Major Ketty Shepherd (kettyshep) wrote in beeocalypse, @ 2009-04-08 23:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | gabe, ketty |
Base; Wednesday late afternoon; Ketty and Gabe
It took a lot of effort, but finally Ketty managed to convince General Grant to let her perform Gabriel Roberts' interrogation. Yes, she was very much emotionally invested in all of this, and that wasn't a good thing. But her closeness meant she knew what their prisoner was also emotionally invested in, and that was a very, very good thing.
The guards had set the prisoner up in one of the rooms made expressly for this purpose. There was a plain table, two chairs, and camera in the corner to keep watch. The prisoner was handcuffed and waiting inside when Ketty arrived at the door. Though she was still shaken over what had happened to Slate and her sister, she didn't show it at the moment. She was completely pulled together with a crisp uniform and tied-back hair. She had a folder of papers in her hand and her side arm concealed at, well, her side, but that was all she brought with her for now.
At the door, the guards saluted and she returned. She told them that she was fine speaking to the prisoner alone, but they, of course, would be waiting right outside. Ketty headed in.
Gabe was sitting in a metal chair at the table. His leg was stitched up and still sore mostly because he’d been confined to a cell. Tell tale bruises dotted his arms and face, an obvious show that the guards were treating him pretty rough. His hair was a mess and he was in pretty desperate need of a shower.
His ankles and wrists were shackled to the floor via chains that were connected to a large metal loop under the table that was embedded into the cement of the floor. He watched Ketty as she walked in, not surprised that she was to be his interrogator. He showed no fear for whatever she was going to do to him, though there was certainly sorrow on his face as he studied her appearance and thought about the things that had happened, remorse that he was sure meant next to nothing to anyone but him. He wasn’t sure if he was prepared for what was going to happen throughout this interrogation, but whatever it was he knew he deserved it.
Ketty's face was impassive as she entered, and she barely even gave the prisoner so much as a glance as she walked to her chair. It was as if he wasn't even there, at least not until she set down her folder and pulled her chair up to the table. That was when she looked across the table at him, and not with a scowl or anything -- it was with a smile.
The smile threw Gabe off, but he knew it had to be an interrogation tactic. He would’ve tried to give her a salute if he didn’t already know that the chains wouldn’t allow him to do so. He watched her carefully until she put the folder down. His eyes reluctantly left her face to travel down to the folder. He wondered what and how much was in it. He wondered if she knew by now that it was his brother that had been her first kill. She had to know by now. He braced himself for the onslaught.
Oh, Ketty knew. It wasn't a happy thought, but Sadie had told her and now she knew. Ketty wasn't thinking about that at the moment, though. She just continued smiling wordlessly for a while as she took in his appearance. It was very satisfying to see how beat up he was.
After a minute or so, Ketty laced her fingers together and set her hands down on the table. She leaned forward, still smiling, and spoke as if she was trying to have a private conversation in a crowded room. "Do you remember the night you met my sister?"
Gabe lifted his eyes from the folder. He wanted so badly to ask her what she would have done had some WAer killed her little sister, but he kept his mouth shut and kept his breathing regulated and calm.
Lifting his eyes from the folder, they settled on her folded hands before traveling up her arms to her face. He nodded slightly. “Vividly, sir.” He stated calmly, knowing exactly what she was getting at, or he thought so anyway.
Ketty could have laughed when he called her 'sir', but she refrained. Instead she powered on. "I gave you a little warning that night. Do you remember what it was?"
Yup. “As I recall, sir, you said if I fucked with your sister, you’d make my life a living hell,” He answered, remaining stoic about this situation. What could he really do but accept what had happened and was happening to him, really?
Ketty set her jaw briefly, but then nodded. "That's what I said," she confirmed, sitting back in her chair. She squinted a little. "Good memory. Of course, my warning meant nothing to you because you were already on your way to fucking with her. Was that part of the mission they sent you here with? Get cozy with the owner of the local watering hole to pull in all the information you could?"
Gabe set his own jaw a moment. “No, sir. Some things just happen.” Even after you try to distance yourself so you don’t get caught up, like he had in the end. He didn’t think he was going to fall for Sadie but it happened. But he wasn’t, at least, foolish enough to think she’d ever feel anything for him again anyway so what happened during this interrogation didn’t matter so much he supposed. “Was it part of your mission to kill my brother?” He’d asked before he could filter his comments and stop the words from coming out. It made the point though, that the best laid plans and all that.
Ketty was quiet a moment, taking a long breath in to keep herself calm. She blinked a few times and then answered in the same easy tone she had been using, "Yes. Not your brother specifically, but our mission was to protect Pukwana, and our country, from attack. Your brother was one of those we were told were attackers."
