*with Mary and Wattz*
They were waiting when he arrived in his quarters, hiding in the shadows. Mathie could not have seen how they had entered them without leaving any such evidence of breaking in. He would worry upon this at a later day, one of them tapped him on the shoulder. The enforcer tensed, shrugging free of contact twirling about to strike with his cyber-arm.
The figures in the darkness shifted backward, out of reach, the furtherest coughed lightly coming forward into the light. The familiar uniform of the elite guard met his eyes, and he settled even as they spoke, "Captain Tanaur has sent for you."
Mathie nodded, knowing the reason why. Blue light suddenly emerged, before he could act one of them had taken his hand and then he was somewhere else.
~~~
They had given him some moments before walking toward the interrogation room, by then his face had hardened. Mathie nodded to Tanaur taking a seat, he shifted to the side a little with his cyber arm toward Odel. He listened as Tanaur spoke.
"So," He said, leaning on the back of his chair as he stared Odel squarely in the face.
"Why don't you start by telling me all you know about High Enforcer Antonis Duren."
"High Enforcer who?" Play it cool Odel, play it cool. She was mainly concentration on keeping her breathing steady. Breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out. The lights were bright, the room was stale. Odel was glad that each corner of the room went upwards in a nice clean line. Over and over again she followed these lines, up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall....
"I don't know who he is."
Mathie frowned at the woman's strange behavior and opened his mouth to say something. But Tanaur spoke first, "Jericho, access security feed B-999274"
In between the pair of them and Odel a holographic image appeared, Mathie instantly recognised the High Enforcer despite the man being in more street wear than uniform. The video was from within Odel's club, the man talking with several others.
"Do you recognise him now, this is in your own building Odel." Prompted Mathie.
Shit. A big mistake. But she hadn't lied about it; the name simply had not rung a bell. Of all the times to forget a face.... Usually Odel never forgot. Her face began to twitch, one side of her upper lip pulling up, at this imperfection.
"I get a lot of faces in my club. How can I be expected to remember them all? I recognize him, but I still don't know who he is. Just a stranger."
"Perhaps he went by a different name?" Offered Mathie, "he'd be in the company of some of your more high profile customers. The more shady people."
Oh no. No no no, she was not going to be breaching the confidentiality of her customers just for one Enforcer who stumbled down the wrong alleyway. But it was certainly possible, that one of them had done the deed. Even if one of them had, she had no idea who.
"I don't know!" Odel had to fight to keep her voice steady. "I mean - maybe! But what makes you think I'd know which name he'd use? Look at the records if you want but I can't just go around accusing every customer that walked in the door that day!"
Tanaur's expression remained unreadable. He waited patiently, calculating every move Odel made and every inflection in her voice.
"Miss Wunai, I don't think you understand the situation," he began. "This isn't just about some skeleton that we found in an alley, which is a bit unusual. There are forces at work, threatening the balance of the Jericho. Nothing you say in here will escape these four walls and any information you give us will benefit us in helping stop the ones responsible for causing such an upset. I know that you are highly involved with your customers. You deal in information.... Anything you can tell us would be helpful."
The enforcer, sitting in his chair looked toward Odel not making a motion. He did not give her a look of support, or open his mouth immediately to accompany Tanaur's. Were they now buying information? This was not his forte, interrogation had never been Mathie's specialty. But he needed to do the right thing. Abruptly, he rose, taking long slow strides to settle his hands on the back of her chair. His cyber arm malfunctioned slightly - ongoing from the damage from the new year assault - and gripped the chair harder then he intended.
"Who would he have met in the back rooms?" He asked, there was a hint of warning in his voice as he echoed Tanaur's words, "nothing will escape these walls..."
Mathie disliked that own darkness in himself.
Odel did not flinch when his arm malfunctioned, but a bead of sweat ran down her cheek. It was clear to her that Mathie would do anything it took to make his point. Tanaur's presence wasn't making this any easier, either.
The truth was, she remembered almost every regular member who came into that bar, and she had a good few ideas of some of the shadier types. The kind that would do anything to get revenge. But was she willing to betray her patrons...?
She wouldn't do it, she wouldn't do it, she wouldn't do it-
"N-Nial Bates... maybe Jerol Konolith... Prail Flounds... they m-might be worth ch-checking out...." Odel was on the brink of a panic attack. Oh god, how could she reveal names like that? No, there was still a way to salvage this.
"But I still stand by what I said earlier!" Odel brought in quickly. "Talina, I still think she is worth investigating! She'd do anything to compromise my business, I swear it!"
Tanaur took a moment to commit the names Odel gave him to memory then he stood and turned to Matthie.
"Run a check on those names and begin cross referencing their connections to Antonis Duren and the Underground. Report to me your findings."
He turned to Odel then and offered a hand to help her to her feet.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Wunai. You will be transported back to your establishment shortly." As he finished speaking, the ones who teleported them to the interogation room appeared and teleported Odel away.
Tanaur turned his head to Matthie again, "The Elite Gaurd has quite a bit on our hands currently, so we won't be taking over this investigation, but you are working for us for now."
The Elite Guard returned and held up their portable teleporters.
"Get ready for transport, Enforcer Mathie," one said.
~~
Mathie sat awake for some time, sitting in the minimal light. Before him the list of names were handwritten, staring back at him from the table.
He thought of his arm, he would need that to be checked again. He thought of the interrogation, and what was next. And he thought of the Elite Guard, and what this meant for him.
Originally Posted by Alice
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