So… this may surprise some of you, but I am not a cop, and have no idea how to interrogate people. Well that isn’t quite true. I knew you didn’t talk to them in a group. So the first order of business was crafting three little ice huts about fifty feet a part. Then we place Madigan, and the two young men, Chet and Waldo, in their own little space, with Chimera soldiers supervising.

If I was actually smart I would have talked to them alone. I am not smart so this became a team effort. All things considered Spine, and Janie needed to be involved, but Angelica and Rachel were more of a complicating factor. I could feel them staring daggers at each other behind my back.

We started with Waldo. He gazed at us from the other side of the ice table. He was the thin guy. He shivered in his icy chair. His shaking didn’t seem to only be from the cold.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” I asked him.

“I’m not going to talk to you,” Waldo managed.

Spine hopped on the table, “If you don’t talk to him, you can talk to Mr. Stabby and Ms. Slashy!” He brandished his knives. I managed to grab the back of his coat and pulled him out of reach before anything violent happened.

“We are not hurtin’ ‘em to get them to talk!” Janie hollered.

“Yeah, torture doesn’t actually work,” Rachel said. I was almost surprised but she continued, “You want to use enhanced interrogation techniques. Yell at him, make him uncomfortable, and not let him sleep. After a couple of days he will talk. Maybe take his shoes.”

“We ain’t taking the boy’s shoes!” Janie insisted.

“Why not just waterboard him?” Angelica asked Rachel scathingly.

“Don’t be dumb, it is too cold for that. The rag would freeze to his face,” Rachel snapped back. I was pretty sure she was more upset by the logistics than the implication.

I worry about the Technicoast. I worry both for them and that they clearly wander beyond their borders.

Waldo visibly paled as he realized that the majority of the people in the room did not have his welfare on their priority lists.

I snapped my fingers, “Waldo, you can talk to me, or I can talk to the others.”

Waldo shrugged, “So?”

“If Chet and Madigan blame you for everything, and you say nothing, that will look really bad for you at the trial.” I explained.

“...but I didn’t kill her,” Waldo began but stopped. He watched us warily

“Waldo, just tell us the truth,” I prompted him.

I saw the moment reality hit him. He realized just how bad the situation was, and where it was heading. Waldo burst into tears, “What’s it matter? You’re just going to kill us?”

I had complex feelings over this. On the one hand, it just isn’t fun seeing someone suffering. Most of us have an instinctive urge to help each other. We are a communal species after all. Then there was the other hand. If Waldo did kill Tazia, he probably deserved to feel this way. There was also the possibility these were simply crocodile tears.

Perception check… Failed

Hmmm. That smelled of Narrator bullshit.

Spine stomped his foot on the table and leaned against my grip, “You want to know the point you shit weasel? I’ll tell you. If you lie to the crowd and waste their time when they find you guilty they will sentence you to something awful, like feed you to the mobs, or dump you in the Wastes naked, or take you to the tower with us.”

“Doug, how are cruel and unusual punishments justice?” Janie demanded.

That was a pretty good question honestly. It was also super inconvenient. I needed to have my priorities straight, “I am trying to find the truth. Spine is correct, If Waldo is found guilty Tazia’s family will determine the punishment pending the consent of the community. Waldo, talk to me. Did you kill her?”

“No, Chet did,” Waldo sniffed and wiped his nose. “Chet killed the goblin.”

“What were you doing?” I asked.

“I just stood there,” Waldo said, staring at his feet.

“Do you know Chino Minoru?” I asked.

Waldo’s eyes bugged.

“I spoke with him. He heard what happened. Would you care to amend your story?” I asked, keeping my voice even.

“Chet stomped on her head,” Waldo piped up.

“I understand, what were you doing?” I pressed.

Waldo hesitated. “...I held her down, but she started the fight. It got out of hand. It was an accident really.”

I considered what he said. Angelica frowned. She didn’t believe him. Janie also looked deeply troubled.

“Did you throw the harmonica in the fire?” I asked Waldo.

Waldo froze, and began to sweat bullets.

“Hear me out, we have a soft bound book in the truck,” Rachel offered.

