C422 Interrogation

Cipher took a deep breath before looking at the man seated in front of her. When he looked at Cipher, however, his expression changed. He studied her from head to toe before shaking his head. "You are just a kid," he said. "What are you doing here? Do you really think you can interrogate me?" A faint smile appeared on Cipher's face. But behind that smile, She was nervous. She had watched Beast only moments earlier. She had seen how easily he had ignored the prisoner's cries and how quickly he had obtained the information he wanted. Now she was standing in the same room, expected to do something similar. Outside, we could see her through the open doorway. Nobody spoke. Everyone was watching her. Cipher reached toward the dagger resting at her side. Gold and Diamond. She stared at it for a moment.

The prisoner noticed the movement. His confidence immediately began to disappear. "Wait," he said. Cipher did not answer. She stepped closer and attacked his leg. A loud scream suddenly echoed through the interrogation room. The sound frightened all of us outside. Even Cipher flinched. For a moment, she looked away, unable to watch the man's reaction. Her grip tightened around the dagger, and her breathing became uneven. The prisoner continued screaming. After several moments, she forced herself to look back at him. "Now will you tell me everything I want to know," she asked quietly, "or do you still think I am just a kid?" The man refused to answer. His breathing was heavy, but he remained silent. Cipher looked down at the dagger in her hand. Then she placed it aside and reached for the hammer. My stomach tightened. Cipher raised the hammer and struck the man's foot. Another scream filled the room. Blood appeared immediately.

Outside, Pixel and Silver looked away again. I could hear someone breathing heavily beside me, but nobody dared to leave. Cipher's eyes filled with tears. She quickly closed them. For a few seconds, she stood there with the hammer in her hand, trying to regain control of herself. Then she took another deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she looked directly at the prisoner. "Which underground force are you from?" The man said nothing. Cipher's expression became harder. She picked up Gold and Diamond again and attacked his other leg. This time, the man's resistance finally broke. "I will talk!" he cried. "I will talk!" Cipher stopped. Her voice remained calm. "Which force?" The man swallowed painfully. "Rome." Cipher narrowed her eyes. "Rome? Which group?" "We are fighting for the Cold Thunders force." She repeated the name quietly, committing it to memory. "What do they want?"

The man hesitated. Cipher took a step closer. He immediately began speaking. "We want a share of the transporting rights to Scotland. Our group deals with weapons. We want to move weapons through the country." Cipher stared at him. "Why Scotland? There are other countries." "We already have buyers waiting for us," the prisoner replied. "The problem is that we do not have safe routes to transport the weapons." Cipher remained silent for a moment. Then she nodded. "Good." She placed the dagger down and turned toward the door. The prisoner looked at her in confusion. Cipher did not say anything else. She simply walked out of the interrogation room. The moment she stepped outside, Hammer looked at her carefully. He had been watching the entire process. His expression was not one of pride. Instead, he shook his head. "You hesitated." Cipher stopped. Hammer continued. "You were feeling sorry for him." Alicia looked away. Hammer's voice became firm. "Did you feel guilty?"

Cipher did not respond. For several seconds, she stood completely still. Then she suddenly turned and rushed outside. We watched as she disappeared around the side of the building. A moment later, we heard her vomiting. Nobody moved. Hammer looked toward the rest of us. "Continue." The order was simple, but none of us wanted to hear it. We had just watched Cipher, our leader, struggle to remain standing after hurting another human being. She had completed the interrogation, but the experience had clearly affected her. Still, one by one, we entered the rooms. The remaining prisoners waited for us. We had to ask questions. We had to obtain information. And we had to decide how far we were willing to go. I watched Survivor enter first. She was usually confident and direct, but even she paused before closing the door behind her. Bighead followed soon afterward. Chipmunk entered next. Then Kiddo. Pixel stood outside for a long time, staring at the interrogation room. A month earlier, she had been the one protesting when we hunted a rabbit. She had argued that the animal might have a family and that killing it was unnecessary.

Now she was being asked to hurt a human being for information. The difference was impossible to ignore. Eventually, Pixel entered. Silver followed. I was one of the last to take my turn. None of us had Gold and Diamond, so we used the daggers and equipment provided by the coaches. We had watched Beast's methods. We had watched Cipher's methods. And, without realizing it, we began copying them. The difference was that none of us felt comfortable doing so. Every scream made us hesitate. Every injury made us question ourselves. But we continued. Some prisoners resisted longer than others. Some remained silent until they realized that refusing to speak would not end the interrogation. Others gave information almost immediately. By the time the lesson ended, the atmosphere at the base had completely changed. Nobody felt hungry. The food waiting for us remained untouched. We sat together in silence, staring at the ground or at our hands. It felt as though something had been taken from us.

