The chamber lights were softer than the bright halls outside.
The walls were strong and uilt to contain problems rather than comfort people.
Somewhere beyond the sealed door, machines hummed processing scans, toxins, wounds. Other things agents preferred not to think about.
Roland sat on the narrow bench outside the inner chamber. He rested his elbow on knee.
He had not moved much since HE brought Henry inside.
The door slid open with a mechanical hiss after a while.
A middle-aged man stepped out.
Thin frame glasses rested low on his nose. His yellow hair was combed straight back, not a strand out of place.
He wore simple office clothes. Just a neatly pressed shirt and trousers that made him look more like an accountant than someone trusted with dangerous lives.
Roland stood immediately.
"What happened?" Roland asked, "Is Henry okay, Mister Allen Iverson?"
Allen Iverson adjusted his glasses slightly, expression calm but unreadable.
"I administered an Anti-Sensation compound. It dulls the neural response to invasive curses and prevents the rusting sensation from spreading further. He will be fine."
Roland released a breath he did not realize he was holding.
"He just needs rest." Allen continued. "Frankly, Henry probably was not prepared for the type of opponent he encountered tonight."
Roland nodded slowly, though his jaw tightened at the implication.
"Thank you, sir. I haven't reported the intruders yet. Everyone upstairs is still enjoying themselves. So..."
He hesitated briefly. "You were the only one I trusted enough to bring him to first."
Allen studied him for a moment. Longer than comfortable. That pause created tension in Roland.
"You made the correct decision. Unverified reports spread fear faster than threats themselves."
Roland glanced toward the sealed chamber door where Henry lay beyond.
"The intruders… they were not random. Their coordination… their spells… it is of course sent by some other organisation."
Allen's expression remained neutral but something flickered briefly behind his lenses.
"I will take care of the folks." Allen said grinning.
Roland frowned slightly. There was nothing openly wrong with Allen's tone.
For a brief second, Roland felt an unease he could not logically explain. He leaves the chamber for now.
The sealed chamber door shut behind Allen Iverson with a soft mechanical lock.
Inside, the air felt colder than outside.
Two steel poles were fixed into the reinforced floor. Thick chains wrapped tightly around the intruders, binding their arms behind them and locking their torsos upright.
Their skull masks were still on, cloth wrappings darkened by soot and dust from the earlier blast. Even restrained, their posture carried stubborn defiance.
One of them lifted his head as Allen stepped forward.
"Well, so you are the one they sent."
Allen said nothing at first. He walked slowly, measured steps, hands relaxed at his sides.
His thin-frame glasses reflected the overhead lights. Hiding his eyes for a moment.
"Save your effort. We won't open our mouths."
The second intruder leaned forward against the chain,
"You could throw us into acid. Peel skin from bone. It won't matter."
The first one added coldly, "And don't think blackmail works either. 'Speak or your partner dies'. We have heard that before. We were trained to watch each other burn without blinking."
Allen stopped a few steps away from them, calm as ever.
"You misunderstand, I don't need threats and I don't need you to speak willingly."
Allen let the silence settle properly before speaking again.
"You said you won't speak. That's fine."
One of the masked intruders scoffed lightly. "You talk like you are above interrogation."
"No. I'm below it."
Then he took one slow step forward, stopping just outside the reach of their chains.
His expression didn't change but the atmosphere around him felt subtly… tense.
"I don't ask questions expecting answers, I ask them to see where the answers try to hide."
The second intruder narrowed his eyes. "Meaningless deceiving will not—"
Allen raised one hand slightly.
"Tell me, when you were trained to resist interrogation, did they teach you what to do when the questions are already inside your thoughts before they are spoken?"
The first intruder went silent for a fraction of a second too long than usual. Allen noticed. He always noticed.
"You are thinking about your dealer right now." Allen said gently. "You are adjusting the thought to not speak it up. That is normal. Humans stabilize themselves under perceived pressure."
Allen smiled with a mischievousness making up around him.
"But you made one mistake, you assumed I am trying to break your will."
He leaned closer, just enough for the light above to catch his glasses, obscuring his eyes completely.
"I am not interested in your will. I am interested in your consistency."
The second intruder frowned. "What the hell does that mean?"
Allen stepped back again, voice lowering.
"It means I don't need you to speak. I only need you to remain logically stable while I talk."
Then Allen began speaking slowly.
"When two operatives enter a secured zone without standard clearance markings… they either belong to an internal black unit… or they are expendable."
The first intruder's fingers twitched slightly inside the chains.
"When expendable units are deployed, they are rarely given contradictory objectives. Do you know why?"
Nobe of them answered. Allen answered himself.
"Because contradiction creates hesitation."
He took a step to the side, pacing slowly around them like a tough inspector.
"And hesitation creates observable deviation."
The second intruder spoke carefully,
"We don't have deviations."
Allen nodded lightly.
"That is good. Then you won't mind confirming something simple. Who authorized your entry sequence into this facility?"
Allen didn't react immediately. Instead, he turned tone softer.
"Interesting, your processing of thoughts just increased by 0.3 seconds compared to your previous responses."
The first intruder stiffened slightly. Allen's voice remained calm as ever.
"You are trying to maintain consistency now. Because you believe consistency equals control. How unfortunate, control is not required for truth to surface."
He tilted his head slightly. "Only repetition."
The second intruder finally spoke, sharper this time. "You are wasting time."
"Am I?"
Allen stepped forward once more.
"You entered through a side maintenance path. You avoided surveillance nodes at intervals of seven seconds, not six. That suggests prior mapping. But your sequence is not complete. There is a missing coordination point."
He spoke, "You didn't enter alone."
Neither intruder spoke for a moment longer than necessary.
Allen rested his hands loosely behind his back.
"You know," he said calmly, "civil wars are fascinating things. Not because of the battles… but because of loyalty exists. Don't you think, how hard could it be to betray your own mates, brothers? Or do you think they don't matter? That is the place why hatred and contradiction engulfs a person. When soldiers begin wondering whether the hand guiding them is still worthy."
One intruder scoffed. "What nonsense are you rambling about?"
Allen didn't react to the insult. He kept talking as if uninterrupted.
"In one particular conflict, there was a faction known for sending pairs into enemy territory. They believed dying without speaking was a form of victory."
Allen tilted his head slightly, watching their posture instead of their words. The way one of them stiffened at the word pairs was subtle.
"Curious doctrine, loyalty to… something greater than identity itself."
The second intruder muttered under his nose.
"Yes. That kind of discipline usually comes from very specific traditions. Hahaha. "
Said Allen.