Page 43 of Pageant

Number Four’s piercing scream rends the air. Sitting just a few feet away, Kostya grasps his head with both hands, his teeth clenched.

“I told you not tofucking scream!” he bellows at the top of his lungs. A vein is throbbing in his forehead. “Get her out of my sight.”

Elyah strides forward and begins undoing the straps holding Number Four to the chair before dragging her up by her hair. Angrily jabbing the intercom, he yells, “Guard!”

One of the guards enters to take her away, and Kostya snarls, “She’s eliminated.”

That’s two women out already, Number Two and Number Four. If we continue at this rate, we’ll have culled half the women by the end of the day. Kostya puts his head back in his hands and groans like it’s splitting open, while I pace up and down, fuming.

I hate seeing him like this.

“This is fucking stupid. Kostya, why are we running a task that makes these bitches scream? I thought we were hunting down the liars.”

“Konstantin is not just testing their integrity,” Elyah replies, resetting the machine. It’s a polygraph that’s been modified to deliver an electric shock to the interviewee when it detects lies. “He’s seeing who can follow orders and who has self-control.”

I shrug angrily. “Fine. But he doesn’t have to put himself through this when I could test them by myself.”

“Have you two finished talking about me like I’m not here?” Kostya growls, raising his head.

He looks like shit. Ever since he was shot, he’s suffered debilitating migraines brought on by high-pitched noises and stress. “Let’s take a break.”

“We’re not even halfway through,” Kostya replies. He jabs the intercom and calls for the next contestant.

Number Five is a raven-haired woman who swallows nervously as Elyah buckles her into the chair and sticks the electrodes to her bare flesh.

“This is a lie detector, with a twist,” I tell her. “If it detects a falsehood, you will receive an electric shock. Whatever happens, don’t fucking scream. My friend here is this close to committing murder.” I put a heavy hand on Kostya’s shoulder.

The woman seems to be paying attention to the rules, but if she’s not, we’ll find out soon enough.

Kostya straightens his tie and pushes his hands through his hair, taking several minutes to compose himself while watching the woman closely.

“You said yesterday that you are from Montreal,” Kostya says. “I hear the winters are hard there. Do you like the cold, Number Five?”

“No.”

“Do you trust the other women?”

“Yes.”

The machine crackles and sparks as it detects a lie. Number Five’s eyes fly open, her fists clench and she gives a strangled cry of pain in the back of her throat. A moment later, she falls forward, gasping.

“Why did you just lie?” he asks.

Number Five breathes hard through her nose as she sits up, and her voice is shaking. “I want to believe the sixteen of us are all on the same side.”

Kostya glances at the machine, but it remains silent. “There is only one side. My side. They can’t help you. Do you believe me?”

Number Five opens her mouth but stays silent. I kick her. “Answer the question, Number Five.”

It seems to cost her a great deal to speak, and her voice comes out in a whisper. “Yes.”

Kostya smiles and gets to his feet. “Well done. You can go.”

“I hate you,” she mutters before Elyah can switch the machine off. He hesitates, but there’s no answering buzz from the machine.

“I didn’t need a lie detector to tell me that,” Kostya says, smiling as Elyah flicks the machine off while I undo the straps holding Number Five down.

Numbers Six and Seven make it through the test without telling any lies or screaming. Number Eight doesn’t understand what we want from her, and the machine shocks her repeatedly as she lies in response to even the simplest questions, and she screams every single time. Kostya glares at her with bloodshot eyes, his face pale and sweaty, and I rip her out of the chair and drag her from the room. Another one eliminated.

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