Word Count: 2088
I nodded and tried to
scrub through the footage to find as much information as I could, but the
quality was so poor that I couldn’t make out any features on anyone’s masks.
Not that they would have had any distinguishing marks when they were trying to
blend into that rally. But why did the two people chase the rally leader? Who
were they?
“What does this have
to do with the woman I’m supposed to interrogate?” I said as I steeled my
resolve to do everything my power to catch these terrorists.
“I don’t know much,”
he said, swerving the car yet again. “I’m just the chauffer since I had to drag
your ass out of bed when you didn’t answer any of my calls. You’ll be able to
talk to Forber when we get there.” I wanted to retort but decided against
agitating William more. That just left me with scrolling through some of the
other files.
The folder containing
information about Margaret Boyd was sparse, but it contained a brief report
detailing her arrest and even a few medical records? That was an odd detail to
include, especially for an interrogation. The arrest report detailed that she
was caught less than a block away, trying to flee the scene of the agent’s
deaths. She was especially uncooperative when questioned, offering nothing
particularly important to the investigation.
I decided to glance
over the medical records and saw that she was currently in remission after
having extensive cancer treatment. There was special attention directed to the
fact that her cancer had been diagnosed late, and the tumors seemed to be
particularly aggressive. Miraculously, she had recovered almost completely
within a week of her diagnosis, being declared cancer-free. I tried to wrap my
head around all this without questioning the legality of prying into her
medical history.
By now, we had been
driving over ten minutes, and William finally switched his siren off. We were
approaching a section of the city that was mostly devoted to large warehouses
and factories that had been engulfed when the city was rapidly expanding. I saw
that the road we were driving down was blocked off by other police cars, but
there was just a tired looking officer standing by his parked car.
After another minute
or two, William was able to pass the office, maneuver his car down the rest of
the road until we were completely blocked by a mass of other cars. All of them
were in front of an enormous warehouse, and they were positioned to be as close
to an obscure alleyway as possible. There was a huge amount of commotion as
people sprinted back and forth between vehicles, from one building to the alley
back to another building.
William stepped out
of the car and without hesitation started walking towards the warehouse. I had
no choice but to follow.
Forber stood at the
bottom of the warehouse’s stairs with a mixed group of agents and crime scene
investigators around him. He wore a thin yellow jacket with the letters D.A.I. inscribed
in the back, which I found a bit amusing. As the director and founder, he was
the face of the D.A.I, and that face was currently red and scowling. He was
barking an order at a senior agent as he noticed William and me walking up.
“Axaili! What took
you so long?” he yelled. He didn’t pause to let me respond before he said, “Never
mind that, you got the briefs? You know the drill? Good, Boyd’s by the
paramedics with Agent Fletcher. Find out what you can about the runners and get
back to me. Get going.” He waved his hand dismissively towards the left, and I
saw an ambulance with its lights blaring just a few feet away.
I gave a nod to
William, who started after me, but Forber called to him. “Mr. Vanet, I need to
talk to you about the chip in Miller’s vest.” Knowing that William would be
caught up for a while and not wanting to test Forber’s patience right now, I
went on my way without him.
My body shivered as I
walked, no matter how hard I tried to steel my nerves and betraying the anxiety
coursing through me. This was not my first time questioning a witness, but the
with the stakes raised significantly, I couldn’t help but feel as if the odds
of us finding the perpetrators rested on me.
After a very short
walk, I nearly ran into a paramedic rushing to the side of the ambulance. He
gave me an annoyed look but took a glance at my uniform and said, “Oh, you’re
the interrogator.”
“Uh, yeah,” I
muttered. “Well, actually not really. I just need to ask the witness a few
questions.” What questions was I even supposed to ask? The notes just implied
there was some information she wasn’t immediately disclosing. I should have
read the other statements more closely.
He looked confused at
my response, but his priorities were elsewhere as he went to the back of the
ambulance. Over his shoulder, he said, “Okay, well, the woman only sustained
minor injuries from the metal. Cuts, scratches, and a sharp bit lodged in her
arm, but it was not difficult to remove. She should be fine to talk.” I gave the
paramedic a smile and a thank you.
There was a
middle-aged woman curb with stringy blonde hair, frayed from being bleached so
often, sitting on the curb with a cigarette between her fingers. There was a
bandage wrapped around her upper arm, as well as a cut on her lower left cheek.
I recognized her as Margaret. As Forber said, Michael Fletcher stood just a few
feet away from her and held a pair of cuffs.
When he saw me, a
sense of relief came over him. He motioned me over to him and spoke in a hushed
voice, saying, “I’m glad to see they called you out here. She was acting a bit
aggressive towards the officers before you, but she’s been read all her rights
and knows the drill. If she talked to anyone, it’ll be you.”
I gave a meek smile
and asked, “Has she said anything important in her statement or in passing?”
