Shadowplay

CELL 8

The room was antiseptically clean, white tiles on the floor and wall, stainless steel appointments, smoothy shiny black wires for the electrical equipment; the men working there, all but one, wore surgical garb with gauze masks and black goggles that hid all expression and turned them into vaguely insectile figures. The odd man was tall and lean with a handsome lined face and a thick flowing mane of white hair. He wore a starched, wrinkle-free white cassock that brushed against black sandals and a robe beaded with totems and symbols in icon panels down the front, around the hem and sleeves in bright jewel colors that might have been garish but weren't.

A naked woman was stretched out on the steel table, glaring at them, terrified but defiant; she looked very much like the rebel poet of Cell 13, but was perhaps a few years older, she might have been a sister or cousin.

One of the masked figures bent over her, drew a scalpel in a slanting line from the hollow of her throat to the nipple of her right breast. She screamed and tried to struggle, but she had little leeway for movement; she gathered herself and spat in the face of the man bending over her. He ignored it and continued with his delicate work. The blade barely broke the skin, the cut burned a little but that was all.

"Give one the names of your cell," the robed man said; it was a beautiful voice, a warm creamy baritone, a voice made for caressing the ear. "Just the names. All one wishes is to persuade them for good of their souls and their brothers to abandon this foolish rebellion against the order Oppalatin decreed for us all. You and I, child, we have our place and function in life. It Is not good to deny this. There are enough terrors and and evils that one has to face from sun to sun, why create more? Give one the names. You will, you know. Don't make one hurt you, child; one doesn't want to hurt you. The Na-priest will remove your skin bit by bit and his assistants will paint pimikot tincture on the wound. Yes. I see you understand. Tell one, child, name the names…