HAWK

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: TRAUMA (1/6)

Kas awoke in pitch-black silence.

She was lying down, her body numb and slow to respond, still working its way back to consciousness. She tried to move her arms but they were locked in place by her sides. Her legs moved even less. She wiggled her toes and thought they felt bare.

They left her like that for a long time, strapped down in the dark with nothing but the sound of her own breathing for company. She felt like she was in a coffin. Claustrophobia began to set in and quickened her pulse. What little moisture was still in her body started seeping out of her pores and soaking her thin grey jumpsuit. She tried every mental exercise she knew to keep herself calm but none of them had any noticeable effect. Thoughts of torture refused to leave her mind and her empty stomach was already bubbling with dreaded anticipation.

After several minutes, whatever Kas was lying on began tilting upwards, slowly raising her into a near vertical position. The darkness in front of her suddenly dissolved revealing a wall of nitroglass ten inches from her face. On the other side of it, a masked WASP soldier was looking back at her, one finger tapping invisible commands on the window's surface. He finished tapping and turned and walked away.

Kas looked out from her silent tomb and saw the room beyond was a large, circular chamber with a low ceiling. It was perhaps a hundred feet across and looked to Kas like the inside of a huge wheel that had toppled over onto its side. The white floor was so shiny it was almost as bright as the lambentile panels covering the ceiling, while the wall was a single curved ribbon of nitroglass that surrounded the room like a glassy black belt. Kas wondered if there were any more people like her trapped behind it.

But it was the centre of the room which was the chamber's focal point: a two-metre thick black pillar that stretched from floor to ceiling, acting as the wheel's axle. No sooner had Kas looked at it than a vertical crack of light appeared in its shell and widened to become a door. It slid back to reveal a clean white cabin inside, standing in the centre of which was the governor.

Swanne stepped gracefully into the chamber and ambled towards Kas as though she had decades to spare. She arrived on the other side and peered in at her prisoner like she was Death herself, coming to claim another soul.

'Hello again, Miss Balera. How are you feeling?'

Kas opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a dusty old cough. She tried again, though her voice was still raspy.

'What are you doing to me?'

'Don't worry, your suffering is almost over. This is the final part of the process.'

'What process?'

'I'm setting you free. Well... your mind, at least. Your body will follow shortly. But when it does, I'm afraid you won't remember any of this.' Swanne saw Kas's confusion and was only too happy to explain. 'The pod you're currently trapped inside is a type-three MI console.'

Kas's heart sank as she understood what Swanne's plan for her was.