Page 306 of Alchemised
Mandl tried to resist, but a memory flitted across her consciousness. A man in uniform was speaking: “—keep the best specimens …” Mandl’s attention in the memory wandered to a buzzing fly and everything went out of focus.
Helena tried again. “If you had a new prisoner, what would you do with them?”
Memory fragments were like tatters of moving pictures, sounds and sensation all whipping by as if carried by wind. She heard voices, but they were too distant to make out.
She saw the walls of a warehouse, greenish light from the tinted windows. A boy whose face she half recognised, writhing.
Everything blurred, but a tingle of anticipation ran along her spine.
The gleam of a hypodermic needle in the low light. A finger flicking it to knock loose an air bubble. A glimpse of the boy again.
Blur.
Rows of the bodies laid out on gurneys next to the tanks. A bloated corpse with yellowish eyes, grey discoloured skin. Squeezing the arm of a young man and saying, I’ll take this one next.
A printed form requesting ten female subjects. Signed Artemon Bennet. Mandl’s hands pushing a cart with the boy lying on it, the mask and tubes still attached as she wheeled him into an empty room.
Shutting the door softly. Another shiver along her spine.
Helena ripped her mind free, snatching her hands away, wanting to scrub them until the skin came off.
“What is it for?” she asked. Her skin was crawling. She didn’t want to go back into Mandl’s mind.
Mandl was breathing unsteadily, her pupils dilated so wide that the blue irises barely showed.
“I’ll pull it out if you don’t answer,” Helena said, gripping Mandl by the hair. “Do you prefer that?”
Mandl’s expression twisted, and she spat. “It keeps them fresh.”
“Fresh for what?”
“Anything. New bodies for the Undying. Test subjects. Thralls. The thralls last longer when they’re new.” Mandl was panting openmouthed, her lips growing chapped.
“How long are they kept there?”
Mandl smiled cruelly. “There’s high demand, so usually not more than a few months. Electric shock keeps the muscle toned. We slow the vitals.”
It felt an eternity before Crowther was satisfied with the amount of information Helena pulled out. By that time, Mandl’s eyes were so disoriented that they looked in different directions. She’d grown feverish and was slumped forward, trembling.
“Well,” Crowther said, sneering down at Mandl, “it seems you’ll make a passable replacement for Ivy.”
Helena said nothing. She never wanted to do it ever again. She regretted agreeing to it.
She turned wordlessly to leave.
“Traitor …” Mandl called after her.
CHAPTER 58
Junius 1787
SUCCESSFUL AS LUC’S RECENT OFFENSIVES WERE, THE new territory was stretching the Resistance thin. Despite the widespread admiration for Luc’s decisive and successful leadership, the higher-ups were less enthused. There were rumours of Luc having an explosive argument with Althorne and several other members of military command, for not consulting them.
Some of the districts were surrounded on three sides by the Undying, requiring constant patrols and defence while providing very little strategic use. The districts in question also had not received their “liberation” with enthusiasm. Many of the Paladians on the West Island were quite happy under Undying occupation and fearful of being labelled Resistance sympathisers if the district was eventually taken back. As a result, the Resistance was forced to fend off not only attacks from the Undying’s forces but also civilian rebellions.
The summer Abeyance was approaching, and the troops were concentrated down-island to defend the ports and the anticipated trade influx.
The hospital remained ceaselessly full. No longer were the sharp deluges of battles followed by a lull to recuperate. Now it was constant, an unrelenting strain that ran everyone ragged.
