Acid’s a high profile target, so he doesn’t get the special silk-gloves treatment like I did for my interrogation earlier. No, this poor bastard gets the Room 4 treatment. The spotlight Drorbs click into action and bathe him in light, revealing him strapped to the steel Inchairogator—
“Blake, stop chuckling at your phone and focus, we are about to begin the interrogation.” Chad’s probably making that disappointed/condescending angry face he usually does when he’s being a total pinche puta, but I can’t see. We’re behind the one way mirror, and everything is dark except for the buttons on the Telaphone app for controlling the Inchairogator and the voice changer. Well, and the one illuminated spot in the room in front of us where Acid sits: blindfolded, bound, and looking surprisingly fine about the whole thing.
“Sorry, Chad. Just taking notes for my novel. I have a name for that chair now, and it’s gold—“
“The fucking ‘Inchairogator,’ I know. You ‘come up with it’ every time we do this. Can we get a move on, please?”
Fiiiine. I switch on the voice changer and begin speaking through the speakers of the Drorbs.
“Alright Acid, or should I say Justin--”
“Wait… how did you know my real name? I’m not even on your grid, man,” he replies, but a quick burst of electricity from the chair he’s strapped to shuts him up.
“I know everything, Acid. Everything about you, everything about Nyugen, every text that went between you and every text you’ve ever sent. There is no secret of yours that I don’t know.”
“Then why do you need to interrogate me, dude!?”
…
“Dude’s got a point,” Chad snort-laughs quietly under his breath to me.
“That’s none of your business, shithead,” I boom into the mic, trying to keep Acid from realizing how masterfully he’d called my bluff. “Tell me how you got involved with Nyugen.”
“Yeah, fine, man. Whatever. We met at a rave, right? Nyugen had moves like I’d never seen and after a few good one liners, I had her back in my place tied up and ready for the time of her life. She was my favorite pet from then on, and I guess you could say we were basically dating, if you have to, like, condense our relationship --”
“Alright,” Chad interrupts, grabbing the phone, “that’s enough about your sick fetish, let’s–”
“BDSM isn’t a sick fetish, Chad, there are actually many well-adjust—“
“Not the time, Charles; the mic is still on.”
“Great, now he knows my name is Charles!”
“You said my name first, you fucking—”
“I already know who you guys are, man! I was just in the car with you,” Acid interjects. “This is like, so fuckin’ obvious, even with the voice changer–look, are you guys real cops or is this like, a theme party? Can I take my pants off?”
“Can it, assclown. If you loved her, why did you turn her into a killing machine that had to be put down like a rabid dog?” Chad screeches into the mic, quickly shifting the mood back. He’s talented at this, I’ve gotta admit.
“Oh my god, April’s dead!?” Acid starts weeping uncontrollably.
“Of course she is! What did you think would happen to her when she took that pill you gave her!?”
“Rapture shouldn’t do that, man; I took one too and I was fine, it–”
“What’s the dosage?” Chad asks.
“One pack, obviously–”
“We found two empty packs on her,” I add, picking up what Chad’s throwing down. “Could taking both at once cause, uh… unexpected reactions?”
“I-I would guess it would have to, dude,” Acid replies, sniffling. “It’s a gnarly payload, man. It’s not like it lists ingredients on the front but from what I’ve heard all varieties have got Neuron hijacking nanomachines and a little DMT, LSD, THC… then Green’s got some preworkout kinda drugs in it too, of course.”
“Hold that thought, Acid,” I say, muting the mic and looking to Chad. “Sounds like Fardraught.” Chad puzzled, so I elaborate. “The first ever nanodrug, as far as I know. Nautical Nanosolutions used to make it in what’s now the Colonies; I didn’t think it was used for anything but beyond top secret government shit in the US Government days. I only know about it because when Telecom didn’t bite on renewing the contract, they tried to turn to Old West for street distribution.”
“What happened to the Nano Nanosolutions?”
“They folded when I took the Wild West Syndicate down and they lost their last potential distribution network. NanoTEC bought the land and the company up right before Telecom flooded everything; I figured all the tech would have been destroyed.”
“I don’t like this,” Chad replied, swallowing hard. He unmutes the mic. “And how did you get involved with LDS?”
“Well… to be honest, I haven’t, like, actually joined them them yet, or met Kilroy or–”
“Kilroy!?” I blurt, snatching the phone and leaning in towards the glass. “What do you know about Kilroy!?”
“I mean, I’ve never interacted with the guy, even digitally. I was gonna’ try to join them at the next recruitment event–I got invited, man–and April was going to go too, but now–oh god, April! My kitten! My everything!” He breaks down in hysterics again.
“Do you have any Rapture on you now, Acid?” I ask.
It takes him a minute to regain his composure, but he’s eventually able to speak again.
“Nah, man; I’m all out–I gave April my last two Rapture Green, I never thought she’d take them both at–oh, god! April–”
“Where did you get it?”
“From one of those raves, man. Same place I met April, same place I got this hackin’ head tat from–”
“And who did you get it from?”
“Uh, I’m too high to remember, but I don’t think she had a license, and I know she had the skull thing tat herself–”
“Not the tattoo, dipshit. The Rapture.”
“I–I don’t think I can really–”
“I think you can really,” Chad tags in. “In fact, I think you will, really. Who sold you the fucking Rapture, Acid!? Names. Details. Now.”
“I don’t think you understand, man–”
“Acid, I understand there are about a hundred different settings on the device you are strapped to. If my finger were to slip and I were to accidentally set it to the top setting, your head will explode so fucking fast—“
“Bruh, they wear those skull masks to be anonymous, that’s like, their thing! I think it was a chick, she had tits; I don’t know what you want from me but that’s like, all I got. It’s not like I was gonna ask for an invoice when I go to pick up free drugs from some rando, man!”
Chad sighs, verifying his retinas and thumbprints on the app to release him from the Inchairigator. “Alright, alright. Fine. You’re free to go.”
“You’re just letting him go!?” I blurt, as Acid clumsily races out of the station shrieking and sobbing.
“Blake, he is not a Skull, he cooperated, and he just accidentally killed his girlfriend–well, accidentally made you have to kill his girlfriend. Maybe now you’re–”
“Starting to understand how you feel,” I sniffle. “...yeah.”
“That isn’t an ‘I told you so,’” Chad adds, placing a hand on my shoulder and giving it a firm squeeze. “I would not wish the feeling on anybody. But just like we did not lock you up for the shit you did after losing her, even when we really probably should have–”
I exhale slowly. “Yeah. Alright. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.” Chad nods solemnly and readies the car.