The Intellect

Chapter 2

I lean back into the chair Mizpah and the Enforcers locked me in, lifeless. I close my eyes to block out the blinding fluorescent lights and release a sagging sigh. Jayse is gone.  My match, my partner, the man I was supposed to love or protect or something, is gone. Two thoughts enter my mind, bringing anger rather than sorrow: He left me. I was right not to trust him.

"Intellect Renna? What's going on?" my interrogator growls.

I don't answer for a moment, inhaling deeply. He left. People don't just leave the Civilization. In fact, I didn't even know it was possible to escape the Civilization without them knowing where he went, without being shot down. The Civilization Center is a fortress and Guard Justices are carefully stationed outside at the fence to stop escapees.

Jayse escaped. Questions surge through me faster than I can try to answer them. Why did he leave? Why didn't he tell me? What did he do? Where will he go? Even if he did escape, the outside is a tundra. No one can survive out there; the winter winds and harsh blizzards don't discriminate. I know Jayse; he may be rash, but not so rash as to leave the Civilization without a destination in mind. Where is he headed? I know that there could be other civilizations out there somewhere, but we have no idea who or what they are, so where would he go? Did he know something I don't? What happened to make Jayse leave everything behind?

"Intellect Renna? Please don't make us enter the secondary Interrogation Room."

I startle alert at the thinly veiled threat. "Jayse is gone."

There is only static silence and I know I'm right. My match, my boyfriend, is gone. Why?

"We can neither confirm nor deny that."

"What happened? Do you know why he left? Or where he went?" I squirm in my chair but only manage to rub the skin around my wrists raw against the metal bands.

"Intellect Renna, we need you to answer our questions. All of them."

I stare forward, hoping they can read my sincerity in my gaze, and plead with them, "I don't know anything about his work. I don't know what he did that has you so upset. If I did, trust me, I would tell you."

"Why should we trust you? You're his match."

I laugh humorlessly. "Because obviously he kept something from me. He kept something from us. Why the shell would I defend someone like that? I have no loyalty to a liar and a traitor."

The words twist my stomach, and I try to ignore the hurt welling inside me. He left me. That blasted liar. I transform the hurt into rage. Jayse and I weren't exactly in love, but I still thought he cared about me. Obviously not enough to tell me the truth. We were supposed to trust each other, but here I am, being interrogated for something that he did.

"We trust that you will be willing to cooperate with us, then, Intellect Renna."

I let out a long breath and my voice is hoarse. "I'll tell you anything you want to know."

-----

I scream and my entire body arches off of the metal bed. I try to writhe free, but metal straps fasten my arms and legs so tightly that they bleed, crimson blood dripping down my fingers onto the gurney.  Electricity races through my body in bolts of pure fire.

"Where would Jayse go if he were to get free?" the Infiltrator Justice, trained to extract information from dissidents, asks me.

"I don't know!" I scream, "I've told you that! I've never been past the Civilization's fence. I don't even know if there's anything or anyone out there. I had no idea he was planning to go anywhere."