"My father had a metalworking shop. He made ventilation tubes. Everything I needed was right there."
So that was why he had been recruited so young. He had access to the ingredients and the equipment needed to make that poison.
"Where were you recruited?"
He shrugged again. "On the streets of Podana. Gangs, you know. They use the stuff. Pay well for it."
He was lying, and not very well, which wasn't surprising. Growing up in Elucia, he hadn't been exposed to enough liars to learn how to do it properly, and his Sitorian masters had not invested enough effort to teach him.
Native Sitorians lied as a way of life, and they could do it so convincingly that even I, who had been trained in the officers' course to detect deceit, had a hard time distinguishing truth from lies. I just assumed that every word leaving their mouths was a lie, which probably resulted in me getting it right ninety-nine percent of the time.
Bad liars tended to add unnecessary details to make their lies sound more convincing. Good liars knew to avoid that trap.
"You weren't recruited by a gang. We both know that, so stop pretending. When did the Sitorians approach you and where?"
"I wasn't approached by Sitorians."
This guy was going to be tough, which meant that I had to start threatening him. As a follower of Elusitor, Noven was not afraid of death, he welcomed it, but I'm sure he wasn't looking forward to prolonged torture.
"Look." I leaned toward him and smiled coldly. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I don't even need to beat you up, which I would very gladly do and still might. But I know that the withdrawal and hunger will do the work for me."
The panic in his eyes betrayed him, but he got a hold of himself. "That will take a very long time, and you want answers yesterday."
"What I want and what I can get are two different things. I want to find out everything I need to know as fast as possible, but I don't have to. I can wait until hunger pangs and withdrawal pain force you to talk."
He swallowed. "If I talk, are you going to bring me what I need?"
"No, but I can end your suffering swiftly and provide you with an express ticket to your kingdom of heaven."
The sudden light in his eyes was sickening, but then it dimmed. "If I tell you anything, I won't be admitted into the kingdom of heaven."
That was indeed a conundrum, and I had a decision to make.
Sighing dramatically, I leaned back in my chair. "Then I guess it's going to be the hard way, and you will get to your kingdom many months from now, after your body consumes itself from the inside and there is nothing left of it." I let my eyes roam over his somewhat padded frame. "You have a long way to go, buddy. Plenty of reserves."
"Fine." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I was recruited at a training summer camp."
I hadn't expected that. "Who was the recruiter?"
"A young guy who was in Podana for the summer. I haven't seen him since. Others came and went, teaching me the way. This realm is just a test, and those who please Elusitor get to the kingdom of heaven, where devout followers are rewarded in every imaginable way."
The lies were neatly packaged so there was no room for questions. Pleasing Elusitor was the only goal, and it justified any means.
I detested the Sitorian religion, but I really should take a deeper look than the superficial one I had been taught in school and later in officer training. I needed to know more about what these lunatics believed in.
"How do you know any of this is true?" I asked him.
"The sacrament opens the mind to divine truth."
Sacrament, so that was what they called the drugs. They framed their poison in a religious framework, thinking that turned it into something holy.
"The sacrament," I repeated. "You've made it yourself with chemicals from your father's metalworking shop. How can you think that there is anything holy in the product?"
Another flicker in those empty eyes. I'd touched something. "The recipe is divine," he sounded like he was parroting a sermon. "Without Elusitor's instructions, no one would have known the right combination that opens the mind to his divine will. Even a small miscalculation can make the sacrament deadly." He smiled then, his vacant eyes filling with religious fervor. "Can you explain how mere humans could have known to turn something deadly into something divine? It's impossible. That's the best proof that Elusitor's word to his followers is true."
I could only imagine how many Sitorians, captive Elucians, and Elurians the Sitorian priests had killed while developing the formula. I chose not to voice it because I knew Noven would just say that it was blasphemy.
"You don't believe me," he said.
