Ash Ketchum: Battle of the Ampere

Ch. 8 Interrogations

   As soon as all the teens were secured, the army began interrogations. Serena, who they guessed to be the leader of the group, was the first to be taken from her cell. As she walked, handcuffed, out of the room she wished Ash was with her, then felt bad for thinking such a thing. No. Anyplace but here.

   She was escorted down the hallway by two Peruvian military police who she tried to reboot but was unable to with the RESAT sucking out most of her power her--though she did get one of them to trip. At least she thought she did. He might have just been clumsy.

   She was brought to the interrogation room--a small, rectangular cell with a two-way mirror on one wall. In the center of the room was a square, wooden table with two chairs facing each other. The chair closest to the door was already occupied, and as she entered, she could see the back of a man's head, or at least the Galactic helmet he was wearing, the ones the Galactic's always wore around her.

   The soldiers walked Serena to the empty chair, which faced the mirror. One of the soldiers pulled out the chair while the other unlocked Serena's cuffs.

  "Thank you," she said. She rubbed her wrists, which were already sore from the cuffs.

   The seated man looked at her for a moment, then said softly, "Please have a seat."

   Serena glanced at the two soldiers flanking her, then slowly sat down. The two soldiers left the room. The man seated in front of her looked Peruvian, though he was taller than most of the soldiers she'd seen. He was young and, under different circumstances, she might have thought he was kind of hot. There was a pad of lined paper in front of him with a pen. The last time she'd sat down with an adult like this was during her faculty interview for varsity cheerleader.

   For a moment the man just stared at her, as if sizing her. To her surprise, he smiled at her. "Welcome," he said. He put out his hand, but Serena didn't take it. He held it out for a few seconds, then cocked his head and put his hand back in his lap.

  "My name is Cesar," he said. "What is your name?"

   He spoke almost without an accent, and Serena thought he sounded too pleasant for what he was doing. Serena just pursed her lips and stared at him. After a full minute of silence he said, "Your name?"

  "You already know who I am," Serena said. "If not you wouldn't be wearing that helmet."

  "That is true," the man said. "I just want to hear you say it."

  "I'm not a toy," she said. She turned her head away from him.

  "I don't think you're a toy. I'm just trying to develop a . . . rapport."

   Serena didn't respond. The man looked at her for a moment, then said, "You're not going to talk to me?"

   She didn't answer.

  "Could you please tell me where you're from?" He transmitted in his chair. When Serena didn't answer he said, "From your accent I am guessing that you're from the United States; perhaps somewhere in the west."

  "Why do you keep asking me things you already know?"

   The man looked at her for a moment, then stood and walked over to Serena's side her and crouched down next to her. He spoke softly just above a whisper. "You know that you're being watched and recorded. I am not going to hurt you. But if you don't cooperate with me, then they'll just get someone else who will make cooperate--someone with more . . . forceful methods. Perhaps one of the Galactic's people."

   Serena still didn't look at him. "So it's the good cop, bad cop routine," she said.

  "Excuse me?"