Chapter 1: Taken in for Questioning (IC)

The thin man in the green uniform continued around the tower block, moving swiftly. Immediately behind the main Administratum building, Cassandra and Gabriel found that there was a second building. It had been almost invisible from the front, being both not as wide, and slightly taller than the main edifice.
Hidden from the square now they found themselves alone on the walkway. The dark blank walls of the building on one side and metal struts on the other side which raised the highway just above head height. A damp rain started to drizzle down. The only sound was the thump of the boots of those surrounding them.

The male officer moved over to a seemingly blank section of the dark wall and stopped. The armoured men forced both Cassandra and Gabriel into position behind him. Reaching into his jacket, the man retrieved a leather wallet and held it up to the wall.
If the acolytes looked carefully- they noticed that the wall was not in fact blank, but instead had a thin rectangular slit cut into the wall about an inch thick. There was movement behind the slit and then a section of the wall silently slid back. Another armoured figure stepped out and took up a position by the entrance. The group moved forward into the gloom of the opening, followed by a new figure. The wall slide back into place.

Suddenly lights came on, initially blinding in their brightness. Squinting the acolytes found they were in a low room, its blank walls a dirty eggshell white. On one side was an elevator, with a heavy metal grate in front of it. Opposite it was an enclosure, its walls a heavy duty clear plastic composite. There was a wooden desk in front of this, with a steel box built into the middle. The desk was not in good condition. Across its frayed length several sections were badly burned, pockmarked with slices and cuts and a dark corner looked to be damp. There was a faint metallic taste to the air. Blood had been spilled here recently.
An older woman in a green uniform sat behind the plastic, with row after row of green metal containers stacked on shelves stretching beyond her. She was at a desk, a reflection of the one on the one before it, expect it was pristine and held a thick leaved book akin to the ones they had seen before at the dock.
It was hard to tell her exact age. Her grey hair was cut close to the scalp and the left side of her face was a melted ruin of burnt flesh, from which a bright red cybernetic eye stared.

The thin man walked up to the desk and cleared his throat.
"I have two to bring upstairs. One Gabriel Kantor and his prisoner."
The woman wrote the details into her book.
"Place all items into the box. They will be returned to you once you leave here."

Gabriel follows the officers without demur, his demeanour one of cool professionalism. Calmly he takes note of their surroundings before nodding and smiling congenially at the grim-faced woman sat behind the desk. He places all items in the box, hefting the case onto the table.

His internal voice chimes all the while. What in the Throne are you doing here Gabriel?

As soon as Gabriel stepped back from the box built into the desk, the woman pushed a metal sheet from her side and closed over the top of the box. She started removing them from her side, noting the details of each carefully into her ledger. When she was finished she reached her hand beneath the desk. Neither Gabriel or Cassandra could see what she was doing, but after a few moments the quiet of their enclosed room was rent by a rough clanking noise. The thin man turned swiftly on the spot, his polished boot heels clicking together and faced the lift, where the iron gate was slowing rising.

"We can look after these two now. Return to the outpost at the station."
"Sir"

The two armoured figures in black moved away from the two acolytes as the man gestured Cassandra and Gabriel to enter the lift. As the lift doors closed, he remained standing in front of the two, with the large woman continuing the stand behind them. There was a slight quiver beneath their feet as the lift started to ascend. Both acolytes noticed that the man had made no move to push any button before they started to move. The walls were plain green sheet metal, no control panel or indication how high they were going. They remained in silence inside the lift for a full minute, the only indication they were moving the rumble of the floor beneath their feet and that odd yanking feeling inside their stomach's. Finally though the sound quietened and with a crisp metal clank, the lift doors opened revealing a long blank corridor in front of them. The floor was a gleaming white tile, and the walls painted a dark burnished red. There were no doors on either side.

The man stepped out of the left and walked forward. A rough nudge into the small of Cassandra's back indicated that the two of them should follow. It was eerily quiet. Beyond the repetitive slap of their boots on the tile, they couldn't hear any noise. They moved forward like this for another thirty seconds, before the corridor opened up into a large semi circle. In the centre of this was a raised reception booth, the flat top of which would have come up to their chins. Four more officers sat behind this, one looking down at them, and the other three observing something at their desks. The thin man with the red moustache gestured them to stop at the mouth of the corridor and continued forward to the booth alone. From where Gabriel and Cassandra stood they could see five other corridors snaking off from this central location. The man was saying something to the other officer on the raised booth but the only words they recognised was Gabriel's own name.

After another couple of moments, he returned back to them and led the three of them down the third corridor on their left. Doors lined this corridor, on either side and spaced every fifteen feet. The doors themselves were a dark green metal with a heavy looking bolt across the middle. Beside each door was a plane white panel with an old fashioned numeral painted on it. The man stopped beside the door marked XVIII and opened it, before indicating that the two should enter.
"You can wait here safely Detective. Someone will come along to see you shortly."

