Chapter 732 – The Prison Dilemma
There are many people who say that interrogations are worthless and that information cannot be extracted from a target that is afraid for their own life. That they will only say what they think the interrogator will only want to hear.
True to some extent.
Utterly wrong in others.
An interrogation is not a confirmation of existing details. It is a way to find to new leads. There is no point to interrogate when there is no additional information available either. Ultimately, the initial questions should be mere confirmations of truth telling. If the target tries to lie at that point, then they need to be conditioned into understanding that lying saves no reason save for immediate harm upon oneself.
- Special Imperial Service training manual. Written by Goddess Malam, of Hatred.
“That’s an impossible plan.” Helenna said. “Not only are you asking me to expose my troops and for… I mean, do you even have a plan?” Once again, they were back in Helenna’s office. Malam had been awed at the psychological mastery involved in its construction at first, but now she had grown accustomed to it. The giant marble statue of Helenna stared down at her from its position at the centre of the IBI donut. The drinks cabinet was a one trick pony, now, Malam actually appreciated the fact she could step in and retrieve a bottle of vodka before approaching Helenna in the first place.
“I do have a plan.” Malam said. “Not only that, my plan is already in motion.” Malam said proudly and tilted back her black cap. She took a swig from the bottle of vodka. Helenna always bought the top-end drink. That couldn’t be argued with. Every other choice the Goddess of Love had ever made in her life was questionable, but not her palette for alcohol.
“You have a plan in motion already?” Helenna asked. “How exactly do you plan to capture a succubus alive?” Malam sighed, took a step forward and leaned forwards on the desk. “And stop scratching my floor.” If Malam wanted to scratch the floor, it’d be scratched already. She knew how to use heels though, and Helenna would sooner be making a marking herself than Malam devastating her friends floor.
“We tranquilize it.” Malam said. “It’s not exactly difficult, we’ve done it in the past and back then, you actually had to get close to them. Poison a drink or whack them over the head with a hammer to knock them out.” Malam motioned her fingers into a pistol. “Nowadays, you just…” She pulled her two fingers back as if squeezing a trigger. “Bam. And done.”
“You just shoot her you’re saying.”
“With a dart.” Malam said. “Not particularly difficult. In fact, I’d say it’s even easier than shooting to kill.”
“Is it now?”
“You just have to hit them generally. Shoulder, arm, hand, neck, wherever. Shoot to kill, I mean, there’s skill involved in that.” Helenna stared up at Malam in exasperation.
“Is there now?”
“What if you hit the shoulder for example?”
“Then you shoot again.” Helenna replied dryly and Malam smiled. Well, she couldn’t argue with that now, could she? “And again if that still fails. And then you can again too. It’s not very difficult.”
“Thanks for your shooting theory lesson, I appreciated it.” Malam replied dryly. “Who did you learn it off?”
Helenna stared at Malam for a few moments with a dry expression, her lip tugged upwards as if she was holding back laughter. And she gave an answer in a flat and dry tone. “Arascus.”
“Oh.” Malam leaned forward. “When exactly? I’m sure-“
Malam blinked as Helenna actually interrupted her. “When he shot inside me.” Helenna replied. “Old news Mal, get new fucking material. You can only beat me over the head with it a thousand times before it stops losing its effect.” Malam blinked, utterly taken aback. She had actually been outmanoeuvred. Helenna had gone ahead and actually gone down to a level that Malam didn’t expect her to be capable of.
“Well…” Malam said.
Helenna’s smile grew a mighty degree. “Well looks like you’ve met your match.” Helenna leaned back smugly in her chair. “The student surpasses the master.”
“We’ll see about that later.” Malam crossed her arms. “Either way, I need a prison.”
“Don’t you have one? You’re the SIS.” Helenna asked. “Of all the fucking organisations in the Empire, shouldn’t you be the one with the prison first.”
“I mean, it’s on the spot interrogations though.”
“And what happens when you need to keep a prisoner for a long amount of time?” Helenna’s question was answered with a dry smile. The silence held on for a few moments as the Goddess of Love sat with her black, staring up into Malam’s entirely black eyes.
“I don’t?” Malam said
“What do you mean you don’t? Wha…” Helenna trailed off, sighed, then shook her head. “You owe me for this.”
“Of course my little cutiepie.” Malam replied.
“Don’t call me that.” Helenna snapped. “And no, you owe me but actually. I want to be paid.” Malam blinked in surprise.
“Excuse me? What?”
“I want the SIS to pay the IBI for using its prisons. It’s as simple as that.” Malam blinked. Who? What? This little girl couldn’t take the first step when it came to creating the IBI, and now suddenly she was here dictating terms? Who the fuck did she think she was?
“That’s not going to happen.” Malam said. “For one, you owe me.”
“Oh? How?”
“I told you about Kassandora.”
“Great.” Helenna said. “I can tell you about plenty of local police I have contact with.”
“Why is it such a problem if I just keep a succubus in your facility for a while? A month at the most! How difficult can she be to break?” Helenna’s palms slapped the table.
“Do you hear yourself Malam? Why can’t I just keep a shapeshifter in your base? Oh it’s just an alluring succubus. It’s just the sort of creature that is able to wrap any sort of man around her finger? Are you serious? You’re wondering why I don’t want her in the intelligence headquarters of the Empire? Are you brain dead? Is that so hard a calculation to work out? Because it shouldn’t be making you think at all!” To think that her hair had not even changed colour. The fact she was being allowed to manage an entire institution was really getting to her.
