The Gen

Chapter 13

Angreius, 10th day of the Summer Cros, 3367

Dalek Madrew was back in his cell. Lariv Jinla had not visited him in three days and he had been discharged from the infirmary in the morning. Of course, he was immobilized the entire time. Dalek still felt sore and tired. Fatalism worked on him.

He caught himself thinking about the lamp in the shower room again.

The door to his cell opened and he shuddered inwardly. Now what? Lariv Jinla bowed into his line of sight with a smile on her face, as if she came to visit her best friend.

"How are we feeling today?" Lariv asked.

"Like crap since you came in."

Chuckling mildly, Lariv unfolded her chair and sat down by Dalek's bed.

"I owe you an update on those three names I threw at you. Remember them?"

"You'll electrocute me again if I don't?"

"Let me say that I'd like to verify whether your brain still works properly."

"Give someone power and she becomes an asshole."

Lariv laughed out loud. "That's a good one. May I quote you in one of my books?"

"Fuck you, Doc."

"The names, Dalek, do you remember them?"

"Kania Lurdh, Sirid Unnal and how could I ever forget him again, Timon Feihn."

"Wow, again and again you prove to be a tough little bastard, Dalek Madrew. You're right. All three of them are or were members of the RSW. Until one of them proved to be a traitor. It wasn't your classmate Feihn, but the other guy, Sirid Unnal."

"Aha, and why are you telling me this?"

"I thought you'd like to know that your friend Timon wasn't the one."

"Timon wasn't my friend. I didn't even fucking remember him."

"Do you remember him now?"

"Not really. We were kids. I vaguely remember that I didn't like him, because he was sucking up to the teachers to get good grades."

"Is that so? There's another name now. Unfortunately only half a name and a false one at that I suppose. Ever heard of someone named Nal?"

"Nal? You got nothing more?"

"Unfortunately not."

"Doesn't ring a bell. You want to torture me again with electroshocks to verify?"

"No, not this time. This Nal seems to be the leader of an operative cell whose member Sirid Unnal was. Since you went to school with Timon and not Sirid, I'm not expecting miracles here."

"How merciful."

"Jokes aside. The RSW is very worried. There was this incident around Ganes Trufft, of course that was FTS as well, and now another team around this Nal and Sirid Unnal has surfaced. Unfortunately, neither of the latter are in RSW custody, though they're rendered more or less inoperative. Sirid Unnal has so far managed to evade capture but at least he's now unable to complete his task on the Gen. But, you know, the RSW is wondering just how many more FTS cells there are.

"Between you and me, I think the RSW has finally snapped and reached the state of paranoia. They now suspect every person working for the Gen and the OT to be a traitor. Therefore, they called me in to conduct psychological tests on all OT and Gen employees. That means I'll have to leave Angreius for a while and move to the horrible heat and humidity of Hagesh."