4. The_American_Confesses.
1/31/2036
The terror of Howard street, Soma!
Terror struck the streets of Soma last night, as an unnamed
murderer brutally attacked Dr Anne Locke, an innocent college professor. The attacker was talked down by GodsEyes police captain Karen Danvers to line
up a non-lethal shot from a GodsEyes drone. Shortly after, an ambulance arrived
on the scene to take the man to a MEMEC hospital, and the temporary containment
of a Themis prison. Accounts suggest the offender was a lonely man who kept to
himself and was in possession of various illegal items, including a firearm.
Chairwoman Brie gave her thoughts on the matter early this morning. She said
“This man was quickly proven disturbed by the latest advancements in detective technology.
For what he has done to Dr Locke, he will be punished for in re-education.”
This report was sponsored by GodsEyes. Keeping the
bay area safe for 5 years.
The sponsorship didn’t surprise me.
The Eyes would want an almost fictional news story showing their sophistication
in dealing with crimes, and the local news probably got a lot of money out of
it. They didn't even know ANYTHING about the case, since the IO forensics branch occupied the scene after Felix was rushed to hospital. I was, however, surprised Chairwoman Brie herself had actually spoken about the ordeal.
Then again, it was a short speech that didn’t seem as… passionate as her usual. This meant it was likely a forged report.
As I put my phone away and picked up
my tea, Sarah rushed into my cubical, with a scared look on her face.
“Akira… Micah needs… Micah wants you…”
she said through tired breaths.
“Why?” I asked.
“He… IO... their taking…” she looked
like she was going to collapse.
“Sarah, don’t worry… How fast did you
run here?”
“Just… go.”
And with that, I headed off. If “IO” and
“Taking” were in the same sentence, it was bad news.
I dashed to Micah’s office at the end
of the room. I ran so fast the cubicles and faces of my colleagues were just
blurs. I yanked the door open to see Micah looking out the window, nervously. Micah only looked out the window when he was nervous
“I’m thinking they’ll be here in 10
minutes.” He said to himself.
“Micah, you wanted to see me?” I said
through gasping breaths.
“Ok Akira. I just got of the phone
with Burgundy, she said IO lawyers are coming to take Felix into their
custody.”
“WHAT!” I shouted “W-WHEN?”
“In 10 minutes. We haven’t been able
to get a full interrogation in, and the news have already rewritten the case. I
need you to get in there and find out what Mr DeBlanc knows.”
“But we don’t have the time, the
resources, we don’t even have interrogation ma- “
Micah grabbed me by the shoulders. “Akira.
This could be a life or death situation. You know how few people come back after
being taken by IO! Now I need you, in there, talking to that man, so we can
find out anything about this case.”
I didn’t even say ok, let alone argue.
Micah was right. I prepared for the shortest interrogation of my life.
…
In official UISC law, interrogations
of criminals who’ve committed assault or attempted murder needed a full half
hour to 2-hour interrogation with at least two armed interrogators wearing
reflective interrogation masks. I was going into an interrogation with a now 9-minute window, no second officer, no interrogation mask. I didn’t even know
if Felix had been lying last night.
But I didn’t think about that. All I
needed to do was talk to him.
I opened the door to the cell Felix
was in, down on level 4. It would be quicker to interrogate him in his cell than move him to an
interrogation room upstairs. I also set my watch to go off in 9-minutes, just
so I could keep track of time. I also decided to go good cop, since he could
still be innocent.
The moment I walked in Felix looked up
at me from his chair. Last night, I wasn’t really able to get a good look at
his face. He was tall, but also pretty young, around early to mid-20’s. The kid was no older
than my sister. He had tanned skin, surprisingly well-kept hair, a small scar
on his neck, dry hands, and bandaged, bare feet. He was in Themis prison clothes,
since IO took his shirt for “evidence”. Throughout the interrogation, he never
kept still. He was either tapping his feet, rubbing his chin or palms,
scratching his scar or rubbing his eyes. He looked shocked that I’d come into
his cell, let alone decided to interrogate him.
