was just for a moment. She let the look fade away, then raised her eyes to meet his, and smiled. "You are better than Yirtz," she told him honestly. "Quite good for a human. But I'm not human, and you shouldn't believe anything I tell you about me."
She saw the protest on his lips, that she hadn't told him anything about her, but she started tapping her fingers against her leg, imitating the nervous gesture. The words died unspoken, and she saw him reviewing their conversation in his mind, trying to figure out whether she had been feeding him misinformation, knowing how much quicker he was and relying on him to pick up on it. He had, but that didn't mean that she wasn't manipulating him all the same. All of that was a lie, of course, but he had no way of knowing that, and now he was doubting himself.
He gave her a confident smile, which she knew was entirely fake. "Nice try, Phoenix. But it will take more than that to fool me." As he turned and left, leaving her in darkness again, Rina hid a smile. He was wrong. That was all it had taken to fool him, and now he didn't know whether he could trust his own observations about her.
She'd bought herself a little more time.
TRANSCRIPT OF DIALOGUE FROM BASE 231.8
STATUS: SECURITY LEVEL 1
DATE: 21.27.22
TOPIC: INTERROGATION OF THE PHOENIX
A: How dare you interfere with my work! You ruined a full week of preparation by speaking with it then! I was under the impression you were here in a completely observatory sense!
B: Then you were misinformed. I am here to observe, and to advise. And it is my duty to advise you when I see that you are making a mistake, as you are now.
A: What?
B: You refuse to give the Phoenix full credit for intelligence, strength, or cunning because you did not train her. That is not only arrogant, but foolish, given what she has accomplished against us already.
A: It is weak, much weaker than any of my creations. What is your point?
B: You mentioned in your daily report that you have continued on this level of interrogation for much longer than the normal time period because you believed she was beginning to break, that she was starting to give you real information about the Rebels?
A: I have confirmed that. Most of what it tells me are lies, of course, but I can distinguish between lies and real information. Much of what it's told me has already been confirmed. Other things, like passwords and codes, have already been changed by the other Rebels, but they remain important, as a sign that it is breaking.
B: You're a fool. Don't you think that Four explained our techniques to her? Don't you think that she would try to use that to her advantage? She has perfect recall. She must have known that some of the information about the Rebels had been compromised. Likewise, she must have known that the Rebels would change their passwords. She's deliberately giving you useless information in an attempt to remain longer in this level of interrogation, to buy herself more time.
A: No...
B: Yes. Are you ready to listen to a suggestion?
A: Do I have a choice?
B: No, and if you're wise, you'll listen to me. Immediately step up the level. Assume that the first few levels wouldn't work on her, no matter what. Those levels don't usually work on strong-willed humans, so there's no way they'll work on her. While you start more intensive work, start concentrating on how she's different from the subjects of Project Titan.
A: You mean emotions.
B: Yes. We know she thinks of herself as the Phoenix, that tells us a lot about her already. The Phoenix is known to be efficient, ruthless when the situation calls for it, but also weak-hearted in others, not given to sacrificing her own people. That means she cares for people, but is willing to sacrifice them, and also that she holds her first allegiance to the Rebels, not to the people at large.
A: I know that! I've seen the reports on the Phoenix.
B: Then use them, damn it! You've been using purely physical torture, when you know that even normal humans can resist that. Get into her mind, Director, if you want to succeed.
A: Are you in charge of this interrogation or am I?
B: As I said before, I am here only to advise. But if you don't get results and soon, Earth Command will lose patience with you. You've failed one time too many - there isn't any room for mistakes left.
A: They wouldn't dare...
B: They would, and even with your much-vaunted secrets, I don't think they'll spare you. There are ways of getting that information, whether you tell them willingly or not.
"I'm not certain. The Alliance started arresting my servants, for questioning, and they all disappeared," Mr. Krace said, rubbing the back of his neck wearily. Julia took a closer look at him. He looked terrible - he hadn't shaved in the several days since Rina had been captured, and he didn't look like he'd slept since then either. "Julia, you shouldn't be here. Anyone who's exposed to me is in danger. The Alliance hasn't arrested me yet, but they could any day now."
"I need to talk with you about Rina, and I didn't want to do it over the phone."
Mr. Krace shot a guilty look around as he quickly closed the door. "Julia, you have to leave now," he said, his words contradicting his previous action. "There are people watching this house, and if they find out you've been asking about Rina..."
"I'm not leaving," Julia said in what she hoped was a firm manner. "Rina was... is my friend, at least I think she's my friend, and I want to know the truth about her."
Mr. Krace sighed wearily. "Then come into one of the center rooms, it's safer to talk there."
He led her into his study, a small room in the center of the house with no windows and not enough ventilation. Mr. Krace sat in one chair and gestured for Julia to take another. "I don't know what you expect me to know," he said. "I haven't had any communication with Rina since they took her, and they haven't told me anything about her, either. I don't even know where she's been taken."
"Mr. Krace, was Rina really a Rebel?"
He closed his eyes. "Yes." There was a note of certainty in his voice that Julia didn't expect, which led her to ask a second question.
"Did you know?"
