2036 Chapter 4: The_American_confesses

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.