I meet Jerrico and Marks outside of the separated but not spacious instructor cabins—at least I don’t have to share. We walk up to the office that I stole my phone and candies back from during my escape. I freeze, flashes of the looks in Parker’s eyes echo through my brain. I pop a candy to get the small flash of comfort and reward to calm me down.
“You okay Novarro?”
Yeah, seeing Parker decide whether it was worth it to kill me is still fresh in my mind, and just like when Jace tried to kill me in old vegas, I haven’t processed it yet. “Flashbacks to last week. I’ll work through it.”
“He must have an axe to grind if he gave you that kind of reaction.”
“He ever use his compulsion Talent on you?” I look at both men and they shake their heads. “Then start there. We can talk more when he gets here or I suspect he’s using it on a recruit. If you need more information, could we share another time?”
“Sure,” Jerrico says. “You ready for this?”
“Absolutely not, but I have to learn the work some time.” I start to make for the door.
“No knives this time, Novarro.” I sigh and take off my thigh holster and slap it on the desk.
I tap in the code on the door for this week and step into the room.
A fit, but reedy young man sits in the middle of the room, ducked taped arms and legs to the metal chair I remember. I take a few minutes to assess his state and decide that he’s currently just bored as he tries to dramatically raise his head and stare at me. I do like the confusion on his face as he takes me in.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asks. Hubris in the face of someone he believes he could take if he were free. Not understanding the scope of the situation. Thinking he’s safe with instructor overwatch. Standard bravado.
“I am the person asking you questions. What is your name?”
“How about we trade some clothes for answers.” A bright flash of rage spikes my brain and before it can roll into action, I pop a candy. I watch his eyes follow my hands, and then my mouth as I chew.
“Do not be lewd with me. I generally react poorly, this is your only warning. Now, what is your name?” He smirks at me.
“Suck my dick.” I warned him. I accept the trigger and front kick him in the chest with my wedges. He groans as the air leaves his lungs, the chair slides a little before it topples and he smacks his head against the ground.
I walk up slowly, “I warned you. If you decide to be lewd, you decide for pain. You answer my questions and you can have a candy.” I know he won’t take it, not right away. He doesn’t seem to be tracking well, dazed from the slap to the concrete. Maybe I can play this differently?
I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight. Shine them in his eyes and wait for him to move his eyes and pull his face away. “Hi, my name is Julia, I’m a first responder. What is your name and do you have any medical allergies?”
“Uh, what?” I step back as he looks at the white walls and ceiling, “Uh yeah, Joseph, and not that I’m aware of?”
“That’s good, Joseph, do you have a last name and anyone we should call while we take you to the hospital?”
“Hospital? No! I can’t go there!” I see some lucidity in his eyes as he panics.
“Okay, okay. It’s fine, Joseph.” I put a hand on his shoulder and one on his head and start thumbing his hairline. “We can give you basic attention and then drop you off wherever you need.”
“You’re not taking me to the hospital?”
“No, Joseph, just tell us where you want to be dropped off and we’ll take you home.”
“The Warram building, I . . .” crap, he’s coming out of the suggestible state. I pull out a candy as I lean over to stand him up and feed it too him. “You’ve been so good for me, Joseph. Just a little more info and we can get you on your way.”
“No! No. You’re trying to trick me.” I laugh at that and come around the back of the chair, careful to be out of the head-snap injury angles.
“You’ve already given me so much, just be a good boy and tell me who you came with. Just one name and this can stop.”
“No way, you can’t break me, I’m not telling you anything.” Mm, bravado again. He’s unsure of what happened while he was dazed and is doubling down?
I put the edge of my wedge on his quad, wiggle it to split them high on his thigh, then lean all my weight into it. He screams. “Just one name! Then I walk away.”
“Fuck you!” he yells. That’s not lewd, so I don’t have to shake his brain again.
“You’re being very rude,” I say lightening up the pressure on his leg, then jam a thumb behind the joint in his jaw and further dig my heel in. As he screams my thumb hits the nerve harder in his jaw.
“Joseph Caldwell! Joseph Caldwell came with us!”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I step back, feed him another candy then pat his face lightly, “Good boy Joseph.” His eyes widen as he realizes that I know he gave me his own name. He chews and eats the candy anyway. I smile at him and give him a finger wave as I body block the keypad and exit the room.
I walk into the office, look at both instructors and put my knives back on. “Questions, comments concerns?” I ask them.
“I liked how you used a mild concussion to get info. I disliked how hard you kicked him in the chest.” Marks comments.
“I liked the roleplay change when your presence didn’t affect him in the beginning. I disliked how you walked away immediately after you got what you were told to get.” Jerrico added.
“Hmm, I’m not sure what benefit there would have been to staying?” I ask, unsure as why that is wrong.
“In a classroom setting, it was perfect. Nothing we can’t solve with a regenerative, took less than an hour. In the field, we have more important information to get to, and sometimes these concessions are just gateways to the information we want.”
“So, try to get more, good job for now, I’ll be back?” both of the men looked uncomfortable after I ask that.
“We don’t usually nice cop the way you did. Good approach, doesn’t usually work for men.” Jerrico states.