He now opened his eyes to stare at her. For several seconds he said nothing. Finally he answered in a very low voice. "Yes."
"Yes?!" she asked, astonished. "But... at the party... she apologized. She said that she should have told you."
"That scene was staged for the benefit of the Alliance, so that they would think I knew nothing of value. It was mostly for my protection."
Julia stared at him. "But... you knew? And you let her join the Rebels? Didn't you know how dangerous that was? Didn't you tell her?"
"She knew the risks."
"But she's just a child!"
To her surprise, he let out a short bark of bitter laughter. "Rina's a special girl."
Julia didn't know how to respond to that, so she asked another question. "When did you find out that she had joined the Rebels?"
"I knew from the beginning."
"When was that?"
"A little less than nine years ago."
"Nine years?" Julia repeated. "You mean nine months, right?" Nine years ago Rina would have only been seven.
"Yes, of course," he answered. "Julia, I'm sorry. Rina spoke often of her friendship with you, and her fondness for you. I know she regretted not being able to tell you the truth, but there isn't much more I can tell you. Rina and I both agreed that it would be best if I didn't know much about what she did, so that if this happened I wouldn't become a target. I don't know anything else to tell you."
"You're sure there's not anything else?" Julia beseeched him. She hadn't found out anything, really. And nothing about what was happening to Rina.
"Tell her the truth," said a low voice from behind her. Julia jumped to her feet and turned around, frightened at the sudden interruption. She'd thought they were alone in the house. For a moment, light shining in from the corridor blinded her, and all she could make out were two figures. As her eyes adjusted, she realized that they were two boys, about Rina's age, both colonists like herself. It was the one in front who'd spoken.
"Who are you?" she gasped, backing up a few steps. There was something frightening about them, despite the fact that they were just boys, little more than children.
"Heero, are you sure about this?" the second boy asked the first as both moved forward into the room.
"Do it," Heero instructed, and Julia noticed his comment was directed at Mr. Krace. Who did he think he was, to order the Ambassador around like that?
But Mr. Krace didn't scold the boy for his audacity, he just frowned. "Heero, she isn't one of you."
"But she was observant enough to notice that you held something back when you said Rina was a Rebel, and her instincts are good. Also, she's quickly moving into her father's position - it's common knowledge that in a few years she may become a Representative herself. More than that, she's known to be a friend of Rina's. They won't be able to break Rina with the usual methods. We expect they'll try to manipulate her through her emotions and her ties to humanity. They'll see those as her weaknesses."
"You're Rebels, aren't you?" Julia asked, breaking into the conversation between the boy and Mr. Krace.
"Yes."
"What are you doing here?"
"We were talking to the ambassador about his daughter, but you may be useful. Tell her about the Phoenix," he instructed Mr. Krace again.
"The Phoenix?" Julia repeated in a gasp, turning back to Mr. Krace. "You know who the Phoenix is?"
Mr. Krace glanced at the two boys, then nodded. "So do you."
It took Julia several seconds to find a possible meaning behind his strange words, and then she shook her head. "Mr. Krace, you aren't talking about Rina, are you? You can't be."
"She is quick, for a human," the second boy said.
"For a human?" Julia repeated. "What's going on here? Why did they arrest Rina? And how did she manage to... to..."
"Kill," the first boy, Heero, replied in an emotionless voice. "The word is kill. She did fairly well, she eliminated more than half of the enemy before she was captured. We might have done a little better, but it was still well done."
Julia backed up, horrified. "She killed eleven people!" the words burst out of her, and in that one instant found herself at the heart of the matter that had brought her here. She'd seen Rina do things that were impossible, had seen a childhood friend kill many people, then jump like a kangaroo to the second floor. It wasn't possible. "How can you say it was well done?"
"She eliminated the enemy, and managed to salvage something out of the situation even after she was captured," Heero said. "It was well done."
"My God, what are you?" Julia cried. There was something... something very wrong with this boy, something that made her instinctively draw away.
"Heero!" the second boy said sharply. He took a few steps towards her, then stopped as she tried to back away from him. "Rina wasn't who you thought she was," he said quietly with an apologetic glance at Mr. Krace.
"I knew that. Who was she?"
"She is the Phoenix."
"That's impossible," Julia said, shaking her head.
"No, it's not." He walked over to a metal fixture decorating the wall, and with his bare hand casually crumpled some of the metal.
"How did you do that?" she asked, staring at the metal. "Are you..." she trailed off, trying to think of some explanation for what she'd just seen, and failing.
"I... we were genetically engineered," he said, glancing at Heero. "We were created, not born. We were completely conscious at birth and more intelligent than any human alive. We never forget anything, we have strength beyond any normal human, and speed, too. We were raised by the Alliance to do their bidding, before we became Rebels. Rina is also one of us, and would have been just like us except that she was raised by Jules instead of the Alliance doctors. She is the Phoenix, and has been since she was twelve. She is the one who captured us and taught us the truth about the Alliance and what it does."
"But she's just a kid!"
"No, she isn't. She never has been a kid, none of us has. She pretended to be normal to hide who and what she was."
Julia turned shakily towards Mr. Krace. "Is this true?"
