"Ah, Mr. Acliate, how very splendid to see you again!" exclaimed Avian Venmonik excitedly as he got up from behind his desk with his hands up. He walked around the desk and clapped his hands around Melbourne's shoulders. "How is our young prodigy? Are you adjusting back to Martian gravity well?"
"Yes." said Melbourne.
"Excellent! Excellent!" said Avian. "Now, before I forget, here is your payment for the assignment. We did agree to 10,000 crypts back in Lambdanville. However, Arian Horizons has decided to throw in a little extra to each crew member's payment because of the unexpected problems you ran into."
Avian touched his smartwatch to Melbourne's.
[+15,000 crypts
Current Balance: 17,820 crypts]
Melbourne smiled. This was enough money to buy his own aircar if he wanted. Double this amount would let him purchase his own cheap small cargo ship if he ever wanted to be a space privateer.
"Thank you." said Melbourne sincerely. "I really appreciate the opportunity despite how 'exciting' that job became.
"Your drones performed fantastically, and I do mean fantastically! I knew you would be nothing but an asset to Arian Horizons! What's more? I hear you are quite the hero as well! We have much to talk about! Many, many opportunities await you if you want a future with our company, but first, please take a seat and grab some licorice! This one seems to be a great one, such perfect geometry."
Melbourne took the licorice straight from Avian's hand and consumed it politely before he recognized that something fishy was going on.
[*Hallucinogenic substance detected.
*Identification: Scopolamine
*Effects: Extreme confusion, malleability, inability to deceive and short term amnesia.
*Neutralizing substance.]
"A truth serum?" thought Melbourne, understanding well that this was a popular substance used in interrogation procedures. "Thank God my System nullifies it. I think I'd better pretend to be delirious, however."
Melbourne thought about documentaries he had seen about how convicts were interrogated with this substance before and tried to perform his best impression. He glazed his eyes and made himself look like a mindless, malleable zombie.
"Good, good." said Avian, his face hardening immediately. "Now, I'm going to need to ask you to sit down here. We have a few questions to ask you about the death of the late Captain Sterano."
A man in a black trench coat walked in with a hat and a badge. It was the typical attire of a police detective, and sure enough, the police badge was marked with the telltale "D" inscribed within the standard officer star.
"Good day, Mr. Melbourne Acliate." said the detective in a soothing, trance like voice. "My name is Detective Bryan. How are you doing today?"
"Feeling a bit woozy, actually." mumbled Melbourne, feigning the speech of a drugged person.
"Good, good." said the detective, smiling coldly down at Melbourne. "This is exactly what we needed. You probably won't remember anything about this meeting when you sober up back in your hotel room if you don't wake up in a prison cell. Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions and you are going to answer them with the sincerest of honesty. I trust you to tell me the truth of the matter, Melbourne. You can't refuse to. Did you kill Captain Bryce Sterano?"
"No." answered Melbourne in complete honesty.
Detective Bryan looked at Avian. "I didn't think this one would be guilty." He looked back to Melbourne. "Now, witnesses tell me you were in the bridge fighting those space pirates at the time of the captain's death. Is this true? Did you witness the murder of Captain Bryce Sterano?"
"Yes." continued Melbourne again, not yet speaking a single lie.
Bryan smiled.
"Were you blackmailed in any way by Ms. Kaitlyn Genee to keep the murder of Captain Sterano a secret?"
"No." said Melbourne.
"Had you come clean, we would be able to defend you in the court of law as a victim needing witness protection, Mr. Acliate." said Avian.
"Why do I feel so funny?" asked Melbourne, feigning sudden panic in order to remind the corporate recruiter that he was drugged, according to their belief.
"Ah, coming clean is absolutely impossible not to do, Mr. Venmonik." explained Detective Bryan calmly. "More primitive, natural scopolamine was very useful as a truth serum, but its influence could be broken by particularly strong minds such as professional liars. Our modern versions include chemical enhancements that make it completely useful on all human subjects. I promise you that this boy is incapable of lying at this time."
Melbourne had to struggle to stop himself from laughing aloud at their ignorance of how non-foolproof their trick really was. The arrogance of professionals in their methods could be astounding at times. There was a time when he had considered turning Victoria in as soon as he got back to Mars, but he had over a month after the incident to realize that she was his only contact with the Red Cyber Rebellion. If he wanted to work with them in the future, he would have to avoid making them an enemy by getting their asset in trouble with the government. That would surely sour relations and likely land him in an assassin's cross hairs in the future as well. On top of that, he had actually grown surprisingly fond of Victoria during their month working together in the bridge of the Seeker. It was now a personal matter for him. He didn't want to see anything bad happen to Victoria. The woman was a great talker, quite charming to be around and rather cu-
"Wait, what am I thinking?" thought Melbourne suddenly, putting that last thought out of his head before he could complete it. "Don't go falling for femme fatales now, Melbourne. That woman may not be your enemy, but she is definitely dangerous."
"Now, Mr. Acliate, tell me, who killed Captain Sterano?" asked Detective Bryan in a clear, firm, and demanding tone.
"I was surrounded by pirates at the time." said Melbourne. "One of them stabbed me in the leg and I had to go to the infirmary. Unfortunately, I didn't see exactly who killed Captain Sterano, but I can assure you it was one of the pirates. Captain Genee was fighting valiantly to save him, but alas, she could not in the end."
Melbourne bit his lips as his words drifted from the forced slur he had been using into more eloquent speech. He cursed himself, fearing they would realize he was in control of his mental faculties.
Detective Bryan began writing notes on his holo-tablet with a stylus, his face showing the trained skepticism of a professional interrogator. The man was, of course, trained to make those he interrogated feel like he was onto them even when he had concluded their innocence, so Melbourne couldn't draw any conclusions about the result of this interrogation.
"Alright, I think that concludes this particular episode of the investigation, Mr. Venmonik. You are free to release Mr. Acliate back to his hotel. I advise that you don't allow him into the general public until the effects of the serum have worn off. Inform me when you have drugged Ms. Genee as well, please. I still wish to interrogate her personally."
Melbourne bit his lip, worried that she would fail to resist the truth serum where he had succeeded. If this happened, not only would she go to prison and be discovered to be a cyborg, but Melbourne would likely be arrested and discovered as well. In that potential outcome, even Detective Bryan's arrogance would likely not stop him from putting together the pieces of the puzzle to the inevitable conclusion: If Melbourne was able to resist the truth serum, Melbourne was surely not human. As if being an accessory to murder was not a bad enough charge...