“How did I get caught last night?” he
asked.
…
“I’m sorry?” I replied.
“After I got shot, your friend caught
me. I’m pretty heavy, not gonna lie. I shoulda crushed her”
“Oh… that.” For a moment, I thought he
was saying he was guilty. “Sar- my friend had recent spine implants. Took a
crowbar to her spinal column just a week ago. MEMEC doctors had to put her
whole spine back together.”
“Aren’t you not supposed to tell me
about your life?” he asked.
“Well Mr DeBlanc, this is a desperate
interrogation.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Look man” I started “I need you to trust
me because… IO lawyers are coming to take you into their custody in about… 8 minutes. I need you to tell me everything about last night, or we could lose
you forever.”
His jaw dropped and his eyes widened.
He seemed to have known about IO ‘taking people into their custody.’
…
We lost about 30 seconds for Felix to
process that information.
“Ok, I’ll… tell you everything.”
I whipped out my notebook and began
writing down his story.
“It was New Year’s Eve. I was homeless
at the time, but a woman let me stay at her house for the evening. Her name was
Anne. I told her about my situation, and she said I could stay at her house
until I was able to get back on my feet.”
7 minutes
“She was nice to me. Most people don’t
treat Americans that well, especially in Soma. She let me sleep on her couch
and stuff like that. Hell, she even helped me get a job at the university she
worked at. Just janitor work, nothing special. It paid well. At least it did
until I got fired.”
6 minutes
“For some reason, I was never told
why. The Uni’s administrator just told me to pack my bags. After that, I had to
rely on Anne for financial help. But for some reason, she always got sensitive
when I asked her for money. She even began saying I was a ‘parasite.’ I assumed it was banter. I did try
to get another job, but it was borderline impossible. It was like the world was
working against me.”
5 minutes
“But somehow, I found a job in a
corner store. It didn’t pay as well as the last one, but it was fine. But when
I came back home, Anne was gone. I looked for her, until I found her basement,
which… explained the REAL reason she’d taken me in.”
4 minutes
“It was filled with maps of cities
from all across the country. LA, San Diego, San Jose, Here, Portland, Vegas and
Phoenix, all with pictures of people connected by string, linking them to the
maps. Some of the pictures had white writing on them saying ‘candidate’ but
others had a red cross over them. The scariest thing was my picture was on the San Fran map, and it had a red cross over it.”
3 minutes
“That was when… when…”
“Felix, you ok?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Of course. That’s when… I
saw Anne standing on the basement stairs. She was holding one of her kitchen
knives in her hand. Soon as I knew it… she attacked at me. I tried to get up
the stairs, but I stood on a loose nail. Luckily I managed to get free and up the stairs. To defend myself, I grabbed one of her
porcelain pots and…
2 minutes
“And… And I…”
“Felix, it’s ok. Just tell me what
happened.” The kid looked on the verge of tears.
“… I threw it at her, and she… she
fell down the steps and…”
He went silent.
I knew that after this. The whole
episode last night unfolded. It explained Felix’s bleeding feet and why he sounded
so fearful. I couldn’t imagine how shocked he felt when someone who had cared
for him for an entire month tried to kill him. And the news had painted her as
a victim? It might have been to cover IO’s tracks, but they said she was dead! You
can’t just make a person disappear! Unless they gave her a new identity or
something. There was also the basement Felix told me about. People in all of
the UISC’s major cities selected as ‘candidates’ for something? Candidates for
what? Why were there red crosses over some of them? Did they die? Why weren’t there
names on the photos if Anne had to cover SEVEN CITIES?”
There were too many loose threads to
the case, but that made sense. IO didn’t want to get caught doing what they were
doing, if they were doing anything. I tried to find answers to the case, but I got
more questions. But it wasn’t Felix’s fault. The kid wasn’t himself.
As I left the cell, I realised the IO
lawyers were here. Right on time. There was no point trying to
stop them. I didn’t even look at them. They just went into Felix’s cell and
took him away.
There was only one way I could resolve
this. I had to get to 77 Howard street.
