Chapter 50 The Interrogation

Chapter 50 The Interrogation
The second game was memory.

Kara sat in the chair, her wrists bound, her ankles bound, her head heavy. They'd put something in her arm. Something that made her thoughts slow and her vision blur and her chest feel like it was full of water.

Cassandra stood in front of her. The investors were on the balcony. The lights were bright.

"You will be given a code," Cassandra said. "A sequence of numbers. You will recite it. If you make a mistake, you will be shocked. The voltage increases with each mistake."

Kara tried to focus. The room was spinning. The lights were too bright. The thing in her arm was making it hard to think.

"Ready?" Cassandra asked.

Kara nodded.

A screen appeared in front of her. Numbers. A long sequence. Too long. She tried to memorize them. Tried to hold them in her head.

"Begin."

She opened her mouth. The first numbers came. Four. Seven. Twelve. Twenty-three. She kept going. The numbers were slipping. She couldn't hold them.

She made it to the fifteenth number before she forgot.

The shock came from the chair. A jolt that went through her spine, her skull, her teeth. She gasped. Her vision went white.

"Again," Cassandra said.

She started over. One. Four. Seven. Twelve. Twenty-three. She got to the twentieth number this time. Forgot. The shock was worse. Her whole body arched against the bindings. She heard herself scream.

Again."

She started over. She got to the twenty-fifth number. Forgot. The shock was worse. Her vision went black.

She woke up on the floor. Her wrists were bleeding. Her mouth was full of blood. Cassandra was standing over her, her face calm, her eyes cold.

"You made it to thirty-five," she said. "Good enough."

She walked away. The lights dimmed. Kara lay on the floor, her chest heaving, her hands shaking.

Patricia found her. Helped her sit up. Held her while she cried.

"You did good," Patricia said.

Kara shook her head. "I failed."

"You survived. That's the only thing that matters in this game."

Kara looked at the screen. Derek was sitting in the chair. The numbers were in front of him. He was reciting. Getting further than she did. Forgetting. Being shocked. Not screaming.

"He's stronger than me," Kara said.

Patricia shook her head. "He's been running longer. He's had more practice being broken."

Kara watched Derek forget. Watched him scream. Watched him go black. Watched him wake up on the floor.

"He's not going to make it," Kara said.

Patricia's face was still. "None of us are. That's not the point."

"Then what's the point?"

Patricia looked at the balcony. At the investors. At the door where Cassandra had disappeared.

"The point is to keep them watching. To keep them entertained. To give the others time."

"What others?"

Patricia smiled. It was the same smile she'd worn when she let Kara go. The same smile she'd worn when she said goodbye.

"The ones who are going to burn this whole thing down."