AJ struggled as the faceless H.E.S.P. operatives grabbed him. “We’re the fuckin’ reason people are still alive!” he shouted, voice cracking with emotion.
I raised my hands. “Don’t struggle, AJ. Don’t tell them anything either. Let the grownups handle this.”
“Fuckin cops!”
“AJ,” I repeated, waiting for him to look at me. “Hey. Will you be chill if they are?”
He bit his lip and then nodded.
Pointed antlers emerged from beneath my skin, only extending a few inches. A warning. “Let him go.”
Mac nodded to his troops and they released AJ. He glared at them but stood still, fists clenched.
I turned to Mac. “We’ll cooperate, so treat us with kindness please. These are my friends.” I couldn’t help but add a bit of bite to that last word.
Mac remained infuriatingly composed and impassive as he addressed us, “Each suspect, please follow the directions of H.E.S.P. staff and enter a vehicle when instructed.”
I didn’t retract the antlers just yet. “Can I ask why we are suspects? H.E.S.P. was there for all of it, even if you weren’t. The reports should say how much we aided the operation.”
Mac turned away from me. “Just get in the car, Nick,” he said tiredly.
The ‘cars’ in question were a convoy of armored trucks with thick all-terrain tires. Each of the crew were led into a different one. I let myself relax a little as I saw that they were being treated gently. When it was my turn, I entered the back to sit on a bench, shoulder-to-shoulder with soldiers. The matte visors on their helmets stifled any attempt at human connection.
I was terribly uncomfortable with their proximity and had to fight the urge to poke them with my antlers to make them give me a little breathing room. But I saw how their hands were tightly gripping their weapons. These soldiers wanted an excuse to hurt me.
So instead I retreated into myself, because even there I wasn’t alone. It felt like Nell was sitting right next to me and we commiserated in our nervousness, sending reassurance to each other. We had already done the hard part, I hoped.
Mac was being a jerk. All this time apart and that’s how he treats me? The rational part of my brain told me that Mac was just acting as the hand of a larger entity. He couldn’t show favoritism, especially not now when everyone’s eyes were on Sillwood and those responsible for the tragedy. The government would have to make a proper public response very soon, the people would be demanding it.
Would we be used as a scapegoat? It seemed impossible when the existence of H.E.S.P. would also be outed. That would show the public that the government had already known about Shapers long before the Sillwood Incident. And I suspected ours was not the only country who had already been aware of Shapers.
When the truck came to a stop and the back was opened, we were in front of a beige brick building. The soldiers escorted me inside quickly before I could get a good look at my surroundings but we appeared to be inside some sort of complex surrounded by chainlink fences.
I kept my attention on Nell as I was led down a hallway. Nell was moving too, presumably in an entirely different part of the complex, but we were well within her range. I smiled. They would have to move her to another city to separate us, Nell’s range was massive at this point. Occasionally, people with nametags on lanyards would pass us on their way to somewhere else.
I was pushed roughly into a white paneled room that was everything I expected from an interrogation room: a table in the center with a metal ring welded to it for handcuffs, the black dome of a camera in the corner of the ceiling, and it was only barely big enough for three people to stand comfortably in.
“Sit,” the soldier ordered.
I complied. Nell still pulsed uneasiness and I tried to reply with all the calm I could muster.
“Any Shaping will be viewed as hostile and we will take every measure necessary to suppress you.”
A soldier joined me in the room, standing in the corner behind me. I could practically feel them breathing down my neck. These were not the same soldiers I had worked with on the night we confronted Organ. While those had been openly hostile, the soldiers had still treated me like a human being. These soldiers didn’t seem to share that respect.
After a few long minutes of silence, a woman entered the room holding two cups of water. She wore a suit and pants that were tailored well.
She smiled at me warmly. “Would you like some water?”
I took the offered cup silently and set it down on the table. She sat in the chair opposite to me. While she wasn’t in the black uniform, I suspected she was as capable of action as the soldier behind me.
The woman gestured to the metal ring that handcuffs could be attached to and smirked.
“Silly, right? May as well be using handcuffs on a bear or a snake. You could be either in a flash if you wanted to, couldn’t you?”
She stared at me intently.
I tilted my head, unsure if she was being serious.
She continued as if she hadn’t just paused to wait for me to respond. “Of course you’ve been very cooperative, I wasn’t suggesting you were going to fight back.” She paused and looked at a message on her smartwatch. “Nick, right?”
I nodded.
“I’m just trying to get a grasp on what we’re dealing with here, what the possibilities are for this new… frontier. It would be quite helpful if you could explain what you know about…”
“Shaping,” I said.
“Shaping,” she echoed, nodding. “What happened in Sillwood was horrible. Anything you tell us that could help make sense of this tragedy would be excellent, and of course it would look good for you if you continued to be cooperative.”
My hand twitched. I shifted in my chair, clasping my hands between my knees. Nell was doing something. I shot her a warning pulse of emotion. The last thing I needed was for these soldiers to give me something new to heal.
“Fine,” I agreed. “But I suspect you guys know most of this already.”
I launched into an explanation of what I understood about Shaping. Much of it was knowledge shared with me from other Shapers, including Alek who was clearly an unreliable source, yet I hadn’t had reason to question the info so far.
In simple terms: Witches were those who could Shape other living things but not their own body. They could bond with an individual to create a Wolf, an adaptive Shaper who could morph their own body quite freely. Finally, there were Casts, people who had been Shaped but were incapable of changing themselves like Wolves could. It seemed like the two ways a person could become a Cast were: either injecting Dice or if a Witch made you into one. A Witch didn’t have to only Shape their Wolves after all.