He shook his head. “She’s
as silent as that mask without a mouth she was wearing. Will likely get brought
in on charges for conspiring against the government along with the case.” I
took a deep breath and took a good look at the woman. By now, she had noticed
me standing there and gave me a nasty glare. She raised the cigarette to her
wrinkled lips and took a long draw. With all the agitation she was projecting
towards me, I noticed there was a hint of fear as her shaking hands lowered the
cigarette.
“Hi, Ms. Boyd?” I
said, cautiously moving towards the woman and trying to stay as neutral as
possible. “My name is Agent Axaili. I’m with the DAI, or as you may know, the Defenders Against Influence. I had a few questions
I wanted to ask.”
Smoke fell out of her
lips as she croaked, “I don’t want to answer your questions.” Hostility
radiated from her posture as I approached.
I steadied myself as
I stood just a few feet away from her. “Please, ma’am. Any information you have
about tonight’s events could save the lives of hundreds of others.”
“I didn’t see
nothing,” she said dismissively, trying to turn away from me. I looked at
Michael, who gave me a shrug like “what do you want me to do?”, and then back
at the woman. Wracking my mind for any technique to calm her down, I slowed my
thoughts and imagined the most tranquil scene I could think of.
“We may be able to
work out a deal,” I said with a smile as I crouched down to her level. “If you
could tell me what you did see, then we may be able to negotiate the charge for
being at the rally.” She looked back at me and something about her demeanor
told me she was a bit more relaxed, as well as interested in my prospect.
Her lips stayed
pressed together for another second or two before she said, slightly
begrudgingly, “I really didn’t see that much. It all happened pretty quickly.
The agents were there, they shot, and they were the ones who ended up shot.”
“Did you see who they
were shooting out?” I asked. It occurred to me that if we were dealing with a
Class Four a physical description wouldn’t be enough to identify them, but it
was an easy question to lead into.
The woman shook her
head. “I’d never seen her before. Was a scrawny looking girl. Came in with
another person, but no one had seen them before.” She had almost completely
transformed, feeling way more comfortable around me.
“Was that other
person who ran out after the event with the agents?” She nodded at that and
took another puff from her cigarette. This one must have hit her differently as
she began to cough harshly. I let her recover before I asked the next question,
“Did you notice anything else odd about the night?”
“Uhhh, I had a weird
feeling, like someone was listening to my thoughts but… I don’t know.” She
trailed off a bit as a flash of anxiety hit her. It was like she remembered she
was supposed to be apprehensive towards me, because she added, “But that’s all
I have to say.”
There was something
more, so I gently pressed on, keeping my voice as soothing as I could, “Did you
know anything about the man on the podium?” I was looking for any reason why
those two would have chased after him. Her body froze up, and the cigarette
fell to the ground where she crushed it underneath her shoe.
“We’ve spoken before,”
she muttered. There was an inner tug-of-war on her face as her tried to
determine how much she should reveal. If I watched closely, I felt as if I
might be able to hear her thoughts as I silently urged her onward. She
concluded with, “He’s helped me out a bit recently.” She let out another
throaty cough.
I pried even further.
“Helped you how?”
“You know,” she said,
trying to feign flippancy. “I had some health problems. He just helped me out…
and then invited me to come out tonight.” Once again, my heart sunk. Was this
guy also a member of Splinter? That could explain the odd medical records. Or…
was something else going on? Most members almost never worked on their own, and
I’d never heard of one just trying to help a typical civilian. Even most other
rally leaders just fueled their rallygoers with false hopes and promises they
can’t fulfill.
“Did you have to do
anything else for his help?”
“No!” she spat, her
hostility immediately returning with even more intensity. “I told you what I
saw, what I felt, and the rest doesn’t matter. Now leave me alone!”
“Alright, ma’am,” I
said, standing back up. “I appreciate your statement.” She gave me a dismissive
response and began to light a second cigarette.
Michael gave me a
smile when I retreated back to him. He said, “You’ve worked your magic once
again.”
“Were you writing
that down as talked? I didn’t even think about recording it,” I admitted,
feeling the tension in my body lift now that the task was done.
“Yeah. She didn’t say
anything too much more helpful, so I’m not sure why Forber insisted we continue
with her statement,” he said with a shrug, “but at least we’ve got something to
bring back to him.” I nodded along and closed my eyes as the weight of
everything hit me again.
As I took the moment
to try to recenter my mind, I thought about the woman. What else was it that
she was really trying to hide? With the rally leader? As I stood there, I just
listened to the commotion around me. I tried to imagine what the woman could be
thinking about. Something’s going to happen next week. Tuesday night.
My eyes snapped open,
chills running down my spine. I snapped around and stared at the woman. She
wasn’t looking at me anymore, but I swore that I had just heard her voice. I gave
a terrified look back at Michael and said, “We have to get this back to Forber.
I’ve got another hunch.”
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