“It’s just a succubus!”
“My people can’t do it!” Helenna slammed the table again and stood up. “Is that what you wanted to fucking hear? My people can’t do it! They’re not yours! I don’t recruit psychopaths, I recruit normal fucking people Malam! As normal as they can be for this fucking job. A succubus will wrap them around her fucking finger!”
“Mine handle it.” Malam said with a shrug. “They’re not that corrupting.”
“Your men have a fucking license to kill!” Helenna shouted. “Do you understand the difference? You have an army of psychopaths! Do they even have families or wives?” Malam pursed her lips. From what she knew, the vast majority, in fact almost all of them, had no one. A solid third didn’t even have parents. It really was a collection of broken souls.
“Well then let them be the guards.”
“So you’re just annexing a part of my land? Build your own headquarters!”
“The point of the SIS is that we don’t have headquarters.” Malam said. “My men just live at home. They don’t go to jobs or anything. They’re just permanently on call.”
“So where do you park your cars then?”
“Government buildings?” Malam had to ask the question. It was a non-issue, every mayoral office or equivalent would know to have a space or open for the SIS.
“And training?”
“Kassandora.” Malam said. The SIS went on training every few months whenever the reserves had their sessions. “And missions.” Helenna sighed heavily and rolled her eyes.
“You’re not getting one of my rooms Malam. That’s just not fucking happening.”
“Well then we have a problem.” Malam said. “Because the mission is already underway.”
“It’s your problem.”
“Do you think I won’t bring a succubus here?” Malam asked smugly. “And do you think that your men will be able to stop mine from just dragging her in.”
“You’re the absolute wor-“ Helenna’s voice was cut off by Malam’s telephone ringing. Right on time as well, although Malam had timed it so that she’d enter here as the operation started. Everything else had just been shooting the shit with Helenna. Really, all that the Goddess of Love needed to know was that the SIS needed a temporary holding cell.
I have received a message. Malam’s voice although not from the Goddess but from her phone. She had made that stupid ringtone for herself when she got a phone, thinking it was funny. Now, it was just downright embarrassing whenever it interrupted a meeting. “I can’t believe you’ve still not changed that.” Helenna said. Malam looked down at her phone. The notification rung again in her own voice: I have received a message. Helenna stared dryly at the Goddess of Hatred, as if in disbelief. “Are you going to read it?”
“Of course.” Malam tutted. “Of course, of course.” She unlocked her phone, opened her messages. There was a video attached.
“Oh?” Helenna said. She had to be able to read the surprise on Malam’s face. “Something happened?”
“I was right.” Malam said.
“Where you?” Helenna asked. “What?” With a smile as bright as the sun, Malam set her phone down on the table, tapped it into fullscreen and let the video play.
Agent Desmond clicked the camera on his chest on as he followed the beautiful woman as she walked through the streets of Moribury. To think that the succubi had gotten as far as Allia. How did they even cross the sea to the island? Shouldn’t passport checks be mandatory everywhere? No matter, she had been tracked down in the small historic town and Desmond tired not to be too suspicious as he followed the woman.
The succubus wasn’t a hard woman to track off. Desmond knew that she had spotted him already, but the sway in her hips turned the gaze of every man she walked. Unreal was one way to describe her, she was one solid rolling wave of a curve all the way from the top to the bottom down. Even her heels were, clicking on the ground, moved with the grace of a leopard.
Desmond watched the succubus turn her way down an alleyway. Well, he was sure it was a succubus. There was a bet back at headquarters on whether the Rancais team had been correct or not. It wasn’t Desmond’s place to question though, he was only here to execute the job. A blood test before she woke up would confirm whether this mission was a success or whether they’d be calling upon Internal Affairs for hush money and non-disclosure contracts.
The succubus, or the woman presumed to be one, turned and sauntered down yet another dim alley. Was she avoiding him? She had to be at this point. Desmond looked left, only walls of painted brick there. Right, walls and windows, although the latter lacked any figures within them and the former only had a few paintings of the townsfolk. Behind. No one following them.
Desmond made a turn and saw the woman there. She had been glancing back behind herself and she sped up quickly when she saw the SIS agent turn the corner. There was no one about. A team was waiting by in a car for immediate extraction. The only thing that delaying could do at this point was make a mess. Either a bystander would walk into the street, or she’d run, or she’d scream, or she’d turn around and incinerate Desmond with her magical flames.
In one smooth motion, agent Desmond drew the tranquilizer pistol from underneath his black coat, planted his feet in position, braced, aimed, held his breath and pulled the trigger. The woman took a step, winced and began to grab at her back as if to scratch herself. Her hand never reached her back, she passed out and was already asleep on the ground before Desmond caught up to her.
The video cut out. “What do you think?” Malam asked.
“You’ve captured a succubus?” Helenna asked in disbelief. “Actually? And what if she escapes?”
“They’re cowardly creatures.” Malam said. “Like I said.” Of Hatred crossed her arms in pride at the sheer success of the operation. Her phone broke the silence again: I have received a message. This time, it was just text. Malam’s smiler grew wider as she read the message.
Blood test: positive. We have a live demoness.
Malam had to rub it in. “So looks like you’re having a succubus here whether you want her or not.”