‘I must admit you’re tougher than I thought you’d be,’ Annalise says.
Kritta lifts her head and meets Annalise’s gaze. She tries to spit blood from her cracked lips but she barely has the energy, and the spittle and blood runs down her chin. Even so, Kritta grins and her mouth opens to reveal broken and missing teeth.
Annalise studies her. As a committee member, Kritta was afforded her own security detail. A team that Annalise had paid to capture her after she attempted to take Michael from his London home. Since then she had brought Kritta to the château, and stored her for a week or two, allowing her to sweat before she began work on her.
‘You must understand that I don’t enjoy hurting you,’ Annalise says.
Kritta has borne all the torture that she has thrown at her. Waterboarding, beatings, teeth pulling, broken fingers, electrocution and even hallucinogenic drugs. Now Annalise is losing her patience and she’s decided to resort to different tactics. She will see if Kritta is as tough as she appears or if there is something she can use as leverage to make her talk.
‘The child you had for Beech. She now has her own baby. A girl,’ Annalise says.
Kritta’s face hardens.
‘I’d like to show you something,’ Annalise continues.
The door to Kritta’s prison opens and one of her guards enters carrying a laptop. Another guard pulls Kritta to her feet. They push her down onto a wooden chair before a small table. The other guard places the laptop in front of her. He opens the lid and then sets a PowerPoint slideshow in motion.
Pictures of Mia flash onto the screen. Kritta tries to look away, but the guard that put her on the chair forces her face around. She watches. There are photographs of Mia walking down a suburban street pushing a pram. Pictures also of her hanging out washing in a pristine back garden while the little baby lies on a mat on the grass with a baby gym perched over her.
‘A pretty child. And the mother is very attractive too. Clearly, she doesn’t get her looks from you,’ Annalise laughs. ‘But the child interests me so much. She’ll be such a clean slate and so useful as one of my trainees. And with her pedigree… I’ll adopt her of course. She’ll call me “Mother” like all the rest.’
Annalise bends over the laptop. She closes the PowerPoint and then pulls up a video from another file on the machine.
‘We know exactly where they are. But, the mother – Mia she’s called – is no use to me as she is. She knows nothing. The conditioning has made her forget who and what she is. I think I’ll just order her killed.’
The video shows Mia walking towards a local shop. She pauses outside, and then Kritta sees the red glow of a sniper laser resting on the back of Mia’s head.
Kritta gasps.
Annalise closes the lid of the laptop.
‘You were willing, weren’t you?’ Annalise says. ‘Perhaps you were even a little in love with Beech. I know how it is to raise a child for a few years, only to have them taken away from you. But you have watched her progress haven’t you, Kritta? He let you see her at times, didn’t he?’
‘No. I don’t care about her,’ Kritta says. ‘I was just an incubator.’
‘Really?’ Annalise reaches into her pocket and removes a stack of old photographs. ‘What about these?’
Kritta sees the pictures as Annalise scatters them on top of the laptop and table. Mia at various stages in her life. Playing in the park with the Kensingtons watching over her. At school during sports day. Later dressed for prom, a spotty boyfriend on her arm.
‘She looks particularly pretty there,’ Annalise says picking up a photograph of Mia and Ben on their wedding day. ‘We found these in your apartment. I think you care, Kritta. I really do.’
‘You bitch!’ says Kritta. ‘Fight me fair and square and we’ll see who is the best. I’ll mess up your pretty face and no amount of reconstruction will fix it.’
Annalise smiles. ‘It’s nothing personal, Kritta. You see, you have something I need. I want Mia’s activation words.’
‘I told you. I don’t know. Beech never shared them with me,’ Kritta says.
‘And yet he shared Michael’s with Subra? Come now, you don’t expect me to believe that. Beech was intelligent enough to know you always had his back.’
Kritta shakes her head.
‘Your refusal to cooperate just makes me surer that Mia has no value to me. And so, I shall probably tell my man to fire next time and then to bring me the child.’
Annalise turns and walks towards the door. The guard picks up the laptop but they leave the photographs of Mia and Freya behind. Kritta stares at the pictures.
‘Wait!’ says Kritta.
Annalise stops. She doesn’t look at Kritta. But when she hears the tremor in the woman’s voice, she knows she’s won.
‘What will you do if you activate her?’ Kritta asks.
‘Kill her brother Michael. He’s lost to us.’
‘And then?’ asks Kritta.
‘She’ll be brought into my organisation and her skills will be used for me. I will even let her bring up the child. For the first five years anyway…’
‘It’s a detailed sequence, to avoid accidental activation…’ Kritta says.
‘Leave us,’ Annalise says to the two guards.
The guards go, closing the door behind them. Annalise pulls a chair up to the table.
‘I’m listening,’ she says.