He nodded. "It was nine years ago that she first started helping the Rebels, not nine months. Going to school was just a cover for her. She already holds several college degrees in a number of fields, and has since she was seven."
"It's not true," Julia whispered, willing it all to go away, for everything to go back to the way it had been a week before. She couldn't face the thought that Rina, her friend... at least she'd thought Rina was her friend... was some sort of inhuman monster.
"I wish it wasn't," the second boy said. "I wish... There are many things I wish, but that Rina, that we all could have had normal lives is one of the things I wish for most, but it didn't happen that way."
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked in a harsh whisper.
"Because we need your help," Heero said.
"What?" she asked, drawing back another step. She was getting rather close to the wall.
"They won't be able to torture information out of Rina the normal way," the second boy explained. "She trained herself and we trained her to resist that sort of thing. So they'll have to try other methods. We think that they might come to you for information."
"I won't give them anything, if that's what you're worried about."
"No. What we want is anything you can tell us about whoever comes to you. A picture, a voice recording, even a verbal description."
"Why?"
"We know that they've taken her to the Alliance's headquarters, the real place where the Chancellor lives, not in the mansion. It's the one Alliance base we've never been able to locate. We're not even sure who's on the staff there. If you could help us locate one of them, one that leaves the base, we might be able to capture them and find out where the base is," Heero said, still sounding like a robot.
"You mean torture them for information," she cried. "I won't do it!"
They were silent for a moment, then the second one spoke again. "Julia," he said softly, persuasively. "Do you have any idea what they're doing to Rina right now?"
"Holding her until her trial," Julia said. "That's what the news reports say."
"The news is controlled by the Alliance, like almost everything else here," Heero stated darkly. "There won't be a trial. They can't afford to have the public know that a child was making them look like fools for so long, and of course, the details of our creation are classified."
"Then why hold her?" Julia asked, although she already knew the answer.
"Rina holds enough information in her mind to completely destroy the Rebels, if that information ever fell into Alliance hands," the other boy continued. "They need that information, and they're torturing her for it. I know the methods they're using on her - I perfected many of them myself. Do you want to know what they're doing to her?"
Julia shook her head, but she couldn't find her voice to say anything out loud. He continued, "It will start with basic techniques. She was shot twice - they won't treat the wounds. They won't let her get enough sleep, or give her enough food, and they'll bring in interrogators on a random basis to try to keep her confused, and give her regular beatings to make sure she's always uncomfortable. None of those techniques will work, so they'll proceed to others. Hallucinatory drugs, electricity, emotional torture... they'll use them all on her. She'll resist. She'll resist for a long time, much longer than anyone they've ever met. She might be able to resist for months, maybe even as long as a year, but every person has a breaking point. Sooner or later they'll wear down her resistance to the point where she caves in and tells them what they want to know. We've already changed as much as we can, access codes, locations of arms, but there are other things we can't change, and a lot of people - innocent people who've never had a thing to do with the Rebels - are going to die when she breaks."
Julia didn't want to believe it, didn't want to imagine that anyone could be so cruel to a sixteen-year old girl, but the image of Rina being abruptly cut off as one of the soldiers slammed his fist into her stomach kept replaying in Julia's mind. "What do you want me to do?" she whispered.
"Just what we said before. Don't do anything rash. We don't even know for sure if they will come, but if they do, try to give us some way to identify them. If we can find the base we can hit it, try to rescue Rina, but we have to find it first."
"What will you do to whoever comes?"
The two boys exchanged a glance. "We've promised Rina that we wouldn't use the techniques they'll use on her on any of our prisoners, but there are less painful methods to find out what we want, methods that will work on normal humans."
Julia considered. "I don't think I can do it," she said, her voice trembling a little.
"If you can't do it for Rina, do it for your father," Heero said.
"My father?! What does he have to do with this?"
"The Alliance had him assassinated because he was too loud in his protestations about the way the colonies were treated."
"I thought that the Rebels killed him because of the time he spent on Earth!"
"That's what the Alliance wanted you to think. The time he spent on Earth was really spent trying to gain support for the colonies."
"How do you know that?" she demanded.
"I..." he was suddenly cut off by the other boy.
"I knew the person who assassinated your father," the boy said quickly.
"You did? Who was he?"
"A pawn of the Alliance. He's dead now, but the Alliance that killed your father is now holding Rina. Will you please help her?" there was sincerity in his words.
Julia came to an abrupt decision, momentarily reliving those moments when her father's head exploded as he stepped up to the podium. They'd never caught the assassin. "How do you know that he's dead?" she asked.
The boys exchanged another glance. "Rina felt very guilty about what happened to your father," the boy said. "She tracked down and personally destroyed the guy who killed him. The Phoenix is very thorough with that sort of thing."
"Then I owe her that much. I'll do what I can, both for Rina and for my father."
"Thank you," the boy said. "Give us a few minutes, and then leave. Don't come back here, if they see too much communication between you and Mr. Krace, they'll get suspicious."
"Give you a few minutes to do what?"
