“So what do we have here?”

Studying with a curious eye and intrigue in her voice, a woman couldn’t hold her gaze too long as a fellow peer shuffled over to her shoulder.

“Here’s his file. Elias Rook. Male. 22 years old. A few handful accounts of street brawls before” responded a fellow Torch officer.

She perused the documents, noting key details, mostly surrounding this arrest and his past records and how they relate. “So, a ruffian? Did he lose any of these street fights?”

“Seemingly no, but obviously a troublemaker nonetheless.”

“Must have been holding back then. Gone and slipped up now.”

The young man in question, Elias, sat, staring blankly at his hands as they were cuffed to the table before him.

“Helloooo! Good morning. It looks like you slept well,” said a familiar yet sarcastic voice. The one arrested him, dawning a rather cheeky smile as she entered the white room. 

Among his sleeping arrangements, the cold steel of his cuffs had remained on his wrists for a few hours, and there had been continuous questioning since his detainment. There was no break in between, for the officers who came in to question him had rotated out as their shifts clocked, with another batch taking their place. The one constant was the woman with oval glasses and twin pigtails who had been observing the whole time. She finally stepped forward to see if she could get answers that the previous interrogators—officers could not.

“Elias…”

“Wonderful… it’s you,” he replied with a disheartened glare.

“Oh, so you do remember me? It seems your memory isn’t that bad, which makes this easier.”

The officer’s attitude was nothing short of condescending as she flashed another subtle smile. Should she get him to confess, this one would be marked down as yet another successful case. With another one under her record, the chief would no doubt most likely promote her. “Elias…is there anything I can do for you? I help you, you help me. That’s how these sorts of things work.”

 Elias scoffed as he tried his best to raise his hands upward. The cuffs rattling in clear view from discomfort. “Yeah…you see, I’m not really into this sort of play, so it would be greatly appreciated if you could.”

“Heh-hehe, you’re funny! I like that, but unfortunately, that is a no can do. We have to be wary of you. There were quite a few individuals hurt last night. Much less, I can’t have you trying to flee like you did at the scene…” 

“You’re kidding me right… I’m telling you, you’ve got the wrong guy. Let me go already.”

“Right, right, and I am Mary Poppins,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders.

She jostled a few files in front of him about his current arrest. The details mentioned in the report from last night, well, to be more accurate, are from this morning’s investigations. Over three dozen individuals were at the scene, all rendered unconscious. Some got away with injuries such as fractures, while others with dislocated ligaments. Still, the majority received damages to straight-up broken bones in several places. Nothing too extreme that was life-threatening, but all were heavily armed, equipped with state-of-the-art firearms and black operations gear.

“I gotta know. How did you do it? How did you take on specially trained covert goons and come out with not even a paper cut?”

“I-I…” Elias stuttered for a moment. He realized how damning the evidence looked.

Recalling that the job was his first and last with an unexpected surprise left him not sure what more he could say. 

“What to do, oh what to do?”

“The guy,” Elias uttered. “The name of the guy who paid me; what about him?”

The officer flipped the notes to see that Elias had mentioned such a “Guy,” an individual who, based on some research, did not exist. When they ran the note through their database, not a single piece of information came up.

“You’re looking to have some serious jail time here. Trespassing on private property, thousands of dollars in damages, and the mountain of paperwork for the medical bills to those poor people.”

“Poor people, my arse! They tried to kill me!”

The officer leaned forward, a glint in their glasses as Elias’s words seemed to intrigue her. “So you got back at them before they could get at you?”

“Th-that’s not what—are you listening? I didn’t do anything. I didn’t lay a finger on them.”

“Then what is it? How did you do it? What was the goal? Who do you work for?”

“…” Elias rolled his eyes for the hundredth time. He couldn’t believe that he would need to explain himself again. 

Meanwhile, a few individuals were seated in the room next door, watching the whole thing unfold behind a one-way mirror. They had made bets on who would get him to crack, and several had their money on the current interrogator. Rumors spread like wildfire as many firsthand had seen her crack all those who she interrogated. Her special kill, a knack for reading people like no other. Gauging whether they were telling the truth or not from a simple look.

Despite being occupied by their fellow staff members’ intriguing methods, one of them was welcomed despite not being an officer at all. In fact, they were not even part of the department.

“May I join in this?” They inquired with a calm, light tone, finding fun in their gamble about which method their fellow college would use to break the suspect.

Several gazes shot around the dimly lit room. If they weren’t uneasy by such an individual who was quickly waved through to listen in on such a highly confidential investigation by the chief himself, they were now. 

“Ughh, I don’t know,” replied one of the officers hesitantly.

“Come now, you all have so much faith in your fellow colleague. I merely wish to join in the fun. For I, on the other hand, am curious to make things interesting. A wager, if she can’t get him to crack in the next hour, then he must be released.”

“That’s definitely not allowed!”

“I don’t know…”

“BWA-HAHA, I’ll take you up on that.” The one to take the bet was none other than the chief himself. While he enjoyed a good gamble, his faith was well-placed. However, this was not a matter of leaving it up to fate, as the officer questioning was his best. She would get answers. There was no question about it. “Aye, I am truly fine with that. But if she gets him to confess, you owe me one.”

After several moments in silence to ponder the details, the stranger agreed. The two shook on it as they watched from beyond the glass. The officer asked Elias, “Shall we take it from the top then?” 

Despite his wrists starting to hurt, he couldn’t help but smile through the pain. To him, this was nothing more than a sick joke. He was amazed at how he had managed to survive a night where professional killers had set their aim on him.