Deathwatch (The Faded Earth Book 1)(63)

Bowers hopped up from the table and moved forward to put his face only a foot from the prisoner’s. “For example, I know that every man has a breaking point. Every single one of them. I’m not inclined to torture you to get answers. Half of them would be lies and we would spend valuable time and effort sorting out fact from fiction. Instead, I offer you this choice.”

Eshton reached up and tapped the monitor on the wall. It blinked to life, showing an array of faces. Mazur’s face contorted in horror.

“Yes, I think you’re beginning to see where I’m going with this,” Bowers said. “That is your family. Your brothers, your sister. Mother is still alive. You have nieces and one nephew. Not that I would harm a child. I feel comfortable saying that, Mazur, because unlike you I am honest about what sort of monster I am. The choice is this: you tell me what I want to know. Every detail, every name, every means of communication, and you never lie to me. Every time you do, I will kill one of them with this.”

Bowers produced a small case from his pocket and opened it. A heavily armored cylinder sat within. “Do I need to tell you what this is?”

Mazur shook his head as best he could within the blocks. “Biohazard sample container. Fade B.”

Bowers smiled as if this answer pleased him immensely. “Correct. I doubt I need to ask, but do you have any doubt that I am sincere when I say I will orphan all those innocent children? That I will consign their parents and grandmother to burn just as you have done for countless people?”

Tears rolled down Mazur’s cheeks. “No. No, goddammit.”

“Good,” Bowers said. “You shouldn’t. I am Deathwatch to my bones, and I will go to any lengths to end the threat your people represent. Now, talk.”

*

Eshton left the room an hour later more informed than before but less so than he wanted to be. Beck and Bowers moved in his wake, the three of them ending up in the small mess hall and huddled up around a table.

“Not quite what I hoped for,” Bowers said. “These people are careful.”

Eshton nodded. “Their cells are isolated. I don’t know if the names he gave matched with what Beck could find, but even if they do the details he gave us are more than we had before.”

“More like confirmation of things we already suspected,” Beck said, a troubled look on her face. “It’s good to know they keep to a rigorous schedule and control the rate of infection, but we needed information about their organization. All we have is his direct superior.”

Bowers patted her on the shoulder. “It’s not all bad. Now that we know the size of his team, we can infer some information from that. If we work out how many Rezzes they show up in within a given period of time, then look at all the other Rezzes they don’t travel to for any reason...”

“Oh, I see,” Eshton said. “If his cell is average in size, we can work out how many others there are by just sort of dividing up the Rezzes.”

Beck ran a hand over her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm. That actually makes sense.”

“I may not have your brains, but I’m not a complete idiot,” Eshton said.

Bowers put up his hands in a stopping gesture. “Whoa there, son. Let’s not say anything too crazy.”

Eshton blinked and Beck’s mouth fell open before she descended into peals of laughter. “I can’t believe you just told a joke. That’s amazing.”

Bowers smirked. “The problem with being in my position is that people forget you’re still a person. And let’s face it, Brogan left himself wide open for that.”

“So what’s the next move?” Eshton asked, eager to change the subject. “How do we handle those other cells?”

“I don’t know about this ‘we,’ business” she said, her laughter finally fading away. “But I plan on identifying the members the same way we did here.”

Eshton shook his head. “That won’t work. I can’t imagine Mazur is going anywhere. Not alive, anyway. Can’t risk him talking, and if he just vanishes it’s likely to raise a lot of suspicions. That’s only going to be worse if you kidnap members of the other cells all at once. You’ll overplay our hand and let them know someone is hunting them down.”

Bowers nodded. “You’re right. But at some point we won’t be able to avoid revealing they have an enemy looking for them.”

“I know that,” Eshton said. “But if we’re going to do it, we should manage it in a way that lets us take down the cells of people spreading Fade B all at once. A coordinated strike against members will at least take that threat away.”

Beck grew pensive. “Seems like we have two options. We can do what Eshton just said, or we can try to go after Mazur’s superior. Work our way up the chain. If we cut the legs out of the organization, the middle managers and people in charge are going to get a lot harder to hunt down. They might start destroying evidence.”

Bowers snorted. “I doubt they leave much of that sitting around to start with, but you also have a point. I suggest we do both. Eshton can use the information you dig up to plan our move against their cells while you work on your own to learn everything you can about Mazur’s handler. Then, once we pry the identities of the other handlers from cell members but before their Science division has time to realize anything is wrong, you can use those identities to triangulate who their superiors are.”