"One of the agents watching this house saw you enter, and another saw you climbing the stairs. We've got to eliminate them before they can report back that you were here." Heero glanced at his companion, who nodded gravely.
"We can't spare their lives," he said, as if talking to himself. "They know too much - they can't report back at all."
"You're going to kill them?" she asked, her voice rising shrilly.
"Don't have a choice," Heero said, turning to leave. "Go back out the way you came."
The second boy paused on the threshold for a second. "I'm sorry - about your father, I mean. And about some other things. But thank you for helping us." Then he, too, disappeared.
Julia started to lurch after them, but Mr. Krace reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "No, please don't stop them!" he cried, his voice breaking. "For Rina's sake."
"But, you heard them..." Julia protested weakly.
"It's no game we play," he said. "It is literally life and death for hundreds, if not thousands of people. Julia, you would have done best to refuse them, but for Rina's sake I thank you. You have no idea what the Alliance has done to the colonists without anyone realizing."
"Did Rina..." Julia cut herself off. She knew the answer to that question - she'd seen Rina's skill at killing at the party. She must have killed before. But still Julia couldn't picture the younger girl as a killer. "I want to know," she said quietly. "Everything."
"I don't know everything. What I told you before, about Rina keeping me out of her work for my own protection, that was true."
"Then I want to know everything you know. I want to know what, exactly, Rina is. They kept referring to me as human, that implies that they are not human, doesn't it?"
"It does."
"Then I want to know the whole story before I leave here."
"The whole story will take time you don't have. There's only a short window of time before the other agents realize what has happened and take up new positions. If you don't leave before then, the boys will have to kill more people."
"Then give me the short version."
------------
Rina managed not to cry out in pain as the door to her cell opened again. This morning they'd switched tactics, moving her from a cell that was brightly lit at all times to one that was almost completely dark. The light shining in from the doorway nearly blinded her, and she raised her hands to protect her eyes, trying to make out the figures entering the cell. She hoped that it was more guards come back to beat her. That was all it had been for the last week - the bright cell, drugs injected into her, little food and water, and the beatings. She knew that this was only preparation, and for that reason had maintained a fairly good humor for the past week, because as long as they were preparing her, it meant that she had a little more time before she became really uncomfortable.
It was guards, but Yirtz was with them. He was carrying one of those damn pain-rods with him. "On your feet!" he snapped, reaching towards her with the rod. She evaded it, slowly getting to her feet. Sometimes she cooperated with them, sometimes she didn't. She was trying not to establish any patterns that they could try to judge her by, at least, not yet. Rina was saving that tactic until she found out what sort of torture they were going to use, then she intended to give them clues to point them in the wrong direction. She had one advantage over her captors - she knew all about every one of their techniques, from Arthur, while they knew nothing about her. Unfortunately that was an advantage that time and persistence on their part would take away from her.
She noted the slight frown of displeasure on Yirtz's face when she immediately obeyed, not giving him an excuse to hurt her, so she wasn't surprised when he planted the rod on the top of her right shoulder, forcing her to her knees. A scream burst out of her lips, entirely for his benefit, she barely even felt it anymore, not on top of all of her bruises. While she screamed, she wondered why he was here. She hadn't seen him since that first meeting with the Chancellor - he'd left all of his dirty work to the guards, although he had no doubt been watching the beating sessions on cameras. He was twisted.
"You're weak," Yirtz growled at her as she lay on the floor, gasping for breath. "Now get up!"
Rina glared at him, and got shocked again. She stood up again, eyeing him warily. He wouldn't try the same trick again, would he? she decided, seeing him glance into the corner where she knew a camera was hidden in the darkness. Yirtz apparently came to the same conclusion, because he merely jerked his head at her. "Bring it."
Rina felt fury rise in her, and then turned it on herself. There was nothing that angered her so much as when he called her 'it', and it made her even angrier that she allowed herself to be manipulated like that.
They picked her up and put her in a wheeled chair, strapping her down securely. Rina tested the bonds, and realized that while he might be insane, Yirtz did know her tolerances. Under normal circumstances she might have been able to break free, but all of the drugs in her system were messing up both her mind and body, so that she couldn't bring on enough strength.
She kept her face immobile, but inside she quaked with fear. This could mean only one thing - that they were done with preliminaries, and ready to start questioning her in earnest. One main fear clawed at her mind - would she be able to resist? Arthur had described the various stages of torture that the Alliance used. The first several she would be able to resist, of that she was confident. But every person had a breaking point...
Her body tensed slightly as she thought of something. The later stages she couldn't resist, but for now... what if she got them to stick to these stages longer? That might buy the others a little more time, maybe even let them figure out some way to hide Refuge, something she hadn't thought of. That was all she had left to hope for, but it was something. They would wait longer in this stage if they thought they were getting to her... she mentally reviewed information that she already knew had been compromised to the Alliance. She could give them drips and drabs of that, she decided as they wheeled her into a brightly lit room. In the center of the ceiling was a huge lamp, pointing down on the floor beneath it. They wheeled her under the lamp, and immediately she could feel the heat on the top of her head.