The room was pained the same dirty white as the basement below. There was a single wooden table in the centre of the room, bolted to the floor and four wooden chairs, two on either side. As with the table downstairs, it wasn't in good condition. While there were no burns or blast marks, parts of it were depressed and splintered. The walls were plain and bare. In one corner there was a circular hole, covered by a metal grille, clearly a drain of some kind. A single naked light bulb hung from the ceiling, providing a bright light, that hurt if either acolytes looked directly into it. Seconds after Gabriel and Cassandra stepped into the room, the door was abruptly shut and they heard the bolt slam across. The two acolytes were alone.

Gabriel takes in their surroundings with a glance, searching for any cameras or other recording devices.

As Cassandra and Gabriel waited, they took time to inspect the room, but found no obvious recording equipment. Gabriel's experience though with interview rooms would lead him to suspect that this did not mean the room was clean, but rather that it would take a longer and more intensive search to find anything.

After an hour of waiting in silence, they finally heard the sound of the bolt being drawn back. A small woman with circular steel spectacles entered the room, flanked by three large men. All four were dressed in the now familiar green uniform. The woman indicated towards Cassandra and two of the men marched over to the two acolytes. One of them produced the key, which Gabriel had left in the box below and uncuffed the two and then each of them taking a shoulder, they marched her out of the room. There was a clang as the bolt was drawn once more.

The woman took a seat at the table, and then smiled up at Gabriel and gestured that he should take the opposite seat. The man took a position in front of the door. Closer too, Gabriel could see that she was somewhere in her middle age, her dark hair increasingly flecked with grey and tied in a bun above the stiff collar of her uniform. Wrinkles extended crack like, from her eyes, forehead and the edges of her lips. Dull brown eyes stared out from behind her lenses. Her thin bony hands sat on the table before her, the left hand gently holding a thick line of Emporor's prayer beads, with her thumb rhythmically flicking one bead after the other along the string.

"Detective Gabriel Kantor," she began, her voice light and musical.
"I have taken your prisoner, one Cassandra van Roche away for the moment so we can speak privately. It would not do for one of the Emperors undesirables to hear about which we have to speak. I would like to know what you are doing here. We have contacted Lieutenant Solomon Ghaele to check up on you."

She paused momentarily and raised one booted foot off the floor before bringing it down with a loud and crunchy squelch. Gabriel hadn't got a good look at the insect like creature before, but it was now a mess of ruined pulp. She continued in the same tone as before.
"He reported that you had been assigned no mission and that in fact you were on a leave of absence and thus with no authority as an agent of the Arbites. Why have you come here Mr Kantor? Who are you working for?"

Gabriel leans back in his chair, stretching his arms languidly and taking in the woman, from head to toes, then back again.

His primary thought was ensuring Cassandra's safety.
Smiling, he rolls his shoulders and sits upright, facing the woman. He raises an eyebrow in feigned amusement as the woman stamps upon the insect.

Two can play at this game. At the least I can buy us some time.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance Ms..."

The woman continued to smile at Gabriel as he went through his stretches, waiting patiently for him to finally finish going through all of his moves. It was the smile of someone who felt in complete control of the situation, the smile of a young child slowly removing the legs of a spider one by one and watching it squirm.

Once he had finally stopped she reached into her jacket and removed a small black cylindrical object and raised it up to her lips.
"Vasily, remove the first two centimetres of skin from her back. Use the peeler"

She then placed the device back into her jacket and smiled across at him again, taking up the prayer beads again and clicking them back and forth.
"Now Mr Kantor, I asked you a question. I'm going to continue asking it until I get an answer."
There was a momentarily silence which followed her words, which was suddenly rent by the shrill tone of a scream. It only lasted a second or two before it choked quiet. Whomever had made the noise had evidently regained control of themselves and denied those torturing her the gratification of more noise.
"Why have you come to this planet? Who are you working..?"

The woman was suddenly interrupted by a loud knock on the door. The man in front of the door moved smartly out of the way, allowing a young clean shaven woman to enter. Placing an arm over her heart she bowed her head down for a couple of seconds before standing upright. The older woman frowned slightly at the interruption before climbing up from her chair and walking over the younger woman. Bending slightly the new arrival started a quick whispered conversation. Every so often the grey haired woman seemed to interject with a question, which the other answered.
Gabriel was only able to pick up a few stray words from this.
"..ministratum.... orders.....death.....iao..."
Eventually the older woman stepped back from the other and turned to face Gabriel. The smile had somewhat faded from her mouth but her eyes still bored into his. From the walls came the sound of some wet muffled grunts. Clicking her beads together again, she turned on her heel and exited the room.

As soon as she left, two large men in green marched in one after the other. Moving immediately over to Gabriel, each seized an arm and lifted him sharply out of the chair. The last thing Gabriel saw was the shaven headed woman moving over an playing a black cloth bag over his head. He could then feel himself being propelled forward.

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