Chapter 22

They entered the Ministry of Science, and Sylvie suppressed her gag reflex. The place made her sick, but she wouldn't let it show. It was a weakness she couldn’t afford.

Heads raised and eyes widened at their unexpected appearance. She followed X as he made his way to the scientist who had gone maroon on him yesterday.

"I want to speak to Jark'Khal."

"Yes, Supreme Regent." The scientist bowed slightly and started leading them to a familiar corridor. "He's still in a holding cell, per your orders."

Sylvie forced air into her lungs as they walked past the cell where she'd been kept. Even though she herself was a scientist, she wasn't sure if she could get over the trauma of her imprisonment and near-death experience. Maybe this corridor would always give her the creeps.

Doesn't matter. You won't be here for much longer. Odds are you'll never have to walk down this corridor again. Never have to see the inside of one of these cells again.

As long as she could convince the regent to send her home.

You know what you have to do.

Sylvie sighed inwardly. Only as a last resort. She'd try using her brains on him before surrendering her body, though their encounter earlier left her almost willing to push the issue. Never had a man taken her so passionately, her body warming at the remembrance of his mouth pressed to the center of her. She let out a soft groan as his hand grabbed hers.

X’s eyes were boring into her, his expression tense. He must have thought the groan was from fear instead of lust. He's worried about me.

She gave his hand a little squeeze, then tilted the corners of her lips into what she hoped was a reassuring smile, and politely pulled her hand out of his.

No time to become infatuated. It's Earth or bust, remember?

The scientist stopped in front of a cell and placed his hand against the membrane. A slit appeared and he held it open for X and her to pass through. The membrane sealed behind them, and Sylvie turned to confront her captor.

Jark'Khal's color was so deep a blue it reminded her of the ocean depths where little light penetrates.

Despair. That's the color of despair.

The scientist sat on the cushion that resided in the center of the cell. His head was between his hands, hanging almost into his lap. The short tendrils that almost resembled human hair were lying limp against his skull. Sylvie could almost smell the dejection in the thick air of the cell.

"Jark'Khal, I have a few questions." X's voice was filled with tension.

The former lead scientist didn't bother to lift his head. He sat there, unmoving.

"How long have you been working for the Hareema?"

This got his attention. His head whipped up, surprise written large over his dark features. "What?"

"How long? Did you go over to them of your own free will, or have you been replaced? Am I talking to a Hareema right now?"

"You can't be serious!" Jark'Khal's color was rapidly lightening, moving from blue to a red that was growing brighter as she watched.

"You better answer me," X said, as energy waves started pulsating on his muscled arms.

"I'm not an enemy agent!" the man screeched, shaking his head frantically. X still advanced on him, the energy charge he was building up growing brighter. Jark'Khal tucked his head in and huddled in the center of the cushion.

Unexpectedly, Sylvie felt a twinge of sympathy for the guy. The regent was going at him hard, without mercy.

"Wait. He's too shocked to answer you."

"I'll give him a shock." The regent's eyes were glowing, the ring around the pupil almost eclipsing the black. He had to be furious.

"You can't electrocute him, not without proof."

"This is how I get my proof." The waves of energy were increasing in speed. The light it gave off was so bright, Sylvie was fighting not to shield her eyes.

"No. He might not be working for the enemy. I wasn't, remember?"

"So...?" X trailed off, a corner of his mouth turned up cruelly.

"Initiate an energy exchange with him." She stood on tiptoe to grab his face and turn it toward hers. "Calm down."

When she thought she had his full attention, she continued. "Initiate an energy exchange, a REGULAR energy exchange and not a killer dose of electricity. Then we can at least determine whether he's a Hareema agent."

His face tightened and Sylvie thought for a moment that she had failed to convince him. Then the light began to dim and the waves slowed their rapid pace.

"Initiate energy exchange," he barked to the quivering ball on the cushion.

Jark'Khal scrambled up, holding up his arm, which quickly put out a charge. Light flashed from between clasped hands.

Jark'Khal was a Zantharian.

"He could still be working for them!" X growled.

Sylvie grabbed him around the neck and dragged him into a corner. She wanted to offer him comfort, to press peace over him and help him get back to his solid-minded self.

"What's gotten into you?" she hissed. "This isn't the way to perform an interrogation. You might as well threaten to dissect him!"

"If it would get him to talk, I would!" the regent all but snarled back.

