Cultwick: The Sweeper Bot Plague (22 page)

Chapter 23. Alice the Inquisitor

The heretic, Erynn Clover, was restrained in a metal chair of the mansion basement that Alice and Edwin had temporarily appropriated. A bounty hunter had found her at a shop in Willow Switch and turned her into the local sheriff.

All she had
on her person at the time of capture was a custom-made pistol and a bag of recently acquired chromesmith parts. There was no indication where her accomplices were or where the other confederacy rebels were hiding.

So far, she had said very little. Edwin, however, was excellent at
convincing people to talk. Alice intended to find out everything she could before shipping Erynn back to Cultwick City for further interrogation, sentencing, and finally execution.

On a table along the wall of the room
, Edwin laid out a series of tools in plain sight of Erynn. He pulled out of a small, black bag several different types of knives, a set of syringes, a plier, a hammer, and a handful of custom-made tools.

“Ms. Clover,” Alice began. “I am Operative Page
, though if you prefer you can call me Alice. Your capture is excellent news for me. I expect I will be getting promoted off your bad behavior.” She lifted her left hand and gazed at her tattoo.

Erynn replied, “
Well, hey, as long as you’re getting promoted, I guess it’s all been worthwhile.”

The operative
frowned at the comment, but she ignored it and continued, “We are going to try to have a pleasant conversation. I’m going to ask you a series of questions. You’re going to answer me. If I don’t like the answer, Edwin here is going to intervene. And please keep in mind that your silence will prove to be quite dangerous.”

She knelt down next to the restrained young woman and placing a hand on her shoulder pointed to the table and the implements on it.

“I suspect you won’t appreciate his efforts,” she continued. “Now, let’s start off with something easy, shall we? What did you intend to do with these mechanical parts?” she asked, picking up the bag of chromesmith components.

The heretic looked up at Alice and said, “
Well, it was supposed to be a surprise, but they’re a gift for you. I hope you like them.”

“You know, Ms. Clover,” Alice began. “I don’t think we’re all that different.”

“Oh, rusty cogs,” Erynn sighed. “You’re not really going to give me a ‘we’re not so different’ speech are you?”

“We’re both
strong, focused, independent women,” Alice said, causing Erynn to roll her eyes. “We’re even both orphans. Of course, we didn’t turn out exactly the same. Somewhere things went wrong for you. You took the dark path – relying on those machines rather than the word of god.”

“Yeah, you really are bat-shit crazy, huh?” Erynn asked.

“Hmm,” the operative said. “I’m not sure you’re taking this as seriously as you should, Ms. Clover.”

Alice nodded to
Edwin, and he picked up one of the syringes from the table and approached Erynn. He haphazardly stuck her in the arm with the needle, injecting her with the contents.

“Agh,” she said. “And here I heard you empire types had a great sense of humor.”

Alice rolled up the sleeve on Erynn’s left arm, revealing the tattoo of a four-leaf clover. Smiling, she said, “That’s an interesting tattoo. Mine indicates my rank with the Church of Biosynthesis. Yours seems more personal, however. Has it brought you luck?”

“It’s just a tattoo, lady,” Erynn said
dismissively.

“If that’s true, then you surely won’t miss it.”
Looking to Edwin, Alice instructed him, “Remove her tattoo, please.”

Edwin picked up a
sharp knife and eyed it carefully before walking to the restrained woman. He placed the weapon to her arm and slid the blade into the skin and under the tattoo.

S
he screamed and contorted her body, as he cut into her flesh. With a few swift movements of the blade, he had cut off the entire tattoo into one neat piece of skin. Blood poured freely from the large wound on her forearm, and she continued to squirm in her restraints.

The operative took the piece of skin from Edwin and told him, “I guess it’s mine now.”

“Cut me all you want,” Erynn told her, gritting her teeth. “I’m not going to tell you what you want to know.”

Alice leaned down to take a long look at the fresh wound on the woman’s arm. The skin, however, soon began to regrow itself over the wound, covering the exposed muscle
and stopping the blood flow. The heretic looked at her arm in a state of confusion and horror as the injury completely healed in a matter of moments.

“Don’t worry, Ms. Clover,” Alice began. “We will indeed cut you as much as we want. And after we cut you, you’re going to regrow the skin, so that we can cut you again. That injection
he gave you will keep you healthy and in one piece, until we get every bit of information we need from you. I ask. You answer.”

Alice walked over to the table of instruments and laid down the tattooed skin. She
turned back and continued, “Now then, I assume the parts were to fix that automaton of yours. I saw that it was destroyed during the bank robbery.”

“That wasn’t a question,” Erynn told her.

“Fair point, Ms. Clover,” the operative responded. “Let’s go back to the beginning then shall we? The lottery. You were chosen for great things, but instead--”

“Great things,” Erynn interrupted. “You’ve got to recheck your programming, lady. Being experimented on against your will - you seriously think that’s great?”

“It’s for the greater good of the Cultwick Empire,” she answered passionately. “And Cultwick is certainly greater for it.”

“Maybe you should have stayed there then,” Erynn suggested.

“Cultwick is more than just Cultwick City,” Alice stated. “The Cultwick Empire is a book, and you must travel to read it, Ms. Clover.” She paused before continuing, “You don’t think the lottery is an honor then, hmm? If that’s the case, was your brother’s death a waste?”

“Don’t you dare bring my brother into this!” Erynn shouted.

Alice smiled and said, “What about all those guards and the Cultwick Corpsmen that you killed during your escape. Were their deaths justified?”

“They chose their side,” she answered.
“Their fate was a result of that.”

“Do you know what it feels like to die, Ms. Clover?” Alice asked simply.