Gabe stared at her as she answered. He attempted to watch her face for any indication on her feelings on this manner but when she started talking about the attack, he wished he wasn’t shackled to the floor. “How’s it feel to know you attacked an approved supply run?” He asked, knowing he should keep his mouth shut but unable to. If he was going to suffer and die at her will, he was going to get at least a few questions in before it happened. Hell, maybe getting her riled up would make it happen faster and spare him some of his guilt and remorse, just put him out of his misery.
Ketty stared at him. What did he expect her to say? That she was happy they had been fed the wrong information and performed an unprovoked attack? That she was glad many of Sinai's own died or were permanently injured? That she thought it was really bitching that the first person she ever killed shouldn't have been killed at all?
"How does it feel knowing you leaked information leading to multiple attacks on approved supply runs?" she shot back.
Now how was Gabe supposed to respond to that one? His features deflated quickly and he fought to returned them to their former stoic act. “What would you have done if your General came to you after years of stewing over your little sister’s death and offered you a mission, one that could get you answers and revenge?” He asked her honestly. “With all do respect, sir, you don’t want an honest answer to your question because you wouldn’t believe it anyway.” He replied as he watched her. He was quiet for a moment.
“I’ve lived for half a decade on anger and it was too late when I found another reason. You want answers? I’ll give you answers. You want to kick me around and get revenge for hurting your sister, by all means have a ball,” He told her. “Don’t sit her and pretend you wouldn’t have accepted the same mission I did.” She was a soldier. She would’ve accepted it. Would she have become a traitor to her own people in the end though like he had, not that was a good question. He didn’t voice it though.
"The only one here who's been doing any pretending is you," Ketty said slowly at first, the only way she could keep her cool. "So stop trying to justify what you've done. We're not on the same side. You're the enemy. You were caught, and now there will be consequences. But since you're so fond of putting people in someone else's shoes, I'll ask you this." She unlaced her hands and tapped her index finger on the table. "If your General came to you and said that a border town was being invaded and had to be protected, what would you do? Would you say, 'wait a minute, that could really be an approved supply run that no one told us about' or would you do your job and go over there to defend your territory?"
Gabe let out a quick, short, 'hm'. And then arched an eyebrow. "Guess your General wasn't very thorough. Or maybe your Government's too inept to pass around correct information. Maybe, if your fellow soldiers had done their job correctly, I wouldn't have even got in. Maybe if your beloved wall gang weren't so easy to bribe, you wouldn't have a W-A arsonist still lurking around your city that you can't find. The devil's in the details, I suppose." He just wanted to make her angry now. He couldn't handle letting her stay calm. She needed to just beat the shit out of him and ask him the damn questions she actually came to ask.
Oh, we was succeeding in making her angry, but Ketty knew she had to keep her cool. For now, at least. So she held it all in. She opened her mouth to tell Gabe that he still hadn't answered her question, but then she closed it again when he brought up an arsonist. They had suspected there was another WAer somewhere in town. Originally it was assumed that Gabriel had set the fires, but there had been another obvious case of arson after he was captured. So he gave her something else to focus on aside from her current anger, which was convenient. Well, the fact that he said her own wall guards had let the guy in wasn't good in the least little bit, but Ketty would have to deal with that later.
"I want a name," she said, sitting up straighter. "And the targets you or they are supposed to hit."
Gabe shrugged and shook his head. "I don't have a name." He told her. "Or the targets." He shook his head. "All I-," He had to stop since she went and cut him off before he could get to the important part.
"I said, I want a name," Ketty repeated with a glare. If he expected her to believe him straight off then he was crazy. And she wasn't going to let him get off track again with his guilt projection.
Gabe narrowed his eyes at her. "And I said, I don't have a name." He stated as he stared her down in return. "He was sent in because I was feeding them false information." He added, cutting her off from interrupting again.
"Of course you were," Ketty rolled her eyes with a nod. "So it's a man. Now tell me where he's hiding."
"Yeah, it's a man," Gabe nodded. "Don't know his name or rank. My information was sent out over the net in forum posts," He said. "And since you and your army can't seem to think like soldiers, since it's a walled in town and everybody knows everybody, I would surmise he's hiding in the park." Since there were trees and he could've dug himself a trench and covered it over and stayed well out of sight while also keeping himself warm enough through the winter. "Now, I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but," He stated a little sarcastically.
"If I were you, I'd start adding more guards to the water plant and patrolling the lake before he contaminates your water supply." He paused a few moments and then added. "I can give you a description." Less on the sarcastic side, more on the serious since any number of people could be affected by the arsonist. He looked up from the table and, a little somberly, added, "You should move your sister and parents as well. Until you catch him. He knows she's the reason for my treason," Rhyming interrogations, what was the world coming to?
