"No. He might not be working for the enemy. I wasn't, remember?"
"So...?" X trailed off, a corner of his mouth turned up cruelly.
"Initiate an energy exchange with him." She stood on tiptoe to grab his face and turn it toward hers. "Calm down."
When she thought she had his full attention, she continued. "Initiate an energy exchange, a REGULAR energy exchange and not a killer dose of electricity. Then we can at least determine whether he's a Hareema agent."
His face tightened and Sylvie thought for a moment that she had failed to convince him. Then the light began to dim and the waves slowed their rapid pace.
"Initiate energy exchange," he barked to the quivering ball on the cushion.
Jark'Khal scrambled up, holding up his arm, which quickly put out a charge. Light flashed from between clasped hands.
Jark'Khal was a Zantharian.
"He could still be working for them!" X growled.
Sylvie grabbed him around the neck and dragged him into a corner. She wanted to offer him comfort, to press peace over him and help him get back to his solid-minded self.
"What's gotten into you?" she hissed. "This isn't the way to perform an interrogation. You might as well threaten to dissect him!"
"If it would get him to talk, I would!" the regent all but snarled back.
Sylvie couldn't figure out what had gotten him so upset. He was a sickly yellow color, anger of some kind, but darkened by an emotion she didn't know. She had to take control of things, had to get him to calm down.
"X," she purred, running a hand down his cheek. "Why don't you let me try something? An old Earth tactic. We call it 'Good Cop/Bad Cop’."
The purr seemed to have caught his attention. His eyes slid down from hers, lingering for a moment on her lips, and then affixing themselves firmly to her breasts as his breathing shifted.
"I'm going to be the Good Cop. You just keep doing what you're doing, but rein it in a little. Got it?"
"I'll play along. For now." His expression turned stony again.
"Jark'Khal," Sylvie said, approaching the Zantharian as he panted on the cushion, his color candy apple red. "The regent here is a little upset. Now, I want to trust you, but you realize that it doesn't look good for you, right?"
"I don't understand," he said. "I was following orders, and I simply got a little excited."
"A little excited?" X's voice rose to a roar. "You went purple!"
Sylvie held the big man back, although he wasn't struggling very hard.He's playing along. Clever guy.
"You were just following orders." Sylvie worked to use a soothing, peaceful tone.
"Yes," the scientist said, his face eagerly repentant. "The Minister of Defense authorized the dissection. I was following his orders!"
"This is getting us nowhere," X grumbled. "If you're not an enemy agent, tell me why you were one of the first responders to the scene of the crash? You were there at the Earthling's capture. You've been working on the recovered ship. You were in charge of dissecting the captive. All signs point to you. You! YOU!"
Whoa, talk about melodrama.
"Please!" the scientist wailed, "I was only doing my job. I've always wanted to dissect a human! To get a look at the skeleton, all those delicious vertebrae! That might make me sick, but it doesn't make me a traitor! She’s the greatest find ever."
Sylvie fought the urge to vomit. The guy wanted to check out her skeletonoutsideof her body. Why was she trying to save his life?
Are you any better?You're a biologist who came to this planet all set to take back samples of its life and poke and prod them in your laboratory.
Still, the thought hadn't aroused her.
"Enough!" the regent shouted. "Why haven't you gotten the ship up and running yet? Sabotage our recovery of the ship, dissect the female, and everything is all tidy."
