Z 2134

been out,” the dwarf said, his voice smooth and eloquent, not at all Dark Quarters brusque.
    “How long?” Jonah asked.
    “A few days. You must’ve really needed your rest,” the dwarf smiled. He seemed almost friendly. Though Jonah couldn’t allow himself to trust his captors just yet.
    After a long stretch of silence, Jonah asked, “What is it you want from me?”
    Jonah had been on the other side of interrogations more times than he could count. He recognized an interrogator when he saw one.
    “Only answers,” the dwarf said. “Nothing more. You are safe here, and that’s how you’ll stay, so long as you cooperate. If you don’t,” he shrugged, still smiling, “well, you can imagine.”
    The dwarf laughed, but Jonah had no idea whether his laughter was pleasant or cruel. “Ask away,” Jonah said. “I’ve nothing to hide.”
    There was something disarming about the interrogator not hovering above Jonah, being at eye level, despite the fact that the dwarf was standing and Jonah was seated. As the man paced back and forth in front of Jonah, seemingly in thought, Jonah felt a chill run through him.
    “Very well, then,” the dwarf said. “My name is Father Truth, but you can call me Father.”
    “Father Truth?” Jonah repeated. “Your parents give you that name?”
    With no expression in his eyes, Father said, “My parents gave me nothing, including my name.” He cleared his throat. “So Watcher, why were you banished?”
    Though every other word sounded perfectly pleasant, Watcher may as well have been Satan.
    “If you know I’m a Watcher,” Jonah said, “and that I was banished, then you obviously saw me on The Games. So what is it you’re really asking?”
    “Yes, well,” Father said, still smiling, “I’m simply gathering background. But if you’re ready to dig into the details now, then so be it.” He leaned closer to Jonah, inches from his face, then whispered, “Is it true? You murdered your wife?”
    “No,” Jonah shook his head, trying to keep his emotions in check.
    Father’s even tone neither rose nor fell, but seemed to mine glee from Jonah’s discomfort. He shrugged, then, as though genuinely curious said, “Then why would City Watch say you did? Weren’t you found guilty?”
    Jonah tried not to growl.
    “Yes, I was found guilty, but that doesn’t mean I did anything.”
    Father Truth looked puzzled. “Are you saying your own people set you up? The esteemed and honorable bastions of justice, City Watch, would set someone up?”
    Jonah wasn’t sure if he could trust Father until he was certain that he was indeed Underground himself. For all Jonah knew, these were operatives of The State, looking to get information from Jonah through an elaborate ruse that included child savages and a dwarf. Jonah couldn’t give up Duncan or any of the others he worked with; otherwise the entire resistance could fall apart.
    “Yes,” Jonah said. “I was set up.”
    “And why were you set up?”
    Jonah couldn’t answer Father, at least not directly. Same with every other question passed back and forth for the next fifteen minutes. Father Truth’s history of interrogation probably wasn’t too different from Jonah’s. He clearly knew when he’d hit a wall. Eventually Father’s smile fell into a frown that tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he shook his head as if disappointed.
    “Just so you know,” he said, “I never prefer doing things this way.”
    Jonah refused to satisfy the dwarf by asking him which way that was, sure he’d find out soon enough. Sure enough, Father reached inside his pants pocket, withdrew a slender strip of leather folded neatly in half, then opened the small pouch and pulled out a syringe. He pulled off the cap and stuck the needle into a small glass cylinder, withdrawing a clear liquid into the needle.
    Father squeezed the air out of the syringe as he met Jonah’s eyes, smiling widely.
    “What’s that?” Jonah asked, hating himself for wanting to know, and even more for asking.
    Father smiled wider, as though he appreciated Jonah’s inquisitive nature. “Oh, nothing much,” he said. “Just a little something to help loosen your lips. I find that this works so much better than the violent ways that your brethren utilize at City Watch.”
    Before he could protest, Father Truth was an inch away. Jonah felt the tip of the needle pinch the flesh of his neck before he’d even had time to register what Father was doing. The man