Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)

by Yoon Ha Lee

IT’S NO USE,” a man was saying. “Look.” Nerevor was staring straight ahead at a gray wall, in a room of gray sodden shadows. Restraints of cold metal held her fast, and the shift they had given her was too thin. Her shoulder hurt, and something about her jaw felt wrong, but it was only pain. She was Kel. She would survive as long as it was given her to survive. “Your name.” It was the man again, impersonal. He was not Kel. She did not have to answer. This time a woman spoke. “We already know who she is.” “That’s not the point. The point is getting her to respond.” “In that case, scare up a uniform and try again.” “She’d know the difference,” the man said. “There’s a baseline body language that’s imprinted on cadets along with formation instinct, subtle stuff. A good Shuos infiltrator could fake it. An Andan could enthrall their way around it. We’re just stuck. She’d break all the bones in her body to please a Kel officer, but we’re short of those. Jedao was making sure we were getting nothing but a warm body with the commander’s face attached, and he can undoubtedly restore her, but we can’t. At least the DNA matches records. Cold bastard.” Nerevor wasn’t sure what Shuos Jedao had to do with the situation, but she made a note of the mention in case it became useful later.