2175 C.E.

XI: The Interrogation Room

Official Transcript: Security Camera Footage: EPD Interrogation Room 3: 07/24/2175

[Begin Playback at 1130 Local Time]

[Aucaman and Mattingly sit at a table in an empty interrogation room. They face a mirror on one side of the room. They are handcuffed to the table. A door behind them opens and a man steps in]

CALVIN: Good morning you two. I'm Alistair Calvin, I think we've met before. I'm sorry...I'd shake your hands, but, well, I think we both know that won't work in this case.

[Neither answer him. Calvin sits opposite them. He taps icons on the table and brings up images on its screen]

CALVIN: You two put up quite a fight out there. You see that? That's all the damage you did to our only remote SWAT force. It's going to cost a lot of money to buy new ones, and all of that's taxpayer dollars. That should mean something to you at least Mr. Aucaman. How many petitions have your parents signed asking to defund Interlink subsidies?

AUCAMAN: The problem's not the money, it's the Interlinks.

CALVIN: Is that so? A bit of pro-Novan sentiment then? And what will we find in your internet records? More of the same, I suppose? And what about Gennady Semyonov? Plenty of his broadcasts, I'll bet?

AUCAMAN: Maybe. Maybe not. If you don't know, I don't have any reason to tell you yet.

CALVIN: Mr. Aucaman, just listening to you talk is enough to indicate an association with a dissident and a self-proclaimed revolutionary. And who else fits that description?

AUCAMAN: There are lots of dissidents who aren't revolutionary. Semyonov just happens to be the one doing something about the Hegemony's dishonesty.

CALVIN: By causing riots and public disturbances?

AUCAMAN: I suppose if that's what's necessary.

CALVIN: And what about terrorism?

[Slight pause]

AUCAMAN: Oh. That's where you're going with this.

CALVIN: A known dissident with sympathy to Semyonov-ist extremism in possession of advanced weapons technology. You yourself threatened to detonate it and take yourself with it. That's on record, video record, from police drones on the scene, so you can't deny it, especially without an Interlink to provide a possible counter story. You were intending to use the weapon to destroy something. What was it? The high school class that you could have joined and enjoyed by installing an Interlink of your own? The Ambience facility in Helena? Your own family who refused to let you join the human race by installing an Interlink? Or something bigger?

AUCAMAN: I suppose it'll be whatever is most useful to your boss, won't it?

CALVIN: Oh, it'll be the true story. That's why I'm asking. Which one is it?

AUCAMAN: (sighs) Everything you want to know is in my journal. I kept a careful record all night. It should answer your questions.

CALVIN: Yes, the one about a giant monster chasing you through the woods and hunting Ms. Mattingly here. I don't think you could have come up with a more obviously fabricated account.

MATTINGLY: But it's true! Pull my Interlink data, you'll see that all of it's true! I saw it all! It'll be recorded!

CALVIN: According to the Human Privacy Act of 2083, personal Interlink records aren't recorded by Ambience Corp. The Hegemony and Ambience Corp. issued a promise not to spy on you and your thoughts. Remember?