“Okay, I can definitely work on that.” I think about how bad that went at the beginning and that most men probably won’t take me seriously. I should also get some gloves to put on? Then I could hit folks without hurting myself and it would a visual prelude. Whipping around a kick with these shoes is too much damage, or it would be with the acceleration thing I can do when triggered.
“Alright, feel like you’re able to give an after action to the class?” Marks asked.
“I have some suggestions sure. Is it okay to be teaching them before the first round of interrogations has gone by?”
“He volunteered to go first, he’ll probably tell them something, but ego will protect some of it.” Jerrico tried to assuage my frown. Didn’t work, as I don’t love my methods being known, but it is the point of both sides of this course: to learn.
I watch from the office as they cut the young man loose and escort him back to the classroom. I follow them back to class and watch as they give him a snack and some water, likely to keep him focused and recovering from the head injury.
“Our first interrogation done in less than an hour. Both sides made mistakes, but we’ll focus on what to do better as the questioned party.” Jerrico pointed at me.
“Joseph’s downfall came with a head injury and his pliability while concussed and confused. Confusion is a common tactic to lean on and pester. Frustration and embarrassment come from repetitive questions during that confusion. Holding that in your head, the chief problem with confusion is responding to anything before understanding.
“Sounds ridiculous, but take Joseph’s case. His head hit the floor, I assessed his concussion and leaned into it by being soft, yet persistent. The annoyance drove him to respond in an attempt to buy time to think more and drive off the confusion. If you can resolve to think and stay silent, then they may coerce you through pain. Pain will buy you some thinking ability. Unless they are moving to torture, pain can often buy you clarity and time.” I stop and awkwardly stand there until Marks steps next to me.
“Something that both of us saw, was that Joseph was mouthing off at the beginning. While that can be a strategic move, that was not how his words were used, and then Miss Novarro used his impression to change her approach, which was very effective.”
That little thrill of praise still gets me.
“You have until after lunch to prepare yourselves and learn from your fellow recruit’s experience. Then we will cycle through the rest of the class today.” Marks states and walks away with Jerrico and I follow them.
We walk silently until we get to the faculty area. “No impulse to join them Novarro?”
“None. It’s not my job to socialize at this juncture. I have been told that socializing before I initialize could be detrimental to my progress and the progress of others.”
“Jesus, you really are a good candidate. For the afternoon, you may have two recruits to test, and you cannot take more than two hours for these assessments. The final is up to eight hours, but that should not be something you’re involved in.”
“I assume you two will be prepping the recruits and I will be releasing them?”
“That is preferred, yes. Do you have a phone you can check in case we need to change things?” I nod at that, checking for the shape in my pocket. “Alright then, enjoy your lunch and we’ll see you in an hour and a half.”
The task they have set before me is daunting. I have to help them teach a class based off a week of practical experience and some book learning. How is that reasonable? In any case, this will also get me ahead of this portion of the exercises in the field. Not really sure what they’re going to do about that, but not my job . . . yet.
More to think about during lunch, but I can do that while eating. I walk toward the two men that are running the show and they both point to the wall next to the bunks we sleep in, where I find a console labeled “Meal Kiosk”.
The screen reads /Please present ID or biometric data./ A smaller pad starts flashing indicating where I should “present” something, and since I don’t have my ID card on me right now, I wave my mosaic tattoo in front of the device.
/Mosaic Code detected. User Kimber Novarro connected. User ID has been flagged with Instructor permissions for three weeks. Greetings Instructor Kimber Novarro, please indicate meal time and daily calorie intake to be issued a meal. If you wish to supplement, you may visit the Exchange, though only food items are available from this access point./
I hit ‘Lunch’ and input 3k for today, since my normal workouts will be severely truncated. A warm paper box appears in the bay below with my last name printed on it. I walk over to the picknick table where the instructors are sitting and join them.
“That’s a mighty big box for someone your size. You planning to stock-pile?”
“Uh, no? If they have something I can snack on I will probably save it, but on Miss Fontaine’s training schedule I was eating four to five thousand calories per day. I figured three would be a good place to start.”
They both seem surprised, but nod as they can’t fault my logic. “Not going to have as much opportunity here. We don’t use the recruit area for our workouts, we use machinery and run in circles around our area. There’s a shower stall on the far side of this barracks. Not much for amenities, but it’s about all you can expect when doing the job away from HQ.”
“No worries here.” I say, opening my meal box to find a full-sized chicken salad under a protective cover with a BLT cookies and chips sitting on top. Hot damn, cookies!
“Trade for the chips?” Marks asks.
“Sure, got a bar or granola-esque snacks?” I ask, digging into my sandwich and slotting the cookies in my vest pocket.
“Done and done.” He offers me a bar and I hand over a full-sized bag of chips. “Big bag? Hot damn!”
“You’re gonna let him swindle you like that?” Jerrico asks, clearly jealous.
“Nah, it’s a goodwill gesture. A thanks for not treating me like I’m radioactive.”
“Oh, and where’s my thanks, huh?”
“Amir, don’t be like that.” Marks warns.
“No no, Marks, he’s right. But I will bet that I get a full-sized desert tonight too. Will trade for snacks.” I waggle my eyebrows.
“You’re alright Navarro.” He says, patting me on the back with gusto. I choke a little on the surprise of the assault and both of the Instructors get a kick out of that.