They fixed the wheels on the chair so that it wouldn't move, and then left her alone with Yirtz, but her mind was elsewhere. If she told him that information a little at a time, like it was being forced out of her, they would confirm it against what they already knew, and might think they were getting somewhere. She could even tell him the old codes for their computer system, for by now Arthur had surely changed them. She could draw that little bit of information out for a long time, she thought.
Just thinking of Arthur caused more pain than she liked to admit, as she faced the certainty that she was never going to see him or any of them again. She refused to let herself dwell on that. Her life was over, the sooner she accepted it the better. All that was left to her now was to do the best she could to help them by resisting for as long as she could.
As Yirtz stepped up to her, an eager expression on his face and that damn rod in his hand, Rina did the best she could to wrap herself in the lessons Arthur had given her on resisting torture. Maybe if she was lucky she could bring on one of those memory-flashes now...
Then the rod was flying at her, and Yirtz was demanding answers to questions, as the world seemed to descend into a sea of pain.
-----------
Cambel watched the monitors with a sort of fascinated disgust as Yirtz tortured the girl, spacing out his questions between her screams. It was difficult to keep that in mind - she looked so ordinary, so helpless, especially now. He had been right to keep away from her - it was a sign of how dangerous she was that he was unable to keep in mind what she truly was. he thought.
"Chancellor, Commander Laskin is here and is requesting an audience with you," said his secretary.
"Send him in right away," Cambel said, turning off the monitor and sitting up a little straighter. He was the Chancellor of Alpha colony, and Head Chancellor of Centari, but it wasn't often that he had visitors from Earth, particularly not ones as unusual as Laskin. He'd accessed the man's files when he'd received word he was coming from Earth, and what they revealed was quite interesting. Laskin was viewed as a prodigy, maybe even a genius of some sort. He was barely old enough to be an officer, but in those thirty short years he'd already made his mark in the galaxy, first in the Alliance's Academies on Earth, scoring the highest marks anyone had ever seen, and later on in helping to put down the Asian Rebellion just a year after he graduated out of the Academy. Then he'd disappeared, at least from the public eye.
Now Cambel found out what he'd been up to - he'd been the link between Project Titan and Earth Command for almost ten years now, and God knew what else he'd been doing. Even Cambel was on a need-to-know basis concerning Laskin, who was one of the most dangerous men in the Alliance. It put him in an awkward position now. Technically, Laskin was only a Commander, well below his own rank, but he knew that if Laskin made any 'suggestions', he'd do well to follow them. It left him without a clear view of their comparative ranks, and that bothered him - it had been a long time since he had to salute anyone.
He remained in his seat when Laskin entered. The man looked very young, with a mop of blond hair cut as long as Alliance regulations would allow, and a slight spring in his step. He saluted Cambel without any hint that there was a doubt as to their comparative ranks. "Commander Laskin, at your disposal, sir."
"Pleased to meet you, Commander. Please, be seated..." Laskin immediately seated himself, looking completely at ease. "It is an honor to have you here, but I am curious as to why you came. I was only told that you had your own orders, and would carry them out when you arrived. If you are free to tell me what those orders are, I will be better able to accommodate you." Cambel wished he was confident enough of his position to demand that Laskin tell him the orders.
To his dismay, Laskin chuckled once, as if he'd said something amusing, then smiled. "You are quite free to know what my orders were, the reason they could not tell you them when I left was that I had not yet determined what they were. I have been given complete discretion here."
Cambel managed to keep his jaw from dropping. Complete discretion meant that Laskin was, for all intents and purposes, in command here. He could order Cambel himself arrested and would be instantly obeyed. Things had just taken a turn for the worst.
Laskin saw his expression. "Don't worry, Chancellor. I rarely use all the authority I am given. My mission here is twofold. The first part is that I am, on express order of Earth Command, to investigate the cover-up that occurred here sixteen years ago that allowed Subject Eight, a.k.a. Rina Krace, a.k.a. the Phoenix, to remain hidden for so long. I may have many questions, but I doubt they will involve you, sir, because you were not involved in Project Titan in any way, nor were you in command when the cover-up occurred, so you would have no responsibility there." Cambel just barely managed to conceal his relief. "The second part of my mission is to observe and advise you concerning the interrogation of the Phoenix, specifically where Director Yirtz is concerned." Now he frowned in distaste. "I had the distinct... pleasure of working extensively with Director Yirtz during most of the duration of Project Titan, so I am well aware of his strengths and weaknesses. I may be able to... advise him on how to proceed. I also wish to speak to the prisoner myself."
"I will arrange it as soon as possible, but Director Yirtz, by order of Earth Command, has been given control over her... its... interrogation. You may have to get his permission."
"Don't worry, I have the authority to deal with him. Where is he now?"
"He is currently interrogating the prisoner," Cambel said, switching on the monitor. There was no sound, but they could both see the girl's... the Phoenix's mouth open wide in a scream as the pain inducer was driven into her stomach.
"He hasn't lost his touch, I see," Laskin observed dryly, but something in his voice caught Cambel's attention. It almost sounded like disapproval. Laskin turned back to Cambel. "I still wish to speak with the prisoner, but I will not interrupt or interfere with the schedule that Director Yirtz has set. Please tell him that I wish to speak with him as soon as he is finished."