“No!” Janie and I said together.

“It can’t hurt,” Spine countered, “Well me at least. Fuck this guy.”

“No,” I said again. I focused on Waldo, “Tell me the truth. What did you do?”

“Chet grabbed the harmonica. He tossed it to me. I threw it into the fire. The goblin got mad and she attacked me. She took a chunk out of me,” Waldo rolled up his sleeves and showed us several deep scratches on his arms. “Chet hit her and knocked her down. I held her down -so she couldn’t hurt me again- but Chet kept hitting her.”

“What about Howard,” I pressed.

“He was telling us to stop. He didn’t want us to even talk to the goblin. Chet went anyway.” A thought accorded to Waldo, “Did Howard tell you what happened?”

Rather than answer I turned to Angelica.

She sighed, “He is mostly telling the truth, a lot of omissions though.”

“Is there anything you would like to add?” I asked Waldo.

“No,” he managed.

I frowned at him, “Did Madigan order you to do this?”

“I can’t talk about that,” Waldo was back to sweating bullets, “He’d kill me.”

“Waldo, he is on trial too. Honestly, your best option for getting out of this is telling me everything about Madigan’s involvement.” I explained.

“He’s telling the truth,” Janie chipped in.

Waldo considered for a long moment, “Madigan told all his students to try and kill a goblin. He said he would elevate anyone who did a level in a combat skill he had. He is a master of like thirty combat skills.”

A woman dead over a harmonica and skill advances… Why are we like this?

I stood and made to leave. The others followed. I stopped in the doorway, “Don’t go anywhere Waldo.”

Three of the Chimera soldiers stepped in to guard him.

Once we were outside Spine asked, “How’d I do?

“You were more than a little out of hand,” Angelica said gently.

“I know right, I was the perfect bad cop,” Spine agreed. “Then Doug came in,” he deepened his voice, “I am the nice one talk to me or Rachel will slam your nuts in a car door.”

“I am not handling that guys nuts,” Rachel said frowning. I really wish she objected to slamming peoples anatomy in a car door, but I get her objecting to touching Waldo. The guy was a weasel.

Angelica opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything.

We reached the second ice hut. Time to talk to Chet.

As I stepped in, Chet, the guy with the almost stache, started yelling, “Let me out!”

“No, you are going to talk to us,” I said, Crafting a set of ice chairs.

“Suck my dick!” Chet shouted.

“There is no reason to be rude,” I started.

“Eat my ass!” Chet shouted again.

I frowned, “Chet, I am not going to perform sex acts on you no matter how much you beg.”

“That’s not what I… Shut up you giant fag,” Chet snapped.

“You got a problem with gay people?” Rachel demanded.

Chet almost answered, but he recognized Rachel, “I’m not afraid of you.” He said it in a way that basically proved, he had more than a little fear of Rachel. A healthy respect for her at the very least.

“Chet, Shut your yap!” Janie yelled. “No one here thinks you're tough as boots, and acting like a polecat ain't gonna do you no favors.”

“Don’t talk to me that way, bitch!” Chet shot back.

Janie had Chet over her knee in an instant, “Talk like that to me! Imma! Paint! Your! Back! Porch! Red!” She said the last sentence one word at a time as she spanked Chet like a toddler.

“No Janie… stop… don’t,” Angelica said very slowly. I don’t believe her heart was in it.

“I’m confused. Am I still bad cop?” Spine asked.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

I was pretty sure we were all in fact bad cops.

Janie slammed him back onto the chair. Chet flinched from the impact.

“Let’s talk about the murder,” I started. Ignoring that preamble, “What is your side of the story.”

“There aren’t sides of a story. There’s the truth,” Chet said smugly.

“What’s your truth then?” I pressed.

“Ignore the haters, and drink plenty of water,” Chet said with a shit eating grin.

“Doug, this is pointless,” Rachel said, “He already told me he killed the goblin girl.”

“Yeah after you beat a confession out of me, you technicunt,” Chet jeered.

