Interrogation Is More Than A Bottle Of Water : a Psi-Kicks story by: GF Willmetts

‘Ms. Seeker…I was just thinking of calling yo…’

‘No mindreading, one of the farsighters just told me you’d be here and could clear your diary while the Baroness does her security scan. I came in the same way. No one knows we’re here.’

‘About that…’

‘No, we don’t know what the Pattern is up to but we’re in the process of finding out.’

‘You’re talking freely?’

‘You did your personal search yesterday. Those devices we got you gives out white noise. Security protection here and Six’s office. As far as the Pattern are concerned, it’s a new but not to interfere with them. Might give themselves away. Luckily you upgrade security precautions on a regular basis so it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary.’

‘Do you know what they’re up to?’

‘It’s hard to get inside their heads. The farsighters can’t predict their events neither. Its either them or us getting involved. We could stop them but we want to know what they’re up to this time. Are they carrying out low grade intelligence business?’

He nodded. ‘Like you pointed out, we can keep an eye on what they’re trafficking. Didn’t they fail trying to infiltrate you people?’

‘They were younger then. Finding their feet. They got swept into the reality shift, too. That would upset any plans. They can shapeshift but we’re not sure what else. They still want to rule, it’s bred into them, but I think it’s a learning curve. They want to learn more. Better than that first reckless attempt we stopped. There’s enough of them to work together than fight among themselves.’

‘And now?’

‘They haven’t got a plan yet. They’re only edge is changing their appearance. They play a longer game. We’re just not sure what they are playing.’

‘But here?’

‘What do you deal in? Information. They’d like that.’

‘We’re controlling that, as you said to do. We do the same to any interlopers.’

‘Misdirection then. Maybe we can channel them in a particular direction.’

‘They might be seeing it as a way to reach you consultants.’

‘That did occur to us.’

Five pointed out the comatose Baroness Samedi. Unlike the time he saw her in top hat and frockcoat, she was now dressed more sedately but still in black. No doubt not to get noticed when she entered the building. Sara Seeker was also dressed in black but he read the report that the Stable needed to keep their body temperatures up to function properly.

‘I’ve been investigating your Baroness here. She isn’t. She has to be Maman Brigitte. I assume it’s a hereditary title.’

‘Dat is ma mama.’ Libertine was back in the room. ‘Samedi is twins. Ma brother ‘can be dangerous. Ah is better.’

‘You should see the Baroness in full war paint but she’d stand out in the streets…and here.’

‘Cepts ats Samhain.’

‘Halloween.’

Sara dug into her bag, produced a glass and a bottle of rum, poured a glass and handed it to the Baroness who drank it in one, offering the glass back for another tot.

‘Some of the myth is true,’ Sara added. ‘One of the rare Psionics who can drink alcohol. Can you keep a bottle in your desk. Next to that whiskey bottle you have there.’

‘Is easier ta jumps insides dis place den pickins someones comin’ ins.’

‘Any particular brand, Miss Rush?’

‘Surprise mes.’

Sara put the bottle on the desk. ‘Just in case.’

‘Why do I think I’m being turned over? I take it those Pattern are still in place. No increase in numbers.’

‘Ah watches dem dis time. Dey dos spy things. Watchings.’

‘We think they might be looking for something. No proof.’

‘Can’t you move them on a bit? You said you have a plan.’

‘We want to turn one of them or at least get inside their head. Use one of your basement cells. Keep him…or her isolated.’

‘You mean bringing in another…one of you.’

‘Oh, it’ll be an arrest as a training exercise. Nothing suspicious beyond that.’

‘When?’

‘Oh, about now. We had to keep security as tight as possible.’

‘You can’t arrest my people without my authorisation.’

‘We haven’t. I said a training session. You can even watch from here.’

Resignedly, realising he couldn’t change the subject, ‘Who’s doing it…’

++++++++++oOo+++++++++++

  ‘Sit down, doc. Give yourself a chair. You’re wearing the floor out with all that pacing.’

‘I’m not a doc and I’ve been waiting here six hours,’ complained the man.

‘Can I call you Steve then? You look like a Steve.’