Cambel nodded. Then, observing Laskin's dispassionate face as he watched the torture session, Cambel finally realized why Laskin so unsettled him. He was the human version of Project Titan, or at least as close as any human could get. He was brilliant, and had demonstrated his ruthlessness on many occasions. But even as he made those disturbing observations, Cambel smiled slightly. Perhaps he would be able to break the Phoenix where it already seemed to Cambel that Yirtz was doomed to fail.
-------------
Michael hooked his hand around the ledge at the top of the building, and pulled himself up. He knew Arthur liked to come up here to think some nights... there was no way a normal human could have made the climb, not without a good deal of climbing equipment, so it guaranteed him privacy most of the time. As he dusted himself off, Michael looked around. For a minute he didn't see Arthur, which was unusual. Finally he spotted him. Arthur was sitting on the roof of the building, gazing up at the starry sky. There was a good reason that Michael, whose eyesight was as good as anyone's, had missed Arthur on his first glance. Arthur had turned his skin and hair pitch black to match the sky, and he was sitting with his back towards Michael, so his white eyes wouldn't show.
"Arthur."
Arthur turned to look at him, his white eyes even more startling with that skin in these surroundings. "Hello, Michael." He allowed his skin to return to normal. They were all still practicing doing that, trying to attain the proficiency Rina had at the unusual skill. So far they could all change to any color they wanted, but had a hard time maintaining it for more than a couple hours. It was like flexing a muscle, and it was difficult to keep that muscle flexed for such a long time... Rina assured them that it was possible to get so proficient that you no longer had to think about it, but she was the only one to reach that level, so far. Michael closed his eyes for a second, trying to drive her image out of his mind. Thinking about her would do no good, they either had to save her or move on and figure out how to do without her. Right now it looked like it would have to be the latter. The Alliance had already been holding Rina for three weeks.
"What are you doing out here?"
"Just thinking."
"About Rina?"
A hint of pain passed over Arthur's face. "Yeah, and other stuff. I think I have an idea on how we might be able to save Refuge if... when they break her." The pain in his voice was obvious, and Michael would have moved to try to comfort him if the impact of what he'd just said hadn't been so dramatic.
That came as a shock. Michael and the others had been under the impression that Arthur just came up here to cry, or sulk, or whatever it was people with normal emotions did in a situation like this. Michael thought, remembering Jules Krace the last time he'd seen him. They were taking turns providing very discreet protection for him, now that all of his former servants were now among the Rebels. So far they'd foiled at least two assassination attempts. It was the least they could do, and not nearly enough.
"What's your idea?" Michael asked. They'd all been wracking their brains, trying to figure out some way to protect Refuge. How could Arthur have suddenly come up with something on his own?
"We were thinking about it the wrong way," Arthur said as if he could read Michael's mind. "That's the problem. Refuge's greatest protections has always been it's secrecy, and everything we were thinking of kept that secrecy intact."
"You want to let the Alliance know about Refuge?" Michael asked doubtfully. He'd never known Arthur to make such a blatantly stupid plan, but there was a first time for everything. Maybe losing Rina had done something to him.
"No," Arthur said patiently, and Michael was convinced he also knew what was going through Michael's mind now. "Not now. But..." he swallowed painfully. "When they break her, I can take over the satellites before they can attack. I can use them, either directly against the troops, or I can hold some of the Alliance installations outside of the main dome hostage, threaten to do to them what they've done to other smaller settlements. We use the time I buy to open up Refuge to everyone, the public, the media, everyone, and make sure that word of it makes it to Earth, too. The Alliance is in control there, but they can't openly show what they really are without starting a rebellion. They'll be forced to 'protect' the people in Refuge, and if we keep the public eye there long enough, the Alliance won't dare destroy it." Arthur bit his lip and looked at the ground.
"The problem is that we'll be turning Refuge over to the Alliance, along with all the people in it. We can't possibly retain control over it. The people there will be crushed emotionally, but they'll be alive. If we spread word quickly enough, we can even save Dr. Green's work. There are people there who have been exiled by the Alliance, we'll have to hide them, maybe even fake their deaths, depending on how thorough the Alliance is. But it is a way to save Refuge. They can't kill or imprison tens of thousands of people, either, so the majority will be safe. But not all of them..." Arthur sighed. "Rina would hate it, but she would see that it's the only way. And the Rebels will be able to survive as well. Heero is right about that, we can't sacrifice all of the Rebels to protect those in Refuge. There has to be someone to fight the Alliance, and if the Rebels aren't here, who knows what the Alliance will try to get away with?"
One of the suggestions that had come up rather briefly during the debate on how to protect Refuge had been the idea of all of the Rebels turning themselves in, in exchange for all the lives in Refuge once it was found. Heero had immediately vetoed the notion, for a number of very good reasons - the thing Arthur had just mentioned was one of them. Another was that the Alliance was certainly duplicitous enough to accept the Rebel's surrender, and then destroy Refuge anyway.
"So, what do you think?" Arthur asked when Michael remained silent after nodding his agreement to the last statement.