“All these terms don’t amount to much because they’re all still people,” I pressed the point firmly. “Just people given new bodies. Imagine you were given a tail today. If you hurt somebody in a panic, that wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know how to control the new body part.”
She nodded amicably, still smiling. “And what of those that were hunting people? We’ve found evidence of stalking, waiting for the opportune moment to kill.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Aberrants. People who changed too much. I don’t know why but they hunt people.
Her eyes flashed dangerously behind her sweet smile. “You’re sure that they aren’t just people given the opportunity and the means?”
I shook my head emphatically which made the soldier shift position behind me. “They don’t act human. They don’t speak.” Mostly, I thought to myself, shivering as I recalled the moments of humanity in the monsters I’d encountered. “They kill indiscriminately, they aren’t looking for people they know.” Although they do seem to like me especially.
She leaned slightly closer. “You encountered them? That sounds dangerous. Did you have to defend yourself?”
I eyed her warily. “Yes.”
“You fought back? Did you kill any of these Aberrants? In self-defense, of course.”
I briefly envisioned fighting my way out of this room, past the soldiers that the complex was no doubt swarming in, making it to Nell before jumping over the fence to become a fugitive on the run.
“Yes,” I said, staring down my interrogator. “And it wasn’t just self-defense. I killed those Aberrants because if I didn’t they would kill other people.”
“Of course.” The fake smile remained. “Now, if you don’t mind, could you give me your account of that final night of conflict? We’ll work our way back from there…”
After another hour of talking, the woman thanked me and left the room. I sank back in the chair, exhausted. Everything had been covered in painstaking detail. Every minute of action was scrutinized and every new piece of info led to its own trail of investigation. I had been honest for the most part. There didn’t seem to be any point in hiding anything now. Except I hadn’t brought up the Tree speaking to me. On the off chance that there was a mole in the government for Organ, I didn’t want to reveal that to them.
I could only hope that Zola didn’t reveal that he was still keeping the gift in his stomach. He had been unnerved to swallow it after seeing the fluttering knife pierce so many hearts that night, but he assured me that it wouldn’t cut his throat, it was protected in the same way that his teeth and nails were. It seemed that his Shape was designed for hiding away dangerous things in the strange durable pocket inside of him. We had agreed that such an important and lethal object should be hidden away.
With just the soldier left in the room, I held my arm in my lap and glanced down at it. Tiny white roots had emerged from my skin, spelling words.
MAC WAS HERE. HE WAS NICE
I smiled and pushed warmth out to Nell. She sent it back with a new message.
SO MANY QUESTIONS. I DIDN’T ANSWER MANY
I’d also avoided bringing up what little I knew about Nell’s past. It was a very private part of her and I was going to respect that.
The door opened and this time a man walked in, well-dressed just like the first interviewer. He gave me a smile and pushed up his glasses. “Can I get you anything? Need a bathroom break?”
I shook my head.
He settled in, shuffling some papers he had in front of him. “Well then, Nick. Why don’t we just get right to it? Can you go over what happened in Sillwood?”
“I went over this already,” I said, annoyed.
“We’re just trying to make sure we have everything right. Now, where were you when the Beacon was activated?”
I resigned myself to another hour of answering the same questions. Luckily the man paused often to consult his notes and I would glance down at Nell’s messages.
BORED NOW. ZERO PLANTS IN THIS WHOLE PLACE
A hint of amusement emanated from Nell.
LUCKILY I CAN REACH OUTSIDE
I grinned.
“Something funny, Nick?” the interviewer asked. I didn’t remember what question he had asked me.
“I’m getting a little sick of rehashing the same things,” I replied. “You guys know all of this already. H.E.S.P. was there when the Beacon was captured, they saw it all. If you’re going to throw me in jail for terrorism then you’d have to incarcerate half of Sillwood because they had as much culpability as I did in what happened. Organ is to blame for all of this. Why aren’t you asking more questions about them?”
“Calm down, Nick. Your cooperation is appreciated. We know your friends will appreciate it as well.”
I sat up. “Was that supposed to be threatening?” I didn’t give him a chance to respond. “You’re pretending like you have this all under control but I know you guys must be panicking. You have no idea how you’re going to tell the world about what happened in Sillwood. And anything you do say will enrage the survivors. You weren’t there, you acted too late, and you knew.”
“N-nick,” he stammered, raising a hand. “I know you have a close relationship with Nell. Your cooperation means you will see her again soon.”
I laughed and leaned back in the chair, shooting the soldier a look. “You missed the whole point of why I did everything I did that night. I know exactly where Nell is.” I pointed in her direction. “We share every thought, every emotion. I’m cooperating because Nell is and vice versa. I don’t need to see her because she’s here right now.”
“You’ll do what we say!” the soldier barked out behind me.
I ignored him.
The interrogator, although a little shaken, resumed his line of questioning and I resumed my bored compliance.
At the next break, I glanced at my arm again.
A TALL MAN IS HERE. I DON’T LIKE HIM
I sent her reassurance again, then frowned when I didn’t get a response back. She was still there, I could feel her, but she had shut down, closed off. The waters were deep again. I could feel those hidden emotions stirring the depths, making me restless.
Finally the interrogator finished and stood to leave. As he opened the door, a man stood on the other side, his head partially hidden by the doorway.
He stooped to enter. Tall, thin, a gauntly pale face with eyes that were like a feral rat’s, not in appearance but in intention. Those eyes only saw things to chew on, things to bite and tear.
He had questioned me once, so very long ago.
“Mr. Harte,” he said coldly. He didn’t sit, instead he leaned over the table, his long fingers wrapping over my side of the table.
“Conrad, was it?” I responded with mirrored distaste. “What did you say to Nell?”
“Only what she already knows. That the two of you are at the root of this infection and we must rip that root out if we are to have resolution.”