Ketty set her jaw so hard it was kind of hurting. She really wanted to smack the shit out of this guy, but he was obviously trying to raise her ire, so she couldn't let him. She wasn't too sure what to believe about Sadie giving him a change of heart. Obviously he could still be playing them so they wouldn't kill him. She'd have to wait and see how this continued.
"If you can give me that description, then do it," she said, not commenting on the other things he said.
Gabe was surprised at how calm Ketty stayed but he did see her jaw tighten and he knew he had to be getting to her a little, ruffling her feathers some. He nodded. "'Bout 5 foot ten, athletic but not overly muscular," Which made him quick, "Hair was black and shaggy, longer than mine and he had a mustache and beard that squared around his mouth," He leaned over enough to lift his fingers and draw around his mouth where he meant. "Rest of it was shaved along his jaw. He has to have heard I was caught though so he might've chanced it in the cold and shaved it off." He said. "Really bushy eyebrows. His eyes were two different colors." He paused a moment and squinting his eyes before closing them to try and remember.
"One was green. The other was brown...I think." He wasn't positive but he was pretty sure. "You should search on redwood forums." He added. "If he's found access somehow to the net, he'd have posted there. Probably about wildfires outside city walls."
Ketty listened, though she didn't take any of this down. She didn't have to -- there was someone the next room over, watching through the two-way mirror and transcribing the conversation.
"I need specifics," she said brusquely once he was finished. "What redwood forums? Are they related to the forums you used to communicate with the WA?"
Gabe shook his head. "I was posting in the bird watching forum." He answered her last question first. "California redwoods." He added, knowing full well there were cameras and microphones watching him and listening and that other people were listening as well. He wondered if he knew any of the people listening in or transcribing. "My messenger relay was stationed in Pukwana," He added after a pause. Pukwana was an agreed No Man's Land. It was neutral and there was only to be fighting there if one side breached the treaty between the WA and EA that had been signed years ago, after the Pukwana attack. Relaying spy messages was definitely in violation of the treaty, that was for sure.
Ketty arched her eyebrows. She resisted the urge to glance in the mirror since she needed to focus in on the prisoner. "Wow, you bastards are getting yourselves into all sorts of trouble, aren't you?" she asked in a cool tone.
Gabe shrugged. There was definitely more. Lots more. He was torn between just feeding her all the information he had so she could get it over with already and kill him, and making her beat some of it out of him. "Everybody involves guilty of stepping over a line somewhere. You're no different just because you have an E instead of a W." He replied.
Ketty was getting fed up with him. She straightened up and put her hand down hard on the table. "You're here to give us pertinent information," she stated, her voice raising. "Not to teach us a lesson on how we're all really brothers. We're not. Brothers don't leak information on civilian-joined supply runs leading to attack. Now I want a list of every single run you've given information on, whether its already happened or it's going to happen."
Gabe watched Ketty's shoulders move and then let his eyes follow her hand on the table. Good, a reaction. Finally. He tilted his head a little. "I'll gladly show you all the posts I've made." He answered her easily. Then she'd see which ones were given incorrect information, including the civilian-joined supply run. In fact, she'd see that if he hadn't given the WAers the wrong info on that one, Slate's brother would be dead too. "I haven't posted in months." He told her. "You'll find the posts all on the Sinai bird watcher forum," He told her. "Under my screen name," He added. "Or have you not taken possession of my computer yet and gone through it?" He arched an eyebrow.
Ketty stared him down. "Of course we have; now cut the shit with the snide comments. If you were so much better than us, then you would have done your job right and you wouldn't have been caught."
"If I was so much better than you and did my job right, you and Buckner's brother would've died on the Doc run." Gabe retorted. "And his General brother would've been dead like they wanted as well. And yet...they're still alive...Hm. Curious." Or maybe the fact that he went along specifically to protect her and the doctor that Doc run just didn't count now. He could see how it wouldn't. If he'd been in cahoots with the arsonist as well and hadn't already been having issues with sending the information out, Slate's nephew wouldn't have survived that fire either.
Ketty pushed her chair back and stood up. "Exactly," she said though gritted teeth. "You failed. Like I said." She looked down at her folder and opened it up. "Your posts were in code. I want translations."
She pulled out a bunch of stapled pages, as well as a separate sheet. Printed out posts from the forums and a list of all the supply runs conducted in the past year. She was prepared to go over every single post and every single run.