"I think it has a good chance of succeeding," Michael said, refusing to get excited until they proposed the idea before everyone and let them all have a chance to shoot it down. But it was the best he'd heard yet. Arthur nodded, looking slightly pleased with himself. He knew enough not to get too excited yet.
Then something occurred to Michael. Arthur had only referred to Rina once by her name, and that was when he was talking about her imaginary reaction to his plan. When he spoke of what the Alliance was doing, it was always 'to her', not 'to Rina.' He mentioned this to Arthur, who nodded slightly, looking embarrassed.
"I know that it's foolish, but I feel like, if I actually say that they will break... her, that it might make it come true." Arthur flushed bright red and looked at the ground again. "That's why I come up here so much now."
"Excuse me?" Michael was unable to find any logic in that last sentence.
"I... Sometimes, if it's quiet enough, I can close my eyes and see Rina, right now. I feel like... somehow, I'm closer to her. I can't explain it."
Michael didn't know how to respond to that, but an idea was beginning to form in his mind. So when Arthur asked him if he thought that it was all in his head, that emotions really did make him weaker and were doing something to his mind, Michael replied, "I don't know, yet. Maybe you really are closer to her, somehow. Don't stop just yet. And I don't think your mind is going, not yet anyway."
That earned him a wan smile, which made Michael feel warm inside. Arthur had never smiled when he was with the Alliance. It was the truth, which surprised him. Then Arthur's smile died as he turned to stare at the sky again, darkening his skin. Michael saw a slight frown on his face as he closed his eyes, and perceived that Arthur was thinking about Rina. A flare of anger rose within him at the Alliance, but he let it pass through him, the way he always did. Anger would do none of them any good now. Now he had to work. "Tomorrow you'll present your idea to the others?" he asked, and Arthur nodded.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Arthur responded in a murmur.
Michael turned to climb back down. He had some research to do.
-------------
Rina hid her eyes again as the door opened, flooding light on her for the first time in days. In those days she'd given serious thought to the idea that Yirtz was trying to permanently damage her eyes. She had a hard time imagining that sort of idea coming from him - he was more likely to try to destroy her mind and then experiment on her body than the other way around. On the other hand, she'd been resisting him for over a month now, and he was getting rather irrational.
But it wasn't Yirtz in the doorway, she discovered as her eyes cleared. It was a young man, an Earthling like all the other Alliance soldiers, but there was an air of confidence about him that was unusual in one so young, and disconcerting, as well. He studied her without speaking for several long minutes, then turned his head to the side. "Turn the lights on, I want to have a good look at her."
"Yes sir." Rina heard, and those two words told her a lot. First of all, he was an officer, and high-ranking enough to gain access to her cell. He was also powerful or important enough that people would disregard Yirtz's current orders without hesitating. For a human to come by such power so young in the Alliance meant that he was exceptional, in one way or another. She was about to find out.
When the lights came on, he walked into the room, and the door closed behind him. He was apparently unarmed, but was careful to stay beyond the length of chain that tethered her to the wall as he walked in a slow, half-circle around her. Then he leaned back against the wall and waited.
A minute passed, then another. Ten minutes passed, and still he said nothing. As they passed the fifteen-minute mark in silence, Rina realized that this was some sort of test, to see how patient she was. What should she do about it? Should she give in and speak first, to let them think she could be manipulated like that, or would it be too obvious? she decided. Yirtz was probably watching, and if he wasn't, he'd hear about this and jump to the wrong conclusions. Misdirection had kept him in the earliest stages of their torture methods for over a month now, there was no reason that it shouldn't continue to work.
Rina thought with an internal frown. If he had enough power to get around Yirtz, then he might be taking over her interrogation, and in that case, it would be foolish to make so obvious a move until she knew more. Twenty minutes passed, then twenty-five. Rina continued to sit with her back against the wall staring into space. She looked absolutely still, but she was carefully clenching and unclenching various muscle groups so that she didn't get too stiff. She didn't think Yirtz knew she could do that, and you never knew when a little bit of extra mobility might come in handy.
At the thirty-minute-mark, he finally spoke. "Impressive. I was half-expecting you to give in so that old fool Yirtz would go running off in the wrong direction again."
Rina felt a chill. He knew what she'd been doing to Yirtz!
"Oh, don't look so surprised," he said. "It isn't really your fault I saw what you were doing. You had to be fairly obvious for him to catch on, obvious enough that it was easy for me to see you." He gave her a wicked smile and started tapping his fingers against his own leg, obviously mimicking her, and Rina realized what had given away her surprise. She stopped tapping her fingers against her knee, but didn't give any sign of her irritation.
"You are quite impressive," he repeated, almost to himself. "You are what the subjects of Project Titan should have become, if the project wasn't managed by an arrogant, sadistic man who was more interested in hurting things than in truly serving the Alliance. Luckily for you, his methods were just good enough that I couldn't protest, otherwise he would have been removed from the project and replaced with someone who could have turned them into the weapon that you are. Independent, aggressive, and with a full range of human emotions. I always knew the training was a bad idea." He sighed. "Of course, none of that matters any more, now that we have you."
