“Oh, yes. But she’s smart enough to keep that to herself. Informers don’t do very well in places like this. So, anyway, what’s the escape plan?”
Katya looked at her with astonishment. “What? You don’t have one?”
“Of course I don’t,” said Tasya, unabashed. Finally understanding Katya’s concern, she added, “And I don’t expect you to come up with one, either. The good Dr Durova is supposed to be doing that. She’s the one who’s been here for years and has all the pass codes. Hasn’t she told you what she’s come up with?”
“No. She told me I shouldn’t trust her until you’d confirmed I should.”
“That’s wise, I suppose. What have you been talking about in your interrogation sessions, then?”
“Nothing. I read a bad book, she listens to music. Usually Poliakov, although she listened to some Kapitsa last time. Then she doses me with something to make it look I’ve been undergoing chemical questioning and calls the guards. If I’m lucky, I don’t throw up in the lift.”
“You have all the fun.”
“Want to swap?”
Tasya smiled wryly, and shook her head. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting her to use interrogations as a way of communicating with you. It makes sense, but I thought she’d use intermediates. I can see why she didn’t. Her way’s far more secure. Anyway, next time you’re in with her, find out what the plan is. The sooner we’re out of here, the better. The Vodyanoi’s waiting in the Enclaves for word. She’ll need at least three days’ notice if she’s going to be here to pick us up.”
“How are we going to tell them?”
“We’ve got a senior Secor agent aboard this dump on our side and you’re wondering how we can get a message out? Come on, Kuriakova. Use your imagination.”
Katya accepted the logic of that, but something else was bothering her. “If the White Death is supposed to be planning all this, why are you here, Tasya?”
“Two reasons. One, because you’d never have accepted a Secor interrogator’s word without some assurance that she was telling the truth.”
“I might have.”
“No, you wouldn’t. Two, I’m here to expedite things once the plan gets under way.”
Katya knew Tasya too well to see “expedite” as anything other than a euphemism for “kill anyone who gets in the way.”
“I really hope you don’t have to do any of that.”
“Expediting?”
“You know what I mean.”
Tasya looked at her, all levity gone. “That very much depends on how good Durova’s plan is.”
Katya nodded. Then she asked, “Is she really a doctor?”
Tasya’s grim smile returned. “With specialities in psychology and pharmacology. Kane tells me that on Earth, doctors have to make an oath. Starts with, ‘First, do no harm.’ Maybe we should have something like that on Russalka, too.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Extraordinary Freedom
The next interrogation session involved the reading of no further adventures of firm-chinned heroes of the FMA seeing off enemies of the state, and not nearly so much music either. Once she had confirmed that Tasya had spoken to Katya about her, Dr Durova said, “Good, because I’ve already sent the message to bring the Vodyanoi on station.” Then she set her recorder to play some keyboard pieces by Poliakov.
“You’ve done what?” said Katya. Tasya had said it would only take the Vodyanoi three days to reach them. Surely the escape couldn’t be happening so soon?
“We need to move ahead as soon as possible. The governor is behaving oddly. I think he is suffering from stress.” She steepled her fingers, every centimetre the psychiatrist. “I offered to talk to him. He declined.”
Katya couldn’t help but look at the medical case, full of things specifically intended to make the patient feel a great deal worse. She could sympathise with the governor’s decision.
“I detect growing paranoia in Governor Senyavin. He has become withdrawn, stays in his office throughout the day, and rarely speaks to his subordinates, just handing down increasingly petty edicts. At the least, I would expect him to impose changes on the prison’s routine. At worst, he may decide he does not trust his senior staff and change them. It would be difficult for him to displace me — he has no direct authority with Secor — but it isn’t impossible.”
“Yes, I see what you mean, then. It would…” An ugly thought occurred to Katya. “Paranoid, you said?”
“Yes. It’s come on quite quickly, which leads me to conclude that either the FMA is putting him under pressure of which I am unaware, or there are problems in his personal life that are creating stress in his professional one.”
“Or something else. There have been some odd things happening in the stations, doctor. Secor is keeping them quiet, but they’re happening all the same.”
Durova raised an eyebrow and took up her memo pad. “Perhaps I’ve been lax in reading the general Secor alerts. So little of its business directly affects the Deeps, except what walks in through the airlock.” She touched the pad’s screen a few times, and cocked her head to one side in evident interest. “You’re right. Marked increases in psychotic fugues experienced. They’ve put it down to a stress disorder. I find that hard to believe. There was nothing like this in the war against Earth.” She scrolled through the reports, tapped in a couple of search parameters, and read in silence for a couple of minutes.
“Some nonsense about the possibility of it being due to some sort of Yagizban biological or chemical weapon. Delivered how, exactly? Besides, in confined environments like ours, the chance of them biting their creators is too great. The FMA has considered and dropped any number of viral and chemical projects down the years for exactly that reason. No. There’s something else going on. If Secor command could concentrate its faculties on finding a common thread between these occurrences instead of just covering them up, we might have some idea of what’s causing them.”
Abruptly she shook her head and put the pad down. “This is a discussion for some other time. You need to be briefed on the escape. The secret of any successful operation is simplicity; therefore my plan is very simple. I bring in the Chertovka for questioning… yes?”
Katya raised a hand. “She doesn’t really like being called the Chertovka. At least, not to her face. You might want to get into the habit of thinking of her as Colonel Morevna.”
The doctor considered this for a second. “Very well, I bring in Colonel Morevna for questioning and have her put in the holding cell next to this one. Then while she ‘stews,’ I have you brought in for your interrogation. I call an emergency lockdown, release Morevna, and the three of us make our way to the escape pod at the end of the corridor. We leave in it, and are picked up by the Vodyanoi, which should reach its surveillance position in the next few hours.”
“Next few..? It takes three days to get here.”
Dr Durova looked at Katya as if she were slightly stupid. “I sent the message to come three days ago.”
“What?” Katya would have liked to raise her hands in an expression of surprise, but the manacles held by the staple on the table-top prevented it. “But I hadn’t even seen Tasya about you then!”
“I knew she would confirm my story, Katya. Why wait?”
Which left Katya at an impasse. Indeed, why wait?
Keen to not look like a complete idiot, Katya turned her attention to finding problems with the plan. “What about the guards?”
“Both Morevna and I shall be armed. The guard room is in the opposite direction to the pod access, and it is unlikely we will even see the guards. If they attempt to intervene, we will kill them.”