"You should be glad I had some form of conscience after all." He muttered as he craned his neck to look at the papers she pulled out. "When Sadie went to get her guitar," He spoke up, hands in his lap and frown on his face. "Matches up with my first post." He waited for her to start asking questions. He answered most of them, but he did keep trying to bait her. It was kind of driving him crazy the longer she held off on attacking him. It put him on edge.
Good. That meant all the restraint Ketty was using was paying off, because oh, did she want to knock his teeth out. She remained standing as they went through this lists, wanting to remind him who was in power there. Whenever he tried to bait her, she didn't bite. Just ignored the comment and continued the questioning.
The botched information he sent back to the WA was intriguing. Those attacks had been unsuccessful or had been sent after supply runs that didn't even exist. General Grant was going to have to have more people look over the information some more to check that Gabriel wasn't still trying to pull the wool over their eyes by lying about his code. Luckily it was mostly straightforward once you knew what the posts were really about.
Once they finished with the posts, Ketty pulled the papers back over and arranged them neatly. "How does it feel," she forced an ironic laugh and a small smile, "to borrow a phrase, knowing you were the cause behind an attack that almost got your girlfriend killed?" She continued before he got a chance to respond, "I was there. Saw it happen. He knocked down and climbed on top of her. Then I think he was smelling her. He pulled out a knife..."
Gabe arched his eyebrows initially. As she went on he flinched and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath or two before he opened them. He certainly looked miserable if that was anything to go by. His eyes shined a little, maybe just possibly. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat before he spoke, quietly but in a steady tone. "...If you want to know how they plan to move their border further east starting with Sinai as their first major walled victory..." He let that one sink in before he went on since his voice got a little edgy. "You'll stick to physical abuse."
At first Ketty was pleased, glad that the talk about her sister seemed to be getting to him. They could take advantage of that. But then he spoke, and that made Ketty pause. She put the folder down and then leaned forward, her palms flat on the table. "If you have information to give, then give it," she demanded.
Gabe shook his head. "No." He answered. "I'm done for today." He told her. No more, not after that extra jab. She wanted to play hardball, he was gonna play.
Ketty widened her eyes. "You're done when I say we're done," she said slowly, her voice so close to going over the edge of calmness.
Gabe shook his head slowly, remaining calm though visibly still affected by he little story about that first supply run. "I've got the info." He sat back against the seat. "I'm done today." He repeated.
Ketty lifted her right arm and backhanded him hard across the face. It may have seemed like a bit of an overreaction on the surface, but he had been building her up for a while and there was a lot of pent up anger coursing through her at the moment. It felt good to smack him, but at the same time Ketty was pissed that she lost her cool and therefore her edge.
Gabe's head turned to the side with the force of the backhand. He cringed a bit before he turned his head back to face her. He shook his head. "I'm done for today." He repeated, no hint of a smirk, but clearly a challenge for her to do her worst.
Ketty stalked around the table, balling up her fist as she did so. She wanted to beat the shit out of him so, so bad. But that was what he wanted. And she shouldn't give him what he wanted. Once she was within arm's length of him, she swallowed and slowly unclenched her fist. They were going to be questioning him for a while. There would be plenty more opportunities to give in and kick his ass.
"Why are you protecting them?" she asked in a quiet voice, tilting her head in curiosity. She knew he probably wasn't protecting the USWA. He was protecting himself. But she asked anyway. "You turned against them and then they sabotaged you. If they attack Sinai and get you back, you know they'll be treating you worse than we ever would."
Gabe closed his eyes tight, but not until she asked that question. He clenched his jaw. "I'm not-," He cut off as she continued. His own hands clenched into fists around the edges of the chains hooked up to the shackles on his wrists. He took a slow breath and opened his eyes to look at her. He turned only his eyes to her, keeping his head facing straight at her now empty chair. "Maybe I deserve worse than you would treat me." He stated through his gritted teeth. Maybe they'd only treat him worse cause they weren't concerned about how their sister would react to whatever they were going to do to him.
Ketty leaned forward, invading his space bubble. "If it were up to me, you would get it," she practically growled.
She straightened up and turned to walk back around the table. After grabbing the folder of papers, she headed right out of the room without looking back. They weren't getting anywhere at the moment and there were plenty of things already said that needed to be discussed with General Grant. One of those things being an idea Ketty had. Also, if she had been in there any longer, the odds of her beating the shit out of the prisoner would have gotten very, very high.
Gabe wished it was up to her. He deserved worse than he was getting. They were going easy on him. They wanted his information. He should give it to them and get it over with, but he hadn't. Self preservation was an instinct, he supposed. He wondered how long they were going to make him sit here before they dragged him back to his cell, if they even brought him anywhere at all, even, instead of just leaving him to sit here until interrogation time tomorrow. Or Whenever.