‘My name isn’t Steve…’

‘And I don’t need your real name. Security. We’re in a security building. I call you Steve and you can call me Flame if you like.’

‘Flame?’

‘Not an old flame. A current Flame. Ms. Flame if you show manners. Nothing if you can’t. can’t be bothered much with names.’

‘What am I doing here?’

‘Refresher course. Interrogation, y’know. You being office-bound doesn’t mean you can’t get captured. Waiting is part of interrogation technique. Loosens your tongue before some serious work. We were nice. No tying you to a chair while you waited. Old school. Y’know, bamboo cane grown under your fingernails. Even have them pulled out one by one. They grow back. Better that then teeth removal. Nails grow back. Pain threshold. Probably not teeth if they want you to speak. Don’t you love that shiver down your spine. Been there, pulled that.’

‘I thought they used drugs?’

‘Soften you up first. Cheaper than drugs. Exercise their knuckles. See your pain threshold before something more serious. No vivisection yet. Always the first time. That would make you talk. Keep you awake as they pulled pieces of your body out a bit at a time.’

The man ashened.

‘They didn’t go that far in the class then? That’s why we do one-on-one now. Bet you were at the back of the class and missed the big words. Do you know some actually slept through class when the lights were down for the film clips, thinking it would never happen to the office-bound? Most likely to be caught one day and don’t know how to survive. So we have these refresher courses.’

‘Can I call the canteen for a meal or at least a snack while you talk me to death?’

‘Would you do that waiting to be tortured, Steve? Y’know, if they want to feed you, it’s a surety they want to feed you poison to make you throw up. Same with anything you drink. More like drugs. Hallucinatory drugs. Enough to freak you out. Paranoia goes a long way. Beats trying to hold you down with a jab of amobarbital. Did I pronounce that right. Doesn’t roll off the tongue like sodium amytal.’

The man nodded.

‘Bottle of water?’ she offered, pushing the bottle on the table towards him. It was already half empty or half full depending on how you looked at it.

The man shook his head.

‘Good lesson. You’ll give in eventually and need to quench that thirst. You’ll be begging for them to give it to you within three days. Drinking early saves a lot of pain. About the same time it takes for you to tell them your life story and give them your insurance number. No one lasts forever. You just hold out. Tell them enough that they have to check out than the whole truth. You break eventually. All do. The secret is to hide the truths amongst the lies you tell them so they overlook it for a while. Gives a chance for the service to get people out or change codes before you break. You owe us that much. You can even leave in a place they have to check out and hope someone in the service is watching so they can come to the rescue. Doesn’t always happen. Chances are your team will be watching a different place.’

‘And this means?’

‘Measure how much honesty amongst the lies. Eventually they’ll have it all but you giving the runaround will give them time to save others or even rescue you.’

‘Torture?’

‘Not as much as the films. Under torture, you’ll say anything they ask as right just to stop that pain. They’ll persuade and see how much can sway you. The Stockholm syndrome. If they can get you on their side, you’ll just talk. Depends how you can convince them of that. All of it is to be co-operative but to string them along. Do you get that, Steve?’

The man nodded.

‘Now, what do you do for a living?’

‘I’m a…civil servant.’

‘Not in the British intelligence service?’

‘Er…no.’

‘Now, Steve. You’re still Steve. Why would I kidnap someone who I know doesn’t work for the Secret Intelligence Service?’

The man shook his head. ‘Mistaken identity?’

‘You’re paying attention and I haven’t hurt you yet. Good answer…for someone who might think I’m stupid. You think I’m stupid, Steve?’

He didn’t answer.

‘Denial is one thing but you should be working on what you want to say. Now, Steve, do you have any stories you want to say?’

Another pause.

‘The problem with the SIS is lack of people with imagination. You need to think on your feet or whatever you stand on. Can you spin a story mixing truth and fiction?’

The man fixated but didn’t speak.

‘Its not difficult, Steve. Can you lie? Tell big porkies.’

Eventually, ‘I think so.’

‘Why don’t you tell me your plan to take over this country and then conquer the world? It’s a common fantasy in the young. It can even reach into adulthood. You see it in films and books.’

