Bite Club Page 0,86

about me; I know that now. So screw him. And you. Thanks for dropping in." She glanced backward, at her guard. "I'm ready to go back now, sir."

"Kim," he said, still smiling. He had dimples, even. "Her five minutes aren't up yet. Be nice."

Kim faced Claire again, once again back to that thousand-yard stare and closed-down expression.

"There's a Web site that's operating," Claire said. "Running encrypted video. Do you know anything about it?"

"Because I did the whole encryption thing first?" Kim shrugged. "Why would I? They haven't given me a computer to play with, you know. Said I had to earn one. Screw that. I'm not playing the games to get what I want."

"You were working with someone outside Morganville, though. You were planning to make a deal for a TV show. That was what all the streaming video was for. I think whoever it was found another...source. And another program."

"Good for them." Dismissive words, but Kim was eyeing her with a little more interest. "What kind of show are they running?"

"Pay-per-view," Claire said. "Extreme fighting."

"Withvampires ?" Kim actually laughed. "Dude, that's brilliant. I should have thought of that. Would have been a lots-better show than you sickeningly cute couples playing house and getting your wild thing on."

Claire wanted to smack her--badly. But she took a deep breath and said, with unnatural calm, "I need to know how to break the encryption and figure out how to trace it to the source. I figured you'd know."

"Sure, I know, if it's the same encryption I put together," Kim said, and leaned back in her chair. "But why should I tell you?"

"Because it's the right thing to do?"

Kim rolled her eyes. "Wow, you actuallyare an idiot. Do you think the vamps are going to do the right thing once you point the finger at whoever's behind it? You think this is all going to end with somebody getting a slap on the wrist and a fine? I was lucky, you know. Lucky to still be breathing.People are going to die. You need to get that through your head. It isn't about theright thing. It's about the thing that gets you something. If you think the world works any other way, you're just as stupid as you look."

Claire said, "You know, you've got something wrong."

"What is that? I swear, you're more clueless than a Care Bear."

"You think that because I want to do what's right, because I want to make things better, I'm weak," Claire said. "Or that I'm stupid. But I'm not. It takes a lot more strength to know how bad the world is and not want to be part of that, give in to it. And Ido know, Kim. Believe me."

Kim's sneer faded as Claire stared at her very steadily. Then she looked away. "You should say that after you spend a few months in this hellhole."

For the first time, Amelie stirred from where she stood at the back of the room. She advanced to the table, leaned forward, and rested her palms on the flat surface. Her gray eyes were intent and level on Kim, and again Kim couldn't hold her stare.

"You might bear in mind that in earlier times, young lady, your crimes would have meant you died in a particularly horrible way, with your screams ringing in the ears of decent folk," Amelie said. "You're kept in a clean cell, with decent if unremarkable food. You receive reading material and have television. In what way is that ahellhole ? What can someone of your age possibly know of survivinghell ?" There was a keen edge to her voice that Claire had rarely heard. "The man guarding you today knows of hell, very well. He can tell you what it was like to survive in a prison camp with nothing to eat but crawling insects and rotten bread, foryears , until one night his life was taken--"

"Saved," the guard in the knit shirt said.

"Saved, by one of us," Amelie finished softly. "Askhim about the kindness of your treatment, and then speak to me or him ofhellholes. " She let that sink in for a moment before she said, in a brisk and businesslike tone, "Now, you wanted to know what helping us means for you. That entirely depends on what you can do forus. Can you reverse the encryption and tell us the location where these...people are staging and broadcasting their fights?"

"Yeah," Kim said. She picked at a rough spot on the table with a short, well-chewed fingernail.