Chapter 53 Darkness

Chapter 53 Darkness

And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you

— Friedrich Nietzsche 293 B.I. - 237 B.I.

"Boarding now."

The Marines had cycled the Sensor Node for two hours, scanning every stray EM wave, checking every IR signature. Nothing.

After going over the data four times, Admiral Sanders had made her decision and gave the go for boarding.

The thought of another trap, of losing more lives to the saboteurs, weighed heavy on her.

But they could hardly wait forever out here between the stars.

They had to board the oversized satellite if they wanted a chance to ever contact Earth and the other fleets again.

The screen in the CIC showed the bodycam footage of the boarding team. It was rarely that silent inside the usually bustling control center.

The Sleipnir was docked at the airlock. Sanders gripped the handrail of the station before her so hard the white of her knuckles was visible.

The airlock opened and revealed a brightly lit room, with a body floating in it.

"Breacher Niner, report."

Sanders needed answers, now!

"Sir, we found a dead body." A hand became visible on the screen, turning the corpse around. It was male.

"Sir, it's Lieutenant Chedwick. His neck seems to be broken."

Sanders could see this clearly in the feed. She had memorized the face of the man she had presumed to be responsible for her crewman's death.

"Checking for bombs now."

The Node had only one room, so after clearing it, the engineers would be able to board, and then they could try to hack the sensor grid to communicate over it with the fleets. And Earth.

Captain Abfalter, next to Sanders, leaned over, whispering in her ear.

"Are you trying to tell me a sixty-kilo female tech killed a Marine lieutenant by breaking his neck? That's bullshit.”

They needed to check the body for clues.

"Breacher Niner, make sure to preserve any evidence in the Node, and pack up the body for autopsy."

"Understood, Sir."

Sanders let out a heavy sigh, causing Abfalter to check the screens.

"Problems, Sir?"

"No, Captain, just that now comes the part I hate the most. Waiting…"

—————

"Good morning, Prisoner MRT-294. Let us begin. We have a long day ahead of us. Glass of water?"

The chained man looked up at André, defiance glimmering in his eyes. If it weren't for the occasional glances toward Mandy, André would have assumed he couldn't break the man opposite him.

"Prisoner MRT-294, you will answer, or face the consequences."

André had trained the tone of his voice long and hard.

Every interrogator had his own style. Some chose the empathetic way, some the angry. André was emotionless.

Showing no emotional investment in whether the suspect spoke, lived, died, or whatever, was his way to break countless seasoned opponents.

In this case, his opponent was also a seasoned man. André knew the file, so he knew the answer even before the prisoner said it. It was the only word Prisoner MRT-294 had spoken since arriving at Purgatory.

"Lawyer."

"Dead men get no lawyers." André took a printout from a news site, announcing Peter Norton's death, and placed it in front of the man.

"See, your former self is dead. I could kill you here, and I wouldn't commit a crime. You've been dead for over a year."

The chained man spat on the news report.

"Lawyer."

"How would you pay a lawyer? Not only are you dead, you're broke. Your company was seized, your assets frozen. And all of it given away to your victims."

Was that a tear? Did this piece of trash care more about his money than his own life?

"Lawyer."

"Your family is now living off state subsidies."

No reaction here, or he knew André was lying. Time to test it.

"Your mansion was sold off to a nonprofit organization. Housing the children of the people you sold."

There, a flash of anger. Clearly sociopathic.

"Of course they sold the chandeliers. Swarovski crystals aren't fit for a nursing home or an orphanage."

"Lawyer."

André had to bite his tongue. A chink in the armor.

I got you, bastard! I just need to get you a bit more out of balance.

André made a prearranged gesture, signaling Eleri to come in.

Eleri had truly mastered the triumphant walk-in. She smiled a cold, arrogant smile as she sat down in her chair.

"Hello, Prisoner MRT-294. You look better. Last time I saw you, you pissed your expensive suit."

