News:

- Chubby Dwarves are low fat.
- Pippen accused of getting drunk and feeling Merry
- Mexican Hobbit corrupted by One Ring. Known as Smiegel

Main Menu

12.23.2132 - Interview in Church

Started by Dray, May 23, 2008, 10:12:30 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Dray

River winked at him and lead him down the stairs to the seventh floor.

The walk back to Emma's apartment two floors up was uneventful and without encounter. Temmit observed that there wasn't too many guards posted throughout these upper floors of the church.

When they reached Emma's bedroom door beyond the interior corridor of the suite, River knocked twice in quick succession and then once after waiting a tick.

"Enter," responded Emma within.

As River and Temmit walked in, Emma was on her knees rolling the carpet back onto the floor for some reason and Renee merely stood a few paces away looking at the boys.

The breakfast table was still uncleared and after Temmit's second wonder was whether any coffee remained in the carafe.

"Well?" Renee asked in great anticipation.

Johan

Temmit glanced between Emma and Renee quickly, and said "You and I must be out of here, and now." He then turned his attention back to Emma. "And to you I might just owe an apology."

He lifted the coffee craffe from the table and was pleased to find that there was some remaining. As he helped himself, pouring it into the cup that he was using earlier, he spoke quickly to the two girls. "We'll have to debriefe later. Your father burst in upon us and demanded to know why you were recieving visitors on Restday."

He pulled on the luke-warm coffee and grabbed a couple of sausages. "I told him that I had recieved a summons to the Church, but didn't know why. I suggested that only after he came in did I learn that it was for an audience with you (he knew that already), that the only reason that I could think of was that you must need assistance with one of your Scribe classes." He shrugged, apologetically. "I didn't know what else to do, and saying what I said also preserved the story that I gave Marcus, so it seemed reasonable."

"Unfortunately, I don't know if you're in need of help in any of those classes, and if you were, I don' t know how your father would take that. But he seemed very irritated with your recieving visitors, and told River to summon you to him as soon as I was escorted from the Church. You might deny all knowledge of this summons, and it might be that we can try to spin it as someone's idea of a practical joke on me."
Avatar Courtesy of The Image Bank

Dray

"I bet he mentioned my need for religious study, did he not?" she asked.

Temmit nodded.

Emma got up off the floor and let out a small laugh. "It's a load of nonsense, but it's the same lie he gives to anyone when I am called upon at the church," she said

She looked at him with a bit more respect than he was familiar with receiving from her. "No apology necessary Temmit, if my father doesn't suspect anything beyond a student visitor than I have nothing to fear," Temmit raised an eyebrow at her. "And I actually do have a 'Business Crime' class in the Scribes house this quarter, so the alibi works."

"He won't raise a hand to you?" Renee asked.

"I am no longer 10 years old, I can usually calm the anger of his fists with a little daughter-play-nice diplomacy, besides..." she said as she looked at Renee. "It appears that for the moment his attention is on Marcus."

Emma had turned back to Temmit.

"Although my father most likely won't be bothering me in his office for hands, no reason to tempt fate. The two of you should go. Renee, fill me in at third lunch would you?" she asked.

"Sure."

Johan

Temmit began to feel considerably better, knowing that Emma could work with the alibi that he had established. He smiled as she explained that there was a good chance that she'd be all right.

"Thank goodness." He said. "I'll fill in Renee on the details, but the long and short of Marcus is that he's a dangerous kid, and not Whisper material." He cast about at his three classmates and said, "I felt like I was interviewing myself, and not only that: he was interviewing me too."

"Be very careful around him."
Avatar Courtesy of The Image Bank

Dray

A bit to his surprise, neither girl offered a quip. Emma instead said, "at least we[/i] know. Pending your discussion, you may want to warn some others as well. Get back to me tomorrow Renee with what you want to do. It would be a sad state of affairs should Marcus come across someone like Leslie."

Emma then looked at River, a silent exchange passed between the two and Temmit sensed the urgency in Emma now. Despite her comforting words earlier, he sensed she didn't want them to be caught here.

River spoke, "if anything urgent comes up Temmit, I will be returning to my dorm room tonight around 9 nighthand. I can always return to the church (for you) to deliver a message to Emma."

That would work, Temmit thought, as River's dormitory would not disallow him entry before curfew.

Dray

A hand later, Renee and Temmit were back in her underground room. Although it was only mid-day, it offered the most private place they could talk without being seen by other classmates.

They also hadn't discussed the interview outside because the wind blowing the snow crystals about was just too annoying. Now, in far more comfortable surroundings and a bag of leftover breakfast on the table, Temmit could finally debrief her on the interview.

She laid down, an apple-cinnamon muffin her bed companion, and awaited Temmit's report as he sat in his now familiar chair at the small dining table.

They had stopped at the Nutcase on their journey back, and he had a fresh coffee beside the cold Church sausages.

Johan

As was their standing protocol, Temmit took some time to settle his mind and bring forth to himself all the details that had transpired that morning. Regains his Psionic Focus.

