The law enforcement person with a datapad approached one of the bystanders on the sidewalk near a store, showing his datapad to a few of them as he did so. When the officer moved the datapad down to his side Konpeki caught a glance of what was on it. Though it was unclear what the text was, the image was unmistakeably that of Aeto. As she listened Konpeki heard the officer ask them if they had seen this man, either driving around or on foot.
Konpeki redoubled her efforts to open the shelter door, having spliced the communications line that would give away her efforts to the control center. As she did so she sent to Nobutora telepahtically Yamamoto-San, it would appear that the local law enforcement is looking for Aeto, might be best if you move to operate the vehicle when the door is open and have Aeto lie down out of sight.
Nobutora nodded to himself, thinking. ”Yes, that might be prudent. On the other hand, should Rokunohe-hei have been spotted in the area, perhaps it might be best for him to flee.” He paused glancing back at the officer. ”If you can get the hatch open, I will take the traitor in and allow Rokunohe-hei to egress in the vehicle. Otherwise, yes it would be best for him to not be visible if we continue driving.”
After having spliced into the communications line Konpeki managed to navigate into the maintenance login screen. It was a traditional keypad login, though every time a key was pressed there was no outbound data.
Konpeki swore silently at the stubborn panel. Obviously the aperture she saw were for some sort of key to complete the circuit. Looking at the interior of the panel, she located the mechanism and quickly jumpered the connection to complete the circuit. Now I just need to figure out the login. she thought. As she started entering a series of test sequences to help her figure out the login.
In spite of the completed circut, other than the standard operating signal there was no additional data leaving the device. Several attempts later Konpeki was still having no luck with random password guesses. After about 20 seconds of attempting to guess Konpeki finally got lucky. Once the correct keycode was entered Konpeki's spliced communicator intercepted an outbound transmission indicating that the bunker was going into maintenance mode. Simultaneously the bunker doors unlocked and the red lighting around the seal turned an orange color indicating maintenance mode had been engaged.
Konpeki activated the door mechanism to open the doorway. "We're in." she said to Nobutora. She then started figuring out the quickest way to put the cover back on the panel.
Replacing the cover on the panel was probably the easiest part, it simply snapped back into place as was necessary. There was even enough space for Konpeki to leave her communicator in the alcove behind the panel so that it would continue to broadcast the normal operation mode to the home base.
Nodding to Rokunohe, Nobutora slipped the NSP in his bag and, sliding Sukimade’s arm around his neck, opened the car door. He moved quickly, half dragging the unconscious man with him, to try to avoid detection. Pausing briefly to inspect what he could see of the interior of the bunker, he stepped inside, pulling the traitor after him.
Konpeki placed her communicator in the panel after ensuring it would not short anything inside, and then put the cover on the panel. Taking a last look around she stepped into the bunker, and hit the light switches as she closed the door. "As the senior person, I will defer to you as to where you want to set up to interrogate the prisoner."
The inside of the bunker was as would be expected of an emergency survival shelter. There were 10 beds lined up against each side wall with several spaced out in the center. The were of course all on wheels and had bedsheets on them with rough medical pillows and thin blankets. In the back corner there appeared to be dispensers for food and water, though it was likely that the food was standard hemosynth flesh. Beside the boxes containing Star Army survival rations could be seen, obviously purchased from the military. In the two back corners there were card-tables with fold-up chairs set up as well.
As the group entered Aeto pulled out slowly of the area so as to not attract any undue attention to the operatives entering the bunker. Once the operatives were in the bunker another identical panel could be seen directly opposite of where the first was located. Like the outer panel this one also flashed a "maintenance mode" message, it's control screen an orange color matching that of the dim interior lighting of the room as well as the exterior lighting that surrounded the hatches.
“Very well,” replied Nobutora as he dumped the man onto one of the beds. He strode into the middle of the room and examined his surrounding briefly. Looking back at Eika, he gestured towards the table. “Help me move all but one of these away. We’ll have him sitting down on one side. Also, we need restraints to keep him immobile."
Konpeki made a quick check of the medical equipment gathering bandages and tape, but was not really sure how effective they would be. So she placed them on a table and started searching for some zip strips. After searching several of the lockers she found a bundle of the nylon straps. She took them back and placed them on the table with the other items. "Yamamoto-Hei, these should be sufficient to restrain him." she said as she moved some of other items Nobutora indicated needed to be moved.
In the meantime, Nobutora was examining one of the chairs. After a few testing attempts at bending the legs, he grabbed up an emergency repair kit and rooted around in it for a moment before withdrawing, a cutting torch in hand. A quick sparking up of the torch and four deft movements later, the legs of the chair were noticeably shorter.
He set the chair back down and secured each of the legs with Molecure tape to the floor of the bunker. Nodding with satisfaction at his handiwork, he looked over at Eika, glancing at the straps. “Those will work suitably enough. Let us get the traitor in position before attempting to revive him.”