That was the last straw. Jumping up in his chair, Norton began screaming like a madman, his face turning red, veins standing out.

"You bitch, I'll kill you once I'm out. I'll kill you and everything you know. I'll cut your dirty throat. You fucking bitch."

Unimpressed by his spectacle, Eleri pushed further, leaning across the table, seductive.

"Why do you think you'll survive long enough?" Then she glanced at Mandy, who still chewed her "leg in a shoe."

André focused on the man's face to catch every involuntary reaction now. He knew what Eleri was about to say next.

Gently patting the face of the shocked prisoner, she smiled.

"You're nothing but unreclaimed biomatter. You're worth nothing to us." She nodded toward André. "He thinks there might still be something in your head worth having. I disagree."

When you're interrogating someone, the oldest trick in the book is good cop, bad cop. Everyone knows that, even the prisoners. That's why the best route for hard cases is bad cop, worse cop.

André looked over the desk. The flicker of realization in Norton's face when Eleri mentioned the word biomatter was the deciding hint. Norton knew about the Cambodia operation. Either he still got information from outside somehow, or he had been directly involved before getting caught.

The important thing was that he knew about spawn. About how it transformed biomatter.

Standing up, André walked over to Mandy.

"See, I really believe, for a former businessman, you're holding up well in here. And I don't think you'll break under interrogation."

André walked over to Mandy and knelt to pat her.

"The good thing is, you don't need to talk. Gladys here will tell me everything I need when she's finished."

Norton had winced a bit at Gladys's name. Proof he got information from outside. That's even better.

Mandy had never been trained by Humans, but by Shraphen, so she acted a bit differently than normal dogs. André had noticed that immediately when he met Karrn's family dog.

Every Human had an evolutionary understanding of dog behavior, and reacted to any break in it.

Norton still tried to play the tough man. "A dog?"

His sweaty face betrayed his stoic act.

"Not really. She's the last present an old acquaintance made me—you might have heard of him. Defector."

Eleri's smile grew wider and wider, displaying a morbid enjoyment of the interview, all in order to deepen Norton's paranoia.

No torture, no threat can be as horrible as a Human's imagination. Even more so if the Human in question is a cruel sociopath.

Sitting opposite the person who had actually tried to kill him, watching a man he didn't know pet something he had to believe was Batract spawn—no physical torture could beat that.

"What… what do you want?"

André stood up, looking down, emotionless, at the chained prisoner.

"Nothing. Why don't you and Gladys get acquainted a bit more?"

Eleri stood up and walked to the door. Then she turned at the frame and whispered, smiling,

"Don't piss your pants again. She doesn't like the taste."

Then she was gone.

André followed her, ignoring the screaming Norton behind him.

"You fuckers, tell me what you want. I'll tell you. I'll kill you. You fucking monsters."

His shouting had only one effect. Mandy looked at him for the first time. Angry that she'd been disturbed while eating her bone.

André watched the scene from the observation room.

Norton went quiet. Then his pants darkened.

"He's such a pisser. Really? Again?"

André just shook his head.

It got worse as Mandy stood up, walking over to the man. Norton's face went white. He rattled his chains, trying his best to break free. His shouts could be heard through the wall without the speakers on.

"Let me out! Help!"

The shouts and pleas for help only made the man more interesting to Mandy to help — or calm him, she lifted her front leg onto his chest and began to lick his face.

Norton fainted with a screech.

André could see Eleri rolling her eyes. He prepared himself for a speech.

"Wonderful. And now?"

André just shook his head.

Fact was, he didn't know. They needed to know more about the network, but Norton was a tough nut to crack.

"No clue. Amputate his arm, wake him up, and tell him Gladys will eat the rest if he doesn't talk?"

Eleri snapped back at him.

"Are you fucking serious?"

He shrugged.

"Listen, we have no choice. Either he talks, or—"

"Or you'll shoot him in the knee? Make him believe he's about to be eaten? Remove his arm?"

She screamed the last words.

"We—"

He was interrupted again.

