“The person in the room with you is called Six,” the voice said. “The number has no significance; it’s randomly selected. We change them for every mission.”

“What number are you?” Lee asked.

“This time I am Two,” the voice said.

“And you’re not in the room with me,” Lee said.

“I am close by,” Two said. “But I have no interest in having my own voice leak in so you can isolate it. So I listen and watch, and Six takes care of everything else.”

“I still need to pee,” Lee said.

“Six,” Two said. Lee could hear Six move, and then suddenly a portion of the hard bottom of her chair disappeared. “Go ahead,” Two said.

“You’re kidding,” Lee said.

“I’m afraid not,” Two said. “Again, apologies. But you can’t honestly expect me to unbind you. Even naked and blind, a Colonial Defense Forces soldier is a formidable opponent. There is a pan underneath your chair that will catch your waste. Six will then deal with it.”

“I feel as if I should apologize to Six,” Lee said. “Especially because eventually I will have to do something else than pee.”

“This is not Six’s first time doing this,” Two said. “We’re all professionals here.”

“How reassuring,” Lee said. Then she made an inward shrug and relieved herself. After she was finished, there was a scrape as a pan was removed and another scraping sound as the bottom of her chair was replaced. There were steps, followed by a door opening and then closing.

“Your compatriots told me that you are Lieutenant Heather Lee, of the Colonial Defense Forces ship Tubingen,” Two said.

“That’s right,” Lee said.

“Well, then, Lieutenant Lee, let me tell you how this is going to work,” Two said. “You have been captured and you are my prisoner. I am going to ask you questions and you are going to answer them truthfully, as fully and completely as you can. If you do so, then when we are done I will have you released, obviously very far away from where we are now, but released all the same. If you do not do so, or if I catch you in a lie even once, I will kill you. I will not torture you, or abuse you, or have you raped or violated or any such nonsense. I will simply have a shotgun put to your head, in order to kill you, and to destroy that computer in your skull. It’s old-fashioned but very effective. I regret to say that one of your compatriots, a Private Jefferson, already tested me on this score and learned to his misfortune that I am not joking. The lesson does him no good at this point, I’m afraid. But I hope his example might be useful to you.”

Lee said nothing to this, thinking about Jefferson, who was always too enthusiastic for his own good.