Sylvie couldn't figure out what had gotten him so upset. He was a sickly yellow color, anger of some kind, but darkened by an emotion she didn't know. She had to take control of things, had to get him to calm down.

"X," she purred, running a hand down his cheek. "Why don't you let me try something? An old Earth tactic. We call it 'Good Cop/Bad Cop’."

The purr seemed to have caught his attention. His eyes slid down from hers, lingering for a moment on her lips, and then affixing themselves firmly to her breasts as his breathing shifted.

"I'm going to be the Good Cop. You just keep doing what you're doing, but rein it in a little. Got it?"

"I'll play along. For now." His expression turned stony again.

"Jark'Khal," Sylvie said, approaching the Zantharian as he panted on the cushion, his color candy apple red. "The regent here is a little upset. Now, I want to trust you, but you realize that it doesn't look good for you, right?"

"I don't understand," he said. "I was following orders, and I simply got a little excited."

"A little excited?" X's voice rose to a roar. "You went purple!"

Sylvie held the big man back, although he wasn't struggling very hard. He's playing along. Clever guy.

"You were just following orders." Sylvie worked to use a soothing, peaceful tone.

"Yes," the scientist said, his face eagerly repentant. "The Minister of Defense authorized the dissection. I was following his orders!"

"This is getting us nowhere," X grumbled. "If you're not an enemy agent, tell me why you were one of the first responders to the scene of the crash? You were there at the Earthling's capture. You've been working on the recovered ship. You were in charge of dissecting the captive. All signs point to you. You! YOU!"

Whoa, talk about melodrama.

"Please!" the scientist wailed, "I was only doing my job. I've always wanted to dissect a human! To get a look at the skeleton, all those delicious vertebrae! That might make me sick, but it doesn't make me a traitor! She’s the greatest find ever."

Sylvie fought the urge to vomit. The guy wanted to check out her skeleton outside of her body. Why was she trying to save his life?

Are you any better? You're a biologist who came to this planet all set to take back samples of its life and poke and prod them in your laboratory.

Still, the thought hadn't aroused her.

"Enough!" the regent shouted. "Why haven't you gotten the ship up and running yet? Sabotage our recovery of the ship, dissect the female, and everything is all tidy."

The scientist's face was a shifting mask of emotions. Frustration. Hope. Fear. "My team has been working day and night to get that damn ship back online. It's the main computer. Something called Magnis. It keeps thwarting all of our attempts to force its activation."

"Magnis? He's still alive?" Sylvie was glad the ship's brains hadn't been totally destroyed in the crash. She knew he was only a computer, but people got very attached to their electronics. Even if he did beat her at every game stored in his memory banks.

"Yes, he's alive all right," Jark'Khal said. "He keeps denying us access. As far advanced as we are compared to you, I was sure we'd have cracked it by now. Maybe if you talked to the computer," he said, addressing Sylvie. "It might activate if it heard a familiar voice."

"That's actually a good idea," Sylvie said. She'd assumed the computer was dead, but if he was standing in the way of figuring out how her ship had taken down the shields, then it couldn't hurt to try and talk Magnis into helping out.

Once they'd figured out this mess, she and Magnis could fly on home. Without having surrendered herself completely to the regent. Heavy emotion rose sharply inside of her at the thought of leaving him. She glanced up at him as he continued to verbally pound the creep beside her.

"Sure, a great idea. Get both you and your ship in the same place so Hareema agents can take you both out in one fell swoop. I don't think so." X's tone was adamant.

"Come on, X," she said. "We don't have any other leads. It's worth a shot."

The regent's eyes narrowed. His skin was darkening, but not taking on a particular color. "If it's a set up, I lose any hope of finding out what happened."

And you lose your hold over me. Once I have my ship back, I won't have to sleep with you for a ride home. As much as I was curious about making love to him, he was almost desperate to have a go at me. His obsession should have been disturbing, but it wasn’t. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a man in my bed, or simply on my mind.

"I'm willing to argue the point." She straightened her shoulders before sneaking a peek at the prisoner.

Jark'Khal was hanging on their every word, still terrified that he'd be accused of being an enemy collaborator.

"But not here." She threw her thumb over her shoulder at the scientist. "Are we done with this guy?"

"He's told us nothing." X shook his head. "However, he doesn’t seem to have anything worth digging for anyway.”

"Then let's get out of here. These cells give me the creeps."