‘I haven’t had such a fantasy.’

‘Not even to get your own way? Beat someone in a race to show superiority? Shows you won races at school. That would mean you always get your own way. Do you do that, Steve?’

‘I see myself fortunate in what I want?’

‘What made you join the intelligence service? Thought yourself as a James Bond?’

‘I scored high as a code decipherer and picked out of school.’

‘Do you do that now?’

‘No.’

‘That’s typical of the civil service. Never put someone doing what they are good at.’

There was a pause.

‘OK, Steve. Practical test. Use the information you think I have on you but make it into something entirely different so I won’t ask for any codes you might have solved just in case its one they use. I’ll give you half an hour. No buts. You’re supposed to waste an interrogator’s time. If they hurt you then you know you’re getting to them.’

++++++++++oOo+++++++++++

  ‘Did Scobie mickey his bottle of water?’

Sara smiled. ‘We thought of it but a creature that can shapeshift might also have a unique metabolism and didn’t want him thinking it wouldn’t work on him. Suggestion is easier and everything else is manipulation.

‘Why the haste to get this done all of a sudden?’ Five thought to ask again, in case he could get a different answer.

‘We have other balls to juggle and want to place this on a slow-burner for a while.’

‘Can I ask what it is? You’d probably make me forget anyway.’

‘Project Peregrine. It’s outside of your jurisdiction.’

‘American? I’ve only heard of it in passing.’

Sara nodded.

‘They don’t like you consultants working there.’

‘Probably because we would have found out earlier that they were playing with psionic DNA. Ours. Must be somewhere obscure when we have been over there…unofficially.’

‘So you’re going under the radar. They won’t like especially you being over there.’

‘I find people. It probably irks them they only have one Psionic.’

‘I read his file. A stealth you call him. What’s his name again?’

‘Steven Regal. We thought he was just told to observe us but it looks like he was picking up DNA samples.’

‘It would take time to clone someone…even off the books.’

‘We think its recombinant. Gene-splicing. Saves them waiting for them to grow up and they can select…’

‘Willing hosts.’

‘Doesn’t mean it will take. It’s probably in more than one helix strand. We’re brought up knowing we’re different and grow with our abilities. Quite a different thing for a norm to suddenly try to make sense of it. Suddenly getting an ability and having no experience on how to cope can not only be destructive to themselves but to others. Look how we rescued Harbinger and the time it took to get her head together.’

‘How many shrinks did she scare?’

‘Too many. Until we gave her some control.’

The door opened and in walked Flanolla Flamin’ Scobie.

‘What’s up, docs?’ She slouched down onto a chair and offered a bottle of water to the head of Five.

He shook his head.

‘It’s not doctored. Anymore than the one Steve drank from. The worry that it is and they think they’re immune or might not is enough.’

‘You’re acting very professional.’

Scobie opened the bottle and drank some. ‘Sara says it’s me in pro-mode, y’know. How am I doin’ down there?’

‘Bewildering him’, Sara said. ‘Scared the shit a few times. I didn’t really realise you could be so menacing, Sco.’

‘We ought to do this with more than one of us, even if it means we do it one at a time. Maybe even with a Blank.’

‘Which one?’

‘Bianca.’

‘That would really confuse him. I’m having Ben recalled but not primarily for this.’

‘This Pattern is far too basic. I thought they were all the same age?’

‘Grows likes batches’, the Baroness offered. ‘Maybes dey brought different skills ta places likes heres.’

‘But would you want someone as naïve as this one here?’ Sara looked to the MI5 boss.

‘I’ve checked the files of some of the ones the Baroness picked out. They might look the same but these weren’t the people we recruited. They do their jobs but the masquerade isn’t perfect. With any intelligence service, you like smart but people who can keep their mouths shut about what they do. It’s a good profile to hide under. They aren’t repeating the histories of the people they replaced. Their line-bosses think a couple of them are suppressing mental breakdowns but not enough to bring them in over it.’

‘Probably easier to get in than just getting recruited.’

‘Empty headed would be easier if he thought he’d be caught.’

‘Deys don’ts noze he can’ts bes scanned.’