In his customary rigid, almost inhuman fashion, Temmit described to Renee the facts of the interview. This was the portion of the report where he relayed only the words and motions of an interview, bereft of emotion, annunciation, or innuendo. It was, however, rich in detail and content, and true to the happenings in the actual interview. Autohypnosis - take a 20 if possible!

Today, he did this largely laying on this back on the floor, atop two blankets, and with a pillow under his head. His eyes were closed to help him recall all of the details. Smokey helped to fill in many of those, sometimes with elements that didn't occur or weren't present. His usefulness here was suspect, as was often the case.

Then he got into his feelings about the interview:

"As I said, he's clearly a dangerous person. It was clear that he was trying to get me to speak about resistance cells, especially in the orphanage, although I suspect that was just to put me on common ground."

"My personal belief is that he is indeed working for the establishment. For one thing, he didn't observe conventions, even towards Fresenius; he didn't give age and house, and his "Your Grace" was marginal at best. And Fresenius didn't seem to care. Although Fresenius had never met him prior to today either."

"He was trying very hard to get me to say something about gangs of kids causing mischief. He was so intent on gaining some kind of information like that, it was clear that such an investigation was second nature to him. What he wanted the information for, I don't know. I didn't get enough time with him."

"Although even when he decided that I was trustworthy enough to open up to with respect to his time in the wilds, I couldn't find out whether he's got gifts or not. He presented himself pretty convincingly as someone without gifts."

"I have too many questions left, but I am convinced that he can't be trusted. He may not be on the government pay roll, but he's certainly not on ours. Here's what I'd like to do: I'd like to have one of your truth potions, and another one that looks like the truth potion and tastes like it, but has no effect. I'd like for him to see me drinking the "useless" one, I'll give him a little taste, and then offer him the real one. I'd love to question him under those conditions."

He let the thought hang in the air. "Remember Mia's fortune yesterday morning. Marcus is clearly leading to danger. Admittedly, Sally led us to danger, but that was due to our own stupidity. Marcus is clearly our dangerous contact this weekend. And not for nothing, but if he interrogates everyone the way he did me today, that would reinforce my bet that he's trying to supply names to the government. People's names, and entire resistance cells too."
Avatar Courtesy of The Image Bank

Dray

"How do you propose we get Marcus into a situation where he would agree to take said potions?" Renee asked, her muffin forgotten by her pillow.

Johan

"To be honest, Renee, I'm thinking that's the least of our problems. I think that if I can "happen" to run into him I can arrange for him to want the drink. Can you get them for me?"
Avatar Courtesy of The Image Bank

Dray

"I can most certainly, might take a week though, as the lab is at my parents Homestead," Renee said simply. She, like Temmit, was talking to the ceiling as she lay on her back.

She paused and thought for a few moments.

"What do you think is the connection between him and Fresenius if they have never met?" she asked.

Johan

"My first thought," he answered, "is that Marcus's mother is probably broaching the relationship. It's probably a bid for her to get higher in the government."

"You know, he had all the right anti-government words, but none of the conviction. He wanted me to believe that he was anti-government. He even spoke badly about his affluent mother in the beginning, but then during the conspiratory portion, it was 'my mother says'. Damn, I wish I could have had another three minutes."
Avatar Courtesy of The Image Bank

Dray

"Faithborn," Renee recounted from Temmit's detailed report, "do you think that is her maiden name or his father's? They do live in separate locations, I wonder if they are divorced."

Johan

"Well, as I spoke with him, it did occur to me that he's from Southaven. Don't we have more than one in Whisper from there? I think that Jared is from there, no? We should probably ask some folks if they know the family. Or the actual kid, from childhood."
Avatar Courtesy of The Image Bank

Dray

"Jared and River are both from there," she said then paused. "But didn't Emma say that Marcus went home to his Dad's[/i] on the FallEnd break and then return to the city after the altercation? And then his mother, in the city, made the appointment with the medical clerics?"

"For some reason I took that as separate living arrangements, and if we can track down the mother in the city, we could question her," she said.

Johan

"To be honest, I had taken that as a given - that they were separated. At the outset of the interview, he said that his dad was a far better person, more down to earth, and less holier-than-thou. He also said that his mother was very affluent. So, yes. I'd say that they're at least separated."

"I'd be real hesitant to try to question her though. For one thing, my working theory is that she's probably one of our greatest threats. Marcus would have to have learned his demeanor somewhere, and if he's any indication of her formidability, we would have to treat her with the utmost of care. PLUS, if she taught him, then she's probably more of a predator than he is."

"I'd rather question him with the potion first. He's already off-guard with me, and he'll not remember a thing about the questioning. We can outright ask him those questions, where we would have to introduce ourselves to his mother."

"Also, this might be one of those instances where the pupil has surpassed the teacher."

"Now, wait. He's 13 or so, and he said that he'd been growing apple trees in Shouthaven for ten years. That means that he would have grown up there. And as that goes, that means that he would have spent no more than a few years under his mother's presumed influence here in the city."

Temmit was running the interview over in his mind again. "We also have to be on the look-out for someone named Sarah, if she exists."
Avatar Courtesy of The Image Bank