HAWK

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BIRDCAGE (4/6)

'I trust you recognise her?' Swanne asked.

Kas's brain lurched from one side to the other. When she spoke, her voice was little more than a whisper.

'What is she doing here?'

'You're quite keen on the girl, I take it? I'll admit, she does have a certain charm about her - though so far she seems almost as stubborn as you.'

'What,' Kas spat, 'is she doing here?'

'Getting emotional now are we? Good. Perhaps the child will be useful in getting you to talk.'

Kas clenched her fists so tight she thought she might break her own fingers. She wanted desperately to believe that this was all just another hallucination, some kind of stuporous daydream turned nightmare, but as she pressed her fingernails deeper into her palms and felt the stickiness of blood stain her cuticles, she knew that it was real. Impossible, but real.

The wall screen flickered and changed back to its blank, pale glow.

'I can see you're confused,' Swanne said, 'so I shall allow you the opportunity to get some answers. I'll give you two minutes.'

Swanne disappeared again, leaving a deeply bewildered Kas staring at the white wall as though she could still see Worm lying fast asleep in bed. The panels shimmered and morphed back into a huge monitor, showing another room, this one identical to Kas's. It could almost have been a mirror, except there was no Kas in this one. Instead, she focused on the collapsed shape of a man lying in the middle of the floor. He was facing away from her, but even in Kas's confused state, it didn't take her long to recognise him.

'Astell?' she said. The body jolted and rolled over. It seemed to take him a lot of effort but finally, Astell sat himself up and gazed across at her with a look of mild surprise.

'Kas...?' For once, his blonde hair was no longer neat and immaculate but wiry and dishevelled. Both eyes were swollen black and blue and there was a fresh cut on his top lip.

'You're hurt,' Kas observed.

'It's nothing... a few bruises...' He spoke slowly as if merely talking cost him precious energy.

'Why did they hurt you?'

'They kept asking me questions about you... They think we're working together... I tried to tell them we're not but they didn't believe me...'

'Astell... why is Worm here?'

'Huh?'

'Worm. Did you bring her here?'

Astell shook his head. 'No...'

'You're lying. How did you even find her? How did you find me?'

'I followed you on Lysan...'

'I lost you on Lysan.'

'No, you didn't. I tracked you using a pheromone tracer.'

The words struck Kas like a backhand and stung her cheeks red. 'That cleansing mist you used in your car... that was a tracer?'

Astell nodded guiltily, and Kas immediately felt stupid.

The pheromone spray would have infused itself into her hair, clothes and skin and made her about as easy to track as if she'd been trailing neon smoke. It would've been invisible to the naked eye, but with the right equipment, Astell could have literally followed in her footsteps. Kas should never have fallen for it but her mind had been far too occupied at the time to bear it any suspicion. She was kicking herself for it now, though.

'Had a feeling you'd try to run away,' he said, seeming a bit more lucid now. 'Looks like I'm not as dumb as you thought, huh?'

'Dumber,' Kas replied. 'Now you've put us all in danger. But how'd you follow me off planet? The tracer would've been useless once I was off the surface?'

'By the time I reached your friend's digiverse, you'd already gone. I was about to chase after you when I saw the kid. I knew straight away she was the one that went missing back in Artis. You were lying to me all along. Guess that's what I get for helping you out. I was going to take her back to Chantos, except when I got her onto my cruiser, the kid got loose and did something to my ship's controls. I couldn't pilot it; couldn't do anything. She even took out the comm's so I couldn't contact anyone for assistance. And then to top it all off, she changed the ship's course for the damned asteroid belt. I spent ten days trapped on a C.A.P. cruiser with next to no food and a mute kid for company. So to answer your question: no I didn't bring her here; she brought me!'

Kas wasn't sure how Astell had ended up becoming even angrier than her, but she didn't care. She was more concerned that Worm was now on the same rock as Swanne. The governor had all-but-said that she would use the girl as leverage to make Kas talk, and it would work, she knew. It would work.

'When you two are quite finished arguing,' Swanne said out of nowhere, 'you both have a choice to make.'

Astell looked up at the ceiling and tried his best to sound forceful. 'What choice?'

'Either both of you tell me everything you know about this alleged signal, or you will both die right where you are sitting.'