I managed to stop Rachel before she pummeled Chet. I really looked at this guy. His face was free of marks. His left arm was mauled badly, but bandaged. Same with his back. His left hand had some gnarly bruises, but other than that I didn’t see signs of a beating.

“You like that word don’t you Chet?” I asked, watching the guy. “What was it you told Waldo. ‘Let’s kill the green cunt?’”

The smile slid off of Chet’s face, “I didn’t say that.”

“That’s right you said, ‘hold her still so I can end this’” I amended with a nod.

Chet glared at me.

“Why’d you kill her?” I asked.

“I didn’t kill her,” Chet scoffed.

“That’s not what Waldo said,” I watched a flash of panic creep into Chet’s eyes before continuing, “He says you killed her.”

“Waldo is a lying coward” Realization hit Chet, “You only have his word. You don’t have any proof!”

I leaned back, and looked under the table. Chet’s boots were battered, and the left one had blood on it. “Let’s fix that. Rachel, could you hold him?”

Rachel moved behind him and with her good arm pulled Chet into a headlock. Chet still had his hands cuffed behind his back so all he could really do was kick. I caught his right foot. The left boot had blood on the top, but the right one had so much more in the recesses of the tread. There was also a white fragment stuck near the heel.

I plucked it out of the sole. It was a tooth.

“Let me see that,” “Spine hopped onto the table. He examined the tooth. “Yeah, that's a goblin tooth. Look,” he pulled his lower lip down revealing his teeth. The fragment in my hand looked like Spine’s teeth, a canine. Goblin teeth were a bit pointier than human teeth, but not oversized like mob teeth.

I turned back to Chet. Rachel was choking him. Chet’s face was purple trending toward blue.

“Let him go,” Angelica said. She had the tone in her voice again. That one that conveyed she would be obeyed.

“I don’t answer to you,” Rachel didn’t let Chet go. She whispered in his ear, “Talk shit now. Go on.”

I need to figure out how to not allow this blatantly telegraphed chaos from happening in the future. “Rachel, please let him go.”

“...fine,” Rachel held Chet a beat longer. “Breathe easy homophobe.” She let him go. Angelica caught Chet before his head smashed into the table.

Chet gasped and kept sucking air.

“Everyone stop!” I all but yelled. I had hit the table. The thing shattered from the impact. Spine grabbed me rather than hit the ground.

Everyone watched me. I set Spine down. I Crafted the ice table back and gave Chet some more time to catch his breath. “Chet, Did Madigan order you to kill a goblin?”

“Yeah,” Chet managed, “It was all Madigan, I was just following orders,”

“Anything you want to add?” I almost growled.

“Waldo, is the one that tossed the Harmonica into the fire, that is what started the fight. She went batshit. She beat up Waldo pretty bad.” Chet explained.

“So what, you were just defending your friend?” I asked.

“No, we were following Madigan’s orders. I just want you to understand Waldo isn’t innocent.” Chet explained.

“What about Howard?” I asked, my voice sounding calm again.

“He didn’t do anything. He tried to stop us, but the fight started.” Chet shook his head. “Pussy.”

“I think we are done here,” I said, standing to walk away.

I stood in the light of the cold day and didn’t move. Holy shit… this was ugly. It was petty hate, and mindless destruction.

It was my fault. I told the goblins to come here. I antagonized Madigan. I didn’t…

Angelica poked me, “Hey! You alright Doug?”

“I’m fine.” I replied on reflex.

“Bullshit,” She said, poking me again.

“Fine,” I stepped out of Angelica’s reach. “This is… I had hoped it wouldn’t be this bad.”

“They’re just evil people,” Rachel said. “It’s a grim job, but someone has to deal with them or they do shit like this.”

Angelica considered that for a minute, “...she has a point.”

I felt the nail on the pinky finger of my left hand. “I don’t believe that people are good or evil.”

“Have you not been paying attention to the last few hours?” Rachel demanded, “That Chet dillhole is just trash.”

“Saying people are good or bad is a copout. It lets you be complacent. You did one thing, and now you're good, so any mistakes you make aren’t a big deal. You’re good. Same thing with bad people. Once someone is bad, that is it. No amount of good they do can change that. They're bad.” I sighed, “I believe we are what we do consistently, but we can change. For good or ill.”