Konpeki got on one side of the prisoner and got a good grip on him. She hefted him up when Nobutora was ready and together they carried him to the chair. "You know even if he does try to send a message telepathically and the bunker does not offer enough shielding, he can't give any reference for them to find him." she said.
“Indeed,” replied Nobutora. “It is important to keep him off balance and unsure of his position. My inclination is to conduct this as a joint questioning; I will play the, if you will, ‘bad cop,’ if you will play the ‘good cop.’ He may be familiar with the technique but time is of the essence.” He paused as they harnessed the man to the chair.
“I will take the lead aggressively in the beginning and then you can take more of the lead as we wear him down. Agreed?” he asked as he stepped over to fill a container with water. Some splashed over the brim as he set it down on the table before looking back up at Eika.
"As you wish I will play the good cop, if it seems expedient. I presume since you have the water you are planning on using electricty as an enticement to loosen his tongue?" Konpeki inquire.
Nobutora frowned slightly. “I believe the Shosa might disapprove of such techniques. Of course, if the interrogation proceeds with no progress we may have to resort to such things. At the moment though, my main concern is returning him to consciousness. We lack the equipment at present to interrogate him any way but verbally.”
"Actual application yes, but sometimes just the presence of the threat could be enough. It probably wouldn't hurt to have some of the more intimidating medical tools on display as well." Konpeki offered
“Indeed,” replied Nobutora, scowling pensively about the room. “Though we may wish to reserve such intimidation tactics for use if he is not cooperative after the initial stages. Otherwise, I am prepared; we may begin whenever you are ready.”
Konpeki went over to the medical supplies and put several of the larger surgical tools on a tray. She had no idea what purpose they served, but if necessary she felt they would offer an intimidation affect. She placed the prepared tray on a table behind the prisoner. Then she walked up to the prisoner, and took the basin of water and splashed it at him. "Ready."
If Iro had been able to jump he would have, instead he merely scooted in his attached makeshift throne. His face showed a combination of rage, surprise, and confusion all at the same time. It didn't take long for the suddenly awakened Yamataian to figure out that he was bound to the chair. "I'm guessing you guys aren't from NovaCorp." the Yamataian said sullenly, obviously still recovering from the NSP blast. Though he tried to disguise it the Yamataian's eyes slowly moved around the room in an effort to determine his location, multiple telepathic pings were easily detected going out, but they would only bounce back as they hit some kind of invisible barrier.
“SHUT UP!” screamed Nobutora, spittle flying into the man’s face as he leaned over the table and violently knocked the water container away. Then, he stepped back and regarded the man with rage in his eyes as he paced back and forth silently. Finally he stopped and leaned in close to the man again, this time speaking in a whisper.
“Your cell is shut down, sold out, compromised. The only reason you’re still alive is because we want the codes to deactivate your information security. If you don’t give them to us that’s fine; it just means we’ll have to wait for our techs to brute force it.” Pushing back from the table, he fell silent again, still staring at the man.
"I-I-don't know what you're talking about. C-cell?" Iro's stammering was quite obviously forced and faked, it might have looked real to most people but it was easily identifiable for what it was to SAINT operatives, even more so to Nobutora. As the man spoke his eyes shifted down, his head following suit shortly thereafter. "I'm not part of any kind of cell, w-who are you people?"
Nobutora paused for a beat, still staring, and then flipped the table over and strode forward to slam his face into the traitor’s. “DO YOU THINK I’M STUPID?” he screamed. “DO YOU THINK PLAYING DUMB WILL WORK? WE ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING!” He backed off slightly and circled around the chair.
“You have one chance to cooperate. If I had my way, we’d just let the techs do it, but someone has decided that it’s worth it to see if you will help. So this is it, your big chance to help yourself. Please,” his voice dropped to a whisper now. “Please don’t. I dearly want to deal with you my way.”
"There isn't a password." the man said, the tactic clearly having some effect. "There doesn't need to be one, he can handle it all himsel-" Iro paused mid-sentence, when he spoke again his tune had changed. "Hahaha, you're good. You almost had me. You don't know anything, and you're not going to get anything out of me." With every word the Yamataian spoke his resolve increased.
“You’re awfully confident for having such terrible operational security,” replied Nobutora with a smirk. He strode back around to the front, the smirk still writ large across his face. “Seriously, why do you think they only sent two of us to snatch you and break you? You’re small fry my friend. You don’t matter.” He leaned in closer again, smirk stretching to a mocking grin.
“Think about it; the two of us walked into your place of work, where you operate from, and snatched you. We just walked out the door. And now some brass looking for a gold star from his superiors wants us to interrogate you.” He seemed to step away, shaking his head as if in resignation.
Suddenly, he spun back around and punched Sukimade in the face. “DO NOT FUCK WITH ME YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT!” He whipped the traitors face back around, grabbing his chin and forcing it up. “TELL ME HOW TO ACCESS THE INFORMATION!”