‘What do you want me to do, Sara? Push a bit more and say we’ll do a part two another time?’

‘See if he can tell a story. Maybe he’ll give something away.’

‘He’s giving Blanks a run for empty-headedness.’

‘Maybe we should send in Bianca and really screw him up.’

‘I wish I could spake, y’know. I’m working blind in there. You could at least be advising me.’

‘It wouldn’t make any difference. What makes them shapeshift protects them like a Blank.’

‘Something in the middle.

‘We need to find their den mother.’

‘Am I supposed to be listening in on this conversation?’ the head of MI5 asked suddenly. ‘This IS my office you’ve commandeered.’ Emphasis on ‘is’.

All three women turned to look at him.

‘We could raise your security clearance if you understood all our shorthand, y’know.’

‘I turned off your recording devices when Scobie entered the room.’

‘You’ve turned telekinetic?’

‘No. Just got an advanced remote.’ Sara smiled. ‘We want you to remember in case you know something we can try. Better for you to listen in on what we’re talking.’

‘My people are better at interrogation than I am. Wouldn’t it have been better to have one of our experts in here?’

‘And this would be beyond them and a higher security clearance than you. First chance they’d get after we left would be doing it for real away from here and still not get anything.’

‘Miss Scobie recited everything from the book.’

Scobie smiled. ‘No one said I couldn’t be a quick study, y’know.’

Sara’s eyes glazed for a few seconds. ‘Or leave a couple lifts not working and the coffee machine only giving milk.’

‘I couldn’t control that. I don’t like coffee.’

‘You missed the computers this time.’

‘There’s always the return walk.’ Scobie quickly changed from smiling. ‘I’ll take the fire escape route back.’

‘Bes mores chaotic wiz im’, the Baroness added.

‘That room’s pretty empty, y’know. Put more things in there next time.’

‘Leave him shaken and stirred for a second meeting, Sco. And if you, kind sir, keep up with the monitoring and who he talks to.’

‘I bet Six never gets this treatment.’

‘Not until we refine it.’

++++++++++oOo+++++++++++

  Scobie entered the room with a fresh bottle of water, took a swig and then put it in front of the man. ‘Not tampered with or I wouldn’t have drank it, Steve.’

The man accepted it and drank it gratefully.

‘’Course, I could have been drinking the drug at small doses to build up some immunity.’

The man ashened again.

‘I wasn’t very keen on taking a daily dose for just such an occasion as this. Y’know, it doesn’t always work. A higher dose beats any small dose tolerance. In a bottle, its just as likely to be as diluted. Take a few sips and not gulp it down so you don’t die of thirst.’

The man followed Scobie’s advice this time.

‘Of course, they could have over-saturated the bottle. It is pretty tasteless, Steve. Not like drinking quinine.’

To Scobie’s eyes, if he went any whiter he’d be a ghost.

‘You’re learning not to be trusting, Steve. A good sign, y’know, but don’t do it on a date. Freaks out girl or boyfriends. Just buy a capped bottle than an open glass but never think it safe.’

There was a pause and Scobie wishing she could read minds.

‘So lets skip the torture and you tell me what you do.’

‘I’m just a civil servant. Nothing special.’

‘You crunch numbers, Steve. You don’t look like an accountant but it works with codes.’

‘Are accountants supposed to look like anyone in particular?’

‘Bet you can do logs in your head.’

‘Those only make rafts. I use a calculator.’

‘A joke, Steve.’

‘Joke?’

‘Relax, y’know. You’re more than an accountant in the civil service. Do you just count beans? What’s your story?’

‘I count beans. I audit vegetation for food preservation.’

‘Any particular beans? There’s at least fifty-seven varieties.’

‘Haricot beans. Stable food.’

‘Assuming you’re not measuring the sauce you’re got to cook them in. Hope you’re not vegan. One of its ingredients is anchovies.’

Scobie looked up at the hidden camera location. There were times when at least a phone plug would have been useful. He couldn’t have used the word ‘stable’ accidentally, could he? Not good with foods. Recent birth or they don’t have conventional foods.

‘Tell me, Steve, what would I find in your kitchen if I went where you lived?’