The heretic looked at her with an uncertainty and didn’t answer the question.

“Edwin,” the operative stated.

Again, Edwin picked up a syringe and injected the woman with it. He then plunged a knife deep into Erynn’s chest. She gasped as the blade struck her heart and blood came pouring out of her chest, pooling in her lap.

The life quickly went out of the
young woman, and Edwin pulled the blade from her chest and walked away. He wiped the blood off the weapon with a towel and placed it back on his table of instruments.

A few moments passed before a spurting sound came from Erynn as she was restored with life. She coughed up and spat out a great deal of blood
, before Alice approached her.

“Are you beginning to understand your predicament, Ms. Clover?” she asked.

“When I get out of here,” Erynn began, “I’m going to kill you.”

“Still stubborn, hmm?” she noted to herself. “Moving on. There was a woman occupying a cell opp
osite yours inside the center, one Fiona Newton.”

“That psychopath?” Erynn
asked still spitting up some blood as she talked.

“Indeed,” Alice answered. “You and she share a bond. Are you even aware of it?”

“What bond?” she asked.

“I suppose not. She, on the other hand, seemed painfully aware of it. I wonder why it would have worked on her, but not you...”
She thought to herself for a moment before continuing, “Regardless, she seems to be extremely captivated by you.

“That does remind me though. I suppose we no longer need her now that we have captured you. Edwin, please remind me to have a corpsmen team sent to purge her.”

Edwin nodded, and Alice turned her attention back to Erynn. Alice continued, “Do you realize Ms. Newton broke out of the C.E.R. just after you did?”

“I guess I’m a little behind on my tabloid news,” she answered. “Don’t suppose you could tell me about that time the empress dug up her dead husband and ‘held court
’ though?’”

Enraged, Alice took a backhand to the petulant woman, causing more blood to
spew forth from her mouth. “How dare you insult the empress?” she demanded.

“Oh, my mistake,” Erynn said laughing. “I’m sure that was
all just a big misunderstanding.”

“Edwin, please hurt her
for me,” the operative calmly requested.

Edwin went to the fireplace at the side of the room and pulled out a burning hot brand. He approached Erynn and injected her hand with another syringe. He then pressed the red-hot metal to the back of her
left hand.

She screamed in pain
, as he held the brand to her hand for some time. When he pulled up the brand, the letter, ‘H’ was left on her hand in pink, irritated skin.

Alice noted Erynn staring at the branded flesh, waiting for it to repair itself.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Clover,” she stated. “That mark will stay with you for life. Perhaps you should pick your words more carefully. I’ve found that scars tend to teach caution. Shall we continue?

“Ms. Newton and you were given a treatment to connect you at a mental level. My belief is that she will track you down, if she hasn’t already. Have you seen her? She could prove very dangerous.”

“Ahh, you’re worried for me,” Erynn said mockingly.

Alice scoffed and said, “Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind if you were grievously injured, but it is my job to return you
to Cultwick City alive. So, have you seen Ms. Newton?”

“No, I haven’t seen her,” Erynn disdainfully answered.

“Perhaps the connection wasn’t as strong as I would have hoped,” the operative said. “And I must admit that this time, your chromesmith technology was more useful than our biological augmentations.”

“What?” Erynn asked
, raising an eyebrow. “My technology?”

“That’s correct,” Alice answered. “You made more than a few mistakes in Ash Cloud. The biggest being this.” She
picked up from the table the device from the safe deposit box.

Erynn looked at the device
with a certain level of disappointment and said, “Well, rusty damn cogs. I probably should’ve gotten rid of that.”

“Indeed,” Alice continued. “It led us right to you. Very sloppy, Ms. Clover. Very sloppy. Speaking of the mistakes during your bank robbery though, you really should have thought to
get rid of those messages from the windows. Caving in the tunnel simply wasn’t good enough. You led us right to the Callahan’s home.”

“If you hurt them--” Erynn began.

“You’ll what?” she asked. “The rest of your life will be spent shackled in chains and writhing in agony, Ms. Clover. This is what happens to heretics in Cultwick.”

“Clearly I should have just given my life to advance your torturous experiments,” Erynn said.

“Well,” Alice said. “I suppose you were simply fated to live out your life in a cage. Now, back to the bank. I know what you found in those boxes, but tell me. What did you intend to do with that information?”

The operative paused waiting for a response from Erynn, but she
didn’t receive one.

“That’s okay,” Alice continued. “I think I know. You were going to come to the rescue of all the sick and dying citizens of Cultwick, offering them a cure to
all their problems. Correct? Tell them that their government had been keeping it from them? Well, that’s not going to happen now. The people of Cultwick simply aren’t ready for the cure yet. Instead you will--”

“Yeah, yeah,” Erynn said. “Life in a cage. You mentioned that.”

“Correct,” the operative confirmed. “Instead we will be continuing to treat the plague in order to advance the scientific research of Cultwick. Someone has to fund our work and who better than the people.”

“The same people you experiment on?” Erynn asked. “The ones who place their trust in you to do good? The people suffering
? In pain?”

“Pain is not permanent, Ms. Clover,” Alice told her. “And none of the experiments are in vain. Cultwick doesn’t
want what you have; it wants what you are. Life in Cultwick is not a certainty, but death is.”

The chromesmith had nothing to say to this, so Alice continued, “If you intended to take the medical supplies from the train tomorrow, you would have needed help. Where
is Dr. Rowland? Germ?”

“Couldn’t say,” Erynn said. “Haven’t seen them in a while.”

“Fine,” Alice responded. “But know that we will come back to that before our time is up. What about the Chromework Confederacy? How are you involved with them?”

“The what confederacy?” Erynn asked.