Page 75 of Freak Camp
They pulled him through beautifully carpeted hallways, so elegant and clean that Tobias felt he was dirtying them just with his shoes dragging along the floor, and finally to two huge doors.The plaque next to the doors read Director Jonah Dixon.Karl rapped two quick knocks and pushed the door in.
As they entered, Director Dixon looked up from paperwork on his desk.Karl dumped Tobias to the floor, and he hit his knees hard.The rich, colorful rug under him should have felt softer, easier than the concrete yard or packed earth he knew too well, but it struck the same—or worse—chill of horror through him.
“That is 89UI6703?”The Director stood.His huge desk was built in a glossy dark red wood that reflected the ceiling light.A long matching conference table stretched down one side of the room, and a bookshelf took up most of the opposite wall.“Well, don’t just stand there and stare, get him on his feet.”
Karl pulled Tobias up by his hair.
The Director moved forward.He was a lean but fit older man with brown eyes in a cold, thoughtful face.With a firm grip, he took hold of Tobias’s chin in his hand.Tobias cringed, but Karl’s grip on his arms tightened enough to leave bruises, and he forced himself to be still.
“I’ve heard interesting things about you, 89UI.”The Director glanced at Victor, who was shifting uneasily behind Karl.“What do the guards call him?”
Victor hesitated.Through his own panic, Tobias noticed that Victor, too, was nervous.“Pretty Freak, sir.Because he’s—”
“An attractive young monster amid a crowd of skin-sloughers and muzzled vamps,” the Director said.“Yes, I understand, Mr.Todd.I’ve always said that the guards lacked creativity.”
Karl glared, the livid burn scar across his cheek flushing, but Victor kept his eyes just to the right of the Director’s face, the way Tobias looked at guards.
“Is he intelligent?”the Director asked Victor, ignoring Karl’s glare.
Victor hesitated.“I’m not ...sure what you mean, sir.”
Tobias kept his eyes on the floor.Victor sounded cautious, wary, and he was always the smartest of the guards.Tobias had already been afraid of the Director on principle—he was in charge of FREACS and the ASC, and a word from him could destroy any monster or guard in the facility—but now he knew that he had another good reason to be afraid.
“I realize we pay you to keep the vermin under control and not to think, but do I really need to rephrase the question, Mr.Todd?”
Victor straightened.“No, sir.He seems ...bright enough.”Tobias could nearly hear him struggling to find a better answer.“Takes direction well.”
“Obedient, good.You see, Mr.Todd, Mr.Horwitz, I have a theory that the only monster that shouldn’t be slit open on a rack is an obedient monster, a monster that can be used.Intelligence in freaks is only useful as far as it can be shaped and wielded by a human.Otherwise it is nothing but guile that serves to make the freak more dangerous.Would you agree?”
Tobias risked a glance toward Victor.The guard had a pinched, sour look on his face, like he knew he was being dressed down to give someone else a lesson and didn’t like it at all.
The Director slapped Tobias, and Tobias’s head snapped back.
The man’s smile looked almost kind, but there was steel and venom in his eyes.“You do not look at humans while I am talking to them.That is disrespect and will not be tolerated.Do you understand, 89UI?”
“Yes, sir,” Tobias said, dropping his eyes.The slap had been far lighter than any strike from the guards, but his heart hammered harder than it had during his last beating.
The Director gripped Tobias’s chin again, forcing his head back up.He stared into Tobias’s eyes for a long minute, and then he came to a decision.
“You may leave us, gentlemen.Hand that leash to me.You may wait in the hall.Naturally if it sounds like I’m being slaughtered or anything along those lines, feel free to come to my rescue.”The Director’s mouth quirked, and he gave a sharp tug on Tobias’s leash just as Victor and Karl let him go.
Tobias unbalanced, barely catching himself in time.
“Good reflexes.”The Director pulled him to the conference table.Solid metal rings were set into the table side at even intervals between the chairs.A monster chained to that table would be close, but not necessarily in the way.The Director tied the leash to a ring so that Tobias was wedged tight against the high back of one of the graceful wooden chairs.He would have had more room if he moved between the chairs, but the Director jerked the leash to make sure that Tobias stayed behind the chair, and then locked the leash in place.
The Director caught his gaze and smiled in slight amusement.“The key is in my desk.You’ll get out of here when I tell you you may, and not a moment before.Respond when I talk to you.”
“Yes, sir,” Tobias said, staring down.
“Wonderful.You can respond to basic commands.Mr.Todd is a bright man, though he’s certainly not family, but I’m never quite sure if other people share the same definitions of intelligence and training that I do.Uncle Elijah certainly didn’t.Are you obedient otherwise, or are you punished often?”
Tobias swallowed.“Not often, sir.”
“Good.”The Director rubbed his hands together.“Let’s see if you’re lying, shall we?Put your hands on the chair in front of you.You let go, you lift your hands up, you resist me in any way, and I’ll call Mr.Horwitz in here to start cutting off unnecessary pieces.I believe he still has a grudge against you because of that regrettable incident that led to his disfigurement.Do you understand, or do you have questions?”
Tobias licked his lips and planted his hands on the back of the chair.“Which pieces are unnecessary, sir?”
The Director smiled.“He gets to decide.”