‘I eat out.’

‘Where?’

‘It is a small restaurant off the central road.’

‘Well, we won’t have a date. What else do you do?’

‘I inventory. Being good with numbers helps.’

‘So why were you brought to my attention?’

‘I’m just your prisoner. You tell me.’

‘Hardly a story, Steve. Not even a good one.’

‘I don’t do anything imaginatively. I’m an accountant. I do numbers not English language or literature.’

‘Then you have nothing to worry about. Give them some numbers. They’ll have to check out what they mean.’

The man nodded.

‘It’s hard to change your patterns of behaviour but try avoiding doing the same thing twice or trice in a row.’

‘But there’s only one route here.’

Scobie sighed. ‘Have a word with your line manager. There’s a discrete doorway you can use somewhere or foreign services would know everyone who comes here.’ She gave a quick glance at the camera. They would pick one they could monitor.

‘Why do I feel like you think someone is going to grab me?’

‘Did I say that?’

‘I seem to be the only one picked for this treatment.’

‘You mustn’t talk to the other members of your department about this, Steve. We pick at random at random times. You just haven’t heard from anyone else being picked out yet. Don’t even tell your mother.’

‘My mother?’

‘Or father. You have a mother, Steve. It says so in your file. And siblings.’

‘They didn’t sign the official secrets act.’

‘I would know if they had. Just be discrete and use the cover story. You’re just a civil servant with a boring job to them.’

‘About that…’

‘Its just part of the improved security. You’ve seen a lot of that lately. Security begins at home but not your parents home.’

The man nodded.

‘You can go now. Don’t change into anything.’

++++++++++oOo+++++++++++

  Ten minutes later, Scobie was back in the office, this time working her way through a bag of crisps.

‘Next time I want a phone bud, Sara. That was tricky as hell, y’know. I kept thinking I messed up when he said he had a stable diet.’

‘Three references to the Pattern and he didn’t react.’

‘You sure he was a Pattern?’

‘Is one’, the Baroness interrupted. ‘Youse calls its barrier signature.’

‘I’ll get you a copy of his original recruitment disk. He was hesitant over security protocols he should know by heart.’ Five picked up his phone, only to see Sara hold a disk up in front of him.

‘We weren’t doing this blind. Got it already. Well, Scobie was. We didn’t want her to give anything away.’

Sara turned to Five, ‘Give him an hour to stew and get someone to give him the rest of the day off.

++++++++++oOo+++++++++++

  It was evening when they were walking along the Embankment with the Thames making near audible ripples nearby. The evening population were scattered to the theatres and other events and not pinguing on Sara Seeker’s shields.

It’s all very vanilla, y’know. You saw how he reacted over the water. Are we assuming all these Pattern are world-conquerors? Maybe some of them just like to blend in and work. Make a living.’

‘Except we don’t know what happened to the people they replaced.’

‘We ought to find out.’

The Baroness shrugged. ‘Ahs kin watches ats ah distance.’

‘Not on your own. Let’s assume they’re alive and being kept well. Stepping in, it would look too obvious if a lot of dead bodies suddenly popped up if they left. Couldn’t let Five draw that conclusion.’

‘Maybe they were chosen for information gathering, y’know.’

‘Code-breaking is hardly a useful gather.’

‘Maybe we should do a proper grab and see what they give away.’

‘We’ll be dividing our resources with Peregrine.’

‘Maybe we should get the Vampiri to help, y’know.’

‘For a queen of chaos, Scobie, you might well have come up with a viable solution. It isn’t as though they can feed off the Pattern…or at least that’s what Fernfaire told me.’

‘Dey coulds bes waitings fer der distractions.’

‘We’ve kept this away from the auxiliary staff. Not even all the Blanks know what we’re doing. But that’s for their safety.’

‘Are you planning anything?’

‘No. It’ll have to be done on the fly.’

‘Hope the fishing line is long enough.’

‘The same with the bait.’

end

© GF Willmetts 2025

Psi-Kicks; The Stable Consultancy

Flanolla Flamin’ Scobie; Sara Seeker;

Libertine Choisi Rush-Eshow

all rights reserved

ask before borrowing