“Okay but what does that mean with these assholes?” Spine asked.

“Chet is a murderer, and Waldo is an accomplice.” I sighed, “I doubt any jury wouldn’t convict them.”

Janie frowned but nodded, “You have a point, Doug. Hear me out though. Hand over Chet and Waldo to me as a sign of good faith. We’ll try them. You can have Madigan. He’s the brains behind this. Lettin’ the small fry go and grillin’ the big fish will land better.”

“We can’t just let them go,” Spine spoke up. “They’re killers. People are scared and this Alliance is basically powered by equal parts desperation, faint hope, and the promise to hurt the demons. If you make it look like you aren’t concerned about them or willing to fight the goblins… things will probably go bad.”

“Plus, they suck,” Rachel added.

“They do!” Spine agreed.

“We still have to follow procedure,” I insisted. “Even if they suck.”

“Frontier justice tends to have a lot of revenge killin’s,” Janie pointed out to Spine. “We want to do this right, not quick.”

“Let’s talk to Madigan,” I turned toward the final shed, “I want to hear what he has to say for himself.”

The security for Madigan was a lot more strict than for Chet or Waldo. He had ten of the Chimera Corps watching him. The sergeant specifically. The vibe in the hut was more intense as well. Madigan was chained to a heavy steel beam. He glared at me with a new black eye. His nose was busted too. Blood ran down his chin leaking from his nostrils and mouth.

“What the hell is this?” Rachel. Janie, and I demanded. One of us may have said the F-word.

The good sergeant, Sargent Majors, shrugged, “He tried to escape. Things got a little rough. Don’t worry, we got him under control.” he gave a reassuring smile that was gap toothed and bloody. Several of the other soldiers also had bruises I didn’t give them.

Dammit.

I willed chairs and a table for the ice. I was getting good with the Craft skill.

“Please sit,” I told Madigan.

He spat blood at me.

I sat down across from him, “Why did you order your student to kill goblins?”

“I didn’t order anything,” Madigan said eventually. He sat down. “Is that the story you're telling people?”

I didn’t bother rolling Perception. I could read between the line enough to see the Narrators were not going to let me succeed on a skill for this.

“Both Chet and Waldo say you told them to kill a goblin,” I was surprised how flat and dispassionate my voice was.

“They are both lying twits,” Madigan said.

I felt Mental Resistance blocked some sort of mind effect. Probably a persuasion skill. I could see doubt creep into Spine’s expression.

“So you did not offer to use the Mentor skill to elevate a combat skill to any of your students who killed a goblin? Yes or no.” I pressed

“Kids, particularly stupid ones like Chet and Waldo get the wrong idea all the time,” Madigan shook his head, “Waldo lost his dad when he was three, and Chet… well honestly he is kind of a shithead.

“Yes or No answer Madigan,” I repeated the question.

“The answer doesn’t matter,” Madigan spat another mouthful of blood on the floor. “You and your army of goblins are going kill me anyways.” he turned to Janie, “Isn’t that right, Jane?”

Janie mulled her answer over, “At some point this becomes political.”

Madigan scoffed, “That didn’t take long for you to end up under him.”

“What?” Spine asked.

“Janie is easy as a two piece puzzle.” Madigan considered for a minute, “You could probably have your way if you just rub against her leg a bit.”

Spine and Janie looked at each other.

Spine grimaced, “Don’t take this the wrong way but pass.”

“No offense taken,” Janie said, “Besides you’re like what 15? That’s a nope.”

“I am almost 16,” Spine said immediately.

“Let’s focus on the important things,” I cut in.

Only for one of the soldiers to step in, “wait! Goblins are fuckable?!”

Spine blinked as four of the soldiers watched him closely, “Only consensually. Anything else… huge curse. It is a goblin thing- don’t question it. Lots of burning.”

The soldiers nodded, “Lieutenant after this trial, could I go on a fact finding mission? This is for science…”

I turned to Rachel, “Would your organization happen to have roots in the U.S. Marine corps?”

