Stephen R. Donaldson - Forbidden Knowledge: The Gap Into Vision

BOOK TWO OF THE GAP SERIES

Morn Hyland has survived a terrible ordeal at the hands one pirate, only to find herself trapped in the ship of another. Nick Succorso rescued her from Angus Thermopyle, but for

what purpose? He and his crew are all illegals, and she is a cop a cop with gap-sickness. Just having her on board puts all their lives at risk. But Nick knows that Morn possesses something that could be of value to them all and he has every intention of exploiting it.

On the long and hazardous voyage to forbidden space, Morn will hear shocking rumours of high-level corruption, and even more alarming tales of a shadowy alien life force the Amnion and their all-consuming mutagens. All too soon, the bizarre stories will become terrifying reality

M ilos Taverner sighed, ran his hand back across his mottled scalp as if to verify that what remained of his hair was still present, and lit another nic. Then he glared again at the transcript hardcopy on his desk and tried to imagine an approach that might work without getting himself into so much trouble that the people he was paid to please would turn against him.

He was responsible for the ongoing interrogation of Angus Thermopyle.

It wasnt going well.

That pleased some people and infuriated others.

Angus trial had been a simple enough affair, as such things went. Com-Mine Security had recovered the pirated supplies. The search which located the supplies aboard Angus ship, Bright Beauty, had adequate legal justification. With a number of vague, troubling exceptions, the evidence of the ships datacore supported the charges against him the less damning ones. He mounted no defence, apparently because he knew it was futile. Everything was correct and in order; Angus Thermopyle was guilty as charged.

On the other hand, despite provocative rumours concerning zone implants, rape, murder, and the wrecked UMCP destroyer Starmaster, no evidence had turned up to convict him of anything more serious than the burglary of Station supplies. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in Com-Mine Stations lockup; but the law simply could not be stretched to include his execution.

Case closed.

Station Security had no intention whatsoever of letting matters rest there.

Milos Taverner had mixed feelings about that. He had too many conflicting priorities to juggle.

As Deputy Chief of Com-Mine Station Security, interrogation was his responsibility. True, the present charges against Angus Thermopyle had been adequately proven and true, the evidence didnt justify any other charges. But Security knew Angus of old. His piracies were a moral, if not a provable, certainty; his dealings with illegals of every description, from druggers and psychotics to the bootleg ore industry in all its guises, were unquestionable, if indemonstrable. His crew had a distressing tendency to disappear. Additionally the unexplained chain of circumstances which brought him back to Com-Mine accompanied by a UMC cop who should have died aboard Starmaster was profoundly intriguing not to mention disturbing.

All things considered, Taverner couldnt question the decision to keep after Angus Thermopyle until he broke or died.

Nevertheless the Deputy Chief didnt really want the job. For a number of reasons.

Because he was personally fastidious, he found Angus repulsive. As far as anyone knew, an addiction to nic was Milos only vice. Even people he made no effort to please would have admitted that he was clean, circumspect, and correct in all his dealings. And no sane observer would have ascribed those virtues to Angus.

More than anything, he looked like a toad bloated by malice. His bodily habits were offensive: he only took a shower when the guards forced him into the san cubicle, only put on a clean prisonsuit at stun-point. That and the way he sweated made him smell like a pig. The colour of his skin was like ground-in grime. His mere existence made Milos feel vaguely ill: his presence inspired a sense of active nausea.

In addition his eyes glared yellow with a belligerent wisdom that made Milos feel exposed; dangerously known.

Angus was cunning, crafty; as insidious as disorder. And people like that were risky to work with. They lied in ways which confirmed their interrogators illusions. They learned from the questions they were asked, they gained as much knowledge as they gave as much or more, in Angus case and they used that knowledge to perfect their lies; to work for the ruin of their interrogators even when they had nothing tangible to work with and had themselves been worked over regularly by experts to encourage co-operation. When they should have been at their weakest, they became most malignant.

Angus caused the Deputy Chief to feel that he himself was the one being tested, the one whose secrets might be laid bare; the one put to the question.

And, as if all that werent enough to contend with, Milos had to wrestle daily with the fact that his interrogation was potentially explosive. Angus Thermopyle was an ore pirate. Therefore he had buyers. He had obtained Bright Beauty by illegal if unproven means; had outfitted her illegally. Therefore he had access to bootleg shipyards. Some of his technology smelled alien, and his records were patently too clean, even though they were unimpeachably recorded in his ships datacore. And all those conclusions, all those strands of inference, ran in only one direction.

Forbidden space.

Angus Thermopyle had dealings direct or indirect with secrets destructive enough to shift the balances of power everywhere in the United Mining Companies vast commercial empire. Those secrets could threaten the security of every Station; perhaps they could threaten the security of Earth.

Milos Taverner wasnt sure he wanted those secrets to come out. In fact, as time passed he became more and more convinced that he needed them to remain hidden. Angus silence infuriated some of the people Milos was paid to please: his secrets, if they were revealed, would infuriate others. But the people who hated Angus silence were less immediately dangerous.

On the other hand, every moment he spent with Angus Thermopyle was recorded. Transcripts were regularly reviewed on-Station. Copies were routinely forwarded to the UMCP. The Deputy Chief of Com-Mine Station Security couldnt tackle this assignment with anything less than complete diligence and expect to get away with it.

No wonder he couldnt give up nic. He found the habit disgusting in other people and yet he couldnt quit himself. Sometimes he thought nic was the only thing that enabled his nerves to bear the stress.