We had arrived at the military base expecting to learn how to protect our families. We had accepted that training would involve fighting, weapons, and sometimes killing. But making someone bleed while they begged for mercy was different. It was not something any of us had imagined. We had not planned for this. We had not prepared ourselves emotionally for it. Yet we had done it. And that was the part that frightened me the most. We had followed orders. We had obtained information. We had completed the lesson. But none of us knew whether we had become stronger or simply lost another piece of ourselves. The coaches waited until we had time to absorb what had happened. Eventually, Viper approached us. He looked around at our tired and uncomfortable faces. "Well," he said, "I cannot say you performed badly. This was your first time." Nobody looked proud. Viper continued. "But you all cheated."

Bighead looked up. "Cheated?" Viper nodded. "You copied Cipher's methods." He glanced toward the room where Cipher had conducted her interrogation. "That is good in one way, because you learned from your leader. But it is also wrong. Every one of you must develop your own way of handling a situation like this." He paused. "You cannot depend on someone else's method forever. Your enemies will recognize hesitation, uncertainty, and weakness." Hammer stepped forward. "Cracker." I looked at him. "The equipment you requested has arrived. It is in the hall." I nodded. "We will take our leave now," Hammer continued. "We also need to train the Lucia Goods employees." The coaches began walking away. Their lesson was over. But for us, the consequences were only beginning. I slowly walked toward the hall. My mind was still occupied by everything that had happened. I could hear the others moving around the base, but nobody was speaking much. When I reached the hall, several boxes were waiting on the table. I opened the first one.

Inside were computer components, tracking equipment, cables, small electronic devices, and other equipment I had requested. I began unpacking everything carefully. I felt slightly more comfortable doing something familiar. Technology made sense to me. Computers made sense. Tracking systems made sense. People were much more complicated. I was connecting one of the devices when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around. Cipher was standing there. She looked exhausted. Her eyes were red, and although she tried to hide it, I could tell she had been crying. "Wife?" She did not answer. Instead, she walked toward me. The moment she reached me, she wrapped her arms tightly around my body. "Husband." Her voice trembled. I immediately put my arms around her. For a few moments, neither of us spoke. Then she buried her face against my chest. "I am scared of what we have become."

I gently held her tighter. Cipher shook her head. "How could we do something like that?" She pulled away slightly and looked at me. "That was the same as killing someone." I looked deeply into her eyes. "Wife, it has already happened." She lowered her gaze. I continued gently. "We cannot change what happened today. But we have to accept that this is now part of the path we have chosen." Cipher's eyes filled with tears again. "The sooner we accept it, the better we will understand what we are facing." I paused before continuing. "But accepting something does not mean we have to enjoy it. It does not mean we have to become cruel people." She looked at me carefully. I placed my hand against her cheek. "I love you, Wife. That is the reason I came here. I wanted to help you avenge your mother." Cipher remained silent. "We are already so close," I continued. "We cannot simply turn back now."

Her expression tightened. I thought about Mark. "The Harris family chased after my father-in-law today. We do not know what would have happened if they had caught him." Cipher looked away. "They could have killed him," I said quietly. "And if Willy has discovered anything about our disappearance, he may not stop with him." She looked back at me. "We have to hurry." I nodded. "We need to finish our training before they can harm another member of our family." For a moment, we remained in silence. Then Cipher wiped her tears and looked toward the equipment on the table. "Do you believe you can track Willy?" I looked down at the computer components. "I don't know." She raised an eyebrow. "But you have a plan?." I smiled faintly. "I have a possibility." Cipher nodded slowly. "Then we will make sure it works."

I looked at her. Despite everything that had happened, her determination had returned. The interrogation had frightened her. It had shaken all of us. But the danger outside the military base had not disappeared. Willy Harris was still searching. Hanna was still somewhere in the army. And our family was becoming involved in a conflict far greater than any of us had originally understood. I took Cipher's hand. "Whatever happens next, we face it together." She squeezed my hand. "Together."