“Yeah, how did you know?” Rachel asked.

Shook my head, “Madigan, Answer the question.”

“Answer my question,” He countered, “Did you plan this from the beginning or did this overturning of the Mandir’s society happen on the fly?”

“You’re here because of your choices,” I started.

“Bullshit!” Madigan shouted over me, “You have gotten your way on everything.” He turned to Rachel, “You were fighting him not even a day ago. Now look at you, doing his work.”

I felt mental resistance block another mind effect.

“Don’t try and persuade me,” Rachel growled.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, propaganda,” Madigan taunted. “You haven’t ever left the coast have you? The more you do the more you realize Authority is the problem.” He considered Rachel a moment, “or you would if you could see past you massive daddy issues.”

Rachel stood there for a beat, and then tried to slash Madigan’s throat.

I had to burn two seconds of Free actions, but I caught Rachel’s hand. I wouldn't have been able to do that, but I opened the menu the moment Madigan started talking to Rachel. “No!” The Trouble was Rachel was about as strong as I was, and she knew what she was doing. If I just tried to stop her cold, I wouldn’t succeed. I wrenched Rachel off her feet. The momentum flung Rachel back. I let her go rather than twist her arm. She slammed into the wall of the hut. It shuddered but didn’t break.

Throw attack successful. Rachel Cohen takes 5 points of damage.

The tone of the room shifted instantly. I could feel the guns pointed at us.

“...Wait!” Rachel waved her left arm slowly, “Stand down, it was my bad.” She stood. “You cool, Doug.”

“He wanted you to kill him.” I said slowly. I had to speak slowly because otherwise I would have shouted at her.

Madigan burst out laughing, “The mask slips. Get used to this everyone. Titan Spawn aren’t afraid to throw their weight around.”

“Madigan!,” that was too loud.

Willpower check… Successful

Emotional state remains in control

Note: Repeated rolls will increase the difficulty.

“Madigan,” I continued, “ If you admit that you ordered Chet and Waldo to kill goblins, I will turn them over to Janie.”

“Doug, that is a bad idea!” Spine yelled.

“I don’t believe you,” Madigan said.

He went silent after that. I had to step outside after another five minutes of trying to get him to talk.

Angelica was watching me closely. It was a mix of concern, curiosity and wary caution.

Before I could say something Spine piped up, “Would you really have handed those two chumps over to Janie?”

“Janie, what is the punishment for murder in the Mandir?” I asked.

“Anyone we think will do it again, death. Dingbats like Chet and Waldo, would get hunting duty for life,” Janie explained.

“That doesn’t sound all that severe,” I noted.

“They would be forced to leave the protection of the Mandir anywhere from once a week to every day to hunt mobs. It is extremely dangerous work. Normally the system is a lottery. Every adult is part of the pool. The last person to get that punishment lasted eight years before a bigfoot… well you know.” Janie shook her head.

“What was that about cruel and unusual punishments?” I demanded.

“People have to eat. The work has to be done. It is harsh, but necessary.” She insisted.

“What next, Doug,” Angelica cut in. it is almost like she knew I was about to argue again.

Treat this like everything else. Define goals, come up with a plan…

“I need to talk with Tazia’s brother, then that war council.” I nodded to myself.

“I’ll keep things calm here,” Rachel spoke up. “Will probably have to gag Madigan… hey Doug, can I talk to you alone?”

…why?

I looked to Spine and Angelica. They both shrugged.

“Yeah, sure,” I followed Rachel. … yeah I needed to, “I am sorry for throwing you.”

“What? Don’t worry about that,” Rachel shook her head, “Here me out. Ditch De Leon. “ She pressed on when she saw I was about to argue, “Just listen, the goblins need you, and honestly My squad does too. Let her go after the demons alone. Come with us to the dungeon, and then we all go to the spire together.”

“Why make this pitch? You don’t like me,” I pointed out.

“I don’t, but I don’t think it is your fault. You came into this world and got stuck being force feed Fantasy Coast ideas. Maybe if you come with us you could see things from a different perspective,” She shrugged.

Holy shit… how can she not see it?