"What are you doing here?" she asked in a low voice.
"Oh, so she finally speaks! I am here to advise Yirtz, to correct the mistakes he makes so we can speed up the process of breaking your mind." He frowned slightly, almost to himself. "Then we will be able to destroy the Rebels."
"You sound as brain-washed as the boys did," she observed darkly.
"But I came to my own conclusions on the topic," he told her, a frown etched across his face. There was something deeply disturbing to him here, something long since over and quite emotional that was driving him. She could tell because of the frown, because of the way his entire body tightened up and his breathing became heavier. Definitely something old and emotional.
"And how did you do that?"
"It was easy enough," he said. "When they ki..." he cut himself off, but not before she guessed that someone he'd known and loved had been killed, and he believed it was by the Rebels. "You're very good," he said admiringly. "But so am I. You're lucky that I wasn't put in charge of Project Titan."
Rina knew that. She knew exactly how lucky she'd been, how lucky they'd all been. If Project Titan had come around ten, even five years later, he probably would have been put in command, and she never would have been able to turn them. None of this was much of a relief now, though, as she faced an opponent who had actually learned something about her, the real her.
He studied her face, although Rina knew that her expression hadn't changed in the slightest. "Finally, an opponent worth fighting," he said with a smile, for a second reminding her of Kan. "Don't you have anything to say?"
Rina shook her head, assuming a defeated look. His smile died for a second, and she knew she'd surprised him, even if it was just for a moment. She let the look fade away, then raised her eyes to meet his, and smiled. "You are better than Yirtz," she told him honestly. "Quite good for a human. But I'm not human, and you shouldn't believe anything I tell you about me."
She saw the protest on his lips, that she hadn't told him anything about her, but she started tapping her fingers against her leg, imitating the nervous gesture. The words died unspoken, and she saw him reviewing their conversation in his mind, trying to figure out whether she had been feeding him misinformation, knowing how much quicker he was and relying on him to pick up on it. He had, but that didn't mean that she wasn't manipulating him all the same. All of that was a lie, of course, but he had no way of knowing that, and now he was doubting himself.
He gave her a confident smile, which she knew was entirely fake. "Nice try, Phoenix. But it will take more than that to fool me." As he turned and left, leaving her in darkness again, Rina hid a smile. He was wrong. That was all it had taken to fool him, and now he didn't know whether he could trust his own observations about her.
She'd bought herself a little more time.
TRANSCRIPT OF DIALOGUE FROM BASE 231.8
STATUS: SECURITY LEVEL 1
DATE: 21.27.22
TOPIC: INTERROGATION OF THE PHOENIX
A: How dare you interfere with my work! You ruined a full week of preparation by speaking with it then! I was under the impression you were here in a completely observatory sense!
B: Then you were misinformed. I am here to observe, and to advise. And it is my duty to advise you when I see that you are making a mistake, as you are now.
A: What?
B: You refuse to give the Phoenix full credit for intelligence, strength, or cunning because you did not train her. That is not only arrogant, but foolish, given what she has accomplished against us already.
A: It is weak, much weaker than any of my creations. What is your point?
B: You mentioned in your daily report that you have continued on this level of interrogation for much longer than the normal time period because you believed she was beginning to break, that she was starting to give you real information about the Rebels?
A: I have confirmed that. Most of what it tells me are lies, of course, but I can distinguish between lies and real information. Much of what it's told me has already been confirmed. Other things, like passwords and codes, have already been changed by the other Rebels, but they remain important, as a sign that it is breaking.
B: You're a fool. Don't you think that Four explained our techniques to her? Don't you think that she would try to use that to her advantage? She has perfect recall. She must have known that some of the information about the Rebels had been compromised. Likewise, she must have known that the Rebels would change their passwords. She's deliberately giving you useless information in an attempt to remain longer in this level of interrogation, to buy herself more time.
A: No...
B: Yes. Are you ready to listen to a suggestion?
A: Do I have a choice?
B: No, and if you're wise, you'll listen to me. Immediately step up the level. Assume that the first few levels wouldn't work on her, no matter what. Those levels don't usually work on strong-willed humans, so there's no way they'll work on her. While you start more intensive work, start concentrating on how she's different from the subjects of Project Titan.
A: You mean emotions.
B: Yes. We know she thinks of herself as the Phoenix, that tells us a lot about her already. The Phoenix is known to be efficient, ruthless when the situation calls for it, but also weak-hearted in others, not given to sacrificing her own people. That means she cares for people, but is willing to sacrifice them, and also that she holds her first allegiance to the Rebels, not to the people at large.
A: I know that! I've seen the reports on the Phoenix.
B: Then use them, damn it! You've been using purely physical torture, when you know that even normal humans can resist that. Get into her mind, Director, if you want to succeed.
A: Are you in charge of this interrogation or am I?
B: As I said before, I am here only to advise. But if you don't get results and soon, Earth Command will lose patience with you. You've failed one time too many - there isn't any room for mistakes left.
A: They wouldn't dare...
B: They would, and even with your much-vaunted secrets, I don't think they'll spare you. There are ways of getting that information, whether you tell them willingly or not.