"There's no we, André. You've lost your mind."

"You're questioning my morality? Drake's killer hound? How many people have you killed in the name of… whatever Drake is?"

"Killed. Yes. And I'm not defending myself, André. I'm defending you. I was raised and trained this way since my 12th birthday. But you're a good man. Don't you see this? How far are you willing to fall?"

"As far as I need to get my answers."

"Then we have already lost our soul. I had hoped I'd learn another way, fighting on your side. Turns out I'm just watching you fall."

André saw something glimmer on her face.

A tear?

"Eleri."

"Fuck you, André Gerber. You talk about the good fight. Honor and rule of law. And the moment something gets hard, you jump into the mud like the animals we fight."

She's crying…

He had never questioned why she had chosen to follow him into the AIN.

"You want dark, André? Hmm? You want brutal? I'll give you brutal, this one time, because that monster in there doesn't deserve life. And then, André Gerber, then I want you to ask yourself if that's what you want to be. If that is what hugs your children goodnight, or if that monster is something you could love."

She stormed out and into the interrogation room.

Had he really crossed the line? Sure, in training he had sworn to never go too far. But the circumstances…. And… what was she talking about? Love?

Mandy noticed the sudden change of atmosphere in the room and decided it was time to leave. Grabbing her chew toy in her mouth, she left the room with her tail between her legs.

Eleri blocked the door from the inside with a chair, flipping her middle finger at Gerber through the camera.

He swallowed heavily. Never before had he seen her this angry.

Have I gone too far?

He had just played some mind games with a sociopath.

But you did intend to go much further, didn't you?

From inside the interrogation room, he heard a loud thump. Eleri had kicked over the chair with Norton on it. André tensed as she grabbed the water beaker and emptied it into Norton's mouth while holding his nose closed.

The man came to, coughing.

From the speakers, Gerber could hear her.

"Wake up. It's judgment time."

Then she crushed his hand with the glass beaker, shattering the vessel and probably a few of his bones.

Norton cried out in pain.

"You can't do that to me. I have rights."

Kicking the man on the ground in the mouth, Eleri almost whispered.

"You don't get it. You don't have rights. The people you killed had, and you ignored it. You will answer my questions, or this day will be exceptionally painful."

Norton spat out blood.

"I don't—"

"Let me explain. You will die in here. It's your choice if it's quick and painless, or if I break every bone in your body and beat you to a pulp. No one can help you."

Norton almost fainted, but Eleri kicked him between the legs with a force that made André flinch.

"No, no, no, sinner. I need you awake. You're not hiding in your dreams."

"What… what do you want to know?"

Eleri stepped on the man's bloody hand, pressing the glass shards deeper into his flesh.

"First, you're gonna say you're sorry that you sold people."

Norton had lost control over himself, crying in pain and fear.

"Okay, I'm sorry… I just wanted to make money, I'm sorry."

"Doesn't sound believable, but it's a start. We'll work on that later. Now you're gonna tell me where you hid your records, so we can try to get some people back."

André had difficulties understanding Norton. The man had finally understood his fate. He was sobbing between his words.

"In my beach house. The glass ball on my desk is a holostorage device. You need a laser with a 201-nanometer wavelength to read it."

"See, you're a good boy. Now the last question, then the pain will be over. Who leads the Oligarchy? Who is behind the curtain?"

Norton's sobs grew louder, snot running down his nose, mixing with the blood from his mouth.

"The Admiral and the Senator. That's all I know. The plan was to install them as Triumvirs, but they weren't fully successful. We missed one seat."

Two Triumvirs are Oligarchs? And Tendai was killed already.

Before André could process the news, he heard Eleri whisper.

"Good boy. Now sleep."

With that, she snapped the man's neck in a swift motion. André was sure he would never sleep again without the picture of the sobbing, the sound of the snap.

For the first time, he was afraid of Eleri. Seeing her standing next to the still-shaking body, blood-smeared and drinking coldly from a glass of water.