X-Men Mission: Amid These Storms: Stony Silence

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Early in the morning, they start to interrogate their prisoners, when things go wrong.



The room was white and bright; about as comforting as a hospital operating theatre, which was the point. The blankness of it was designed to strip away visual and sensory points that a subject could focus on, leaving them with just their own thoughts and the interrogating officers. It was amazing just how quick someone could make a mistake without anything to distract them. Brand had taken over the room at a local station, while her people arranged for a suppression team from Triskalion to transport them safely to their holding area. The mercenaries had been taken away by regular police. It was clear that they had been duped, and while they'd face charges for their actions, there was no point implicating them as part of a wider network that they obviously had no knowledge of.

Which left their prize captives. Brand had slapped a couple of SHIELD issue inhibitors on them - they only lasted a few hours, but that was all they needed. Both sat, stony faced across the table from the three law enforcement officers.

"So, who wants to go first? Start with a name?" Kane set down the only identifying item on either of them; dogtag style pendants that had HAWKSHAW and PUNCHOUT etched on them respectively.

Brand was leaning against the back wall behind the other two, arms folded over her chest, green eyes fixed on the suspects. "You'd be better to talk to Agent Kane here," she advised, smile turning predatory. "He's much more polite than I am."

There was not even a flicker from either prisoner to show they'd heard her.

"He really is," Terry said, pushing a pencil through her fingertips, then flipping it to repeat the motion. She was the only one not looking at them, attention apparently focused on the repetitive up and down slide of her fingers while she sat tilted askew in the chair, her shoulder tipped in as a barrier to Kane. "I mean, not that he is all tea and biscuits either, but at least he gives you a chance first." A pause and she added, "Usually."

Kane's eyes flickered momentarily towards Terry, wondering just what that was all about. However, it wasn't something he had time to worry about now. "Look, it's very simple. We caught you in as part of a sting operation on mutant trafficking. You've both been identified positively as the contacts with the mercenary team. And you've already had your phone call. So, if you continue to just stonewall us, you go into a federal detention facility indefinitely until you can be positively identified. Do you really want to lose months, maybe years, without any hope of release?"

The man looked at the woman beside him and smirked, although it failed to draw a reaction.

Brand pushed her self off the wall and came to side of the table, slamming her hands down in the space between the two groups. "Enough!" she snarled, glaring at the pair. "You were caught in the act of attempting to abduct several US citizens. No matter what kind of hot shot lawyer you get, you'll be going down for this, for a very long time. You've lost. So give us your damn names and you'll at least see a bed and a meal tonight."

Brand was going with Good Cop/Psychotic Cop today. Kane let them match glares with her, eyes going back to the paperwork. He gave them just enough time to stew before looking at Brand. "I guess we do it your way, Agent Brand. For the record, I disagree with this method." That woke something up in their eyes, and he leaned back, opening the door for Terry to play 'hero' and offer a reasonable step forward.

Terry had flinched when Brand slammed the table, making it jump. So her front of unease was the more convincing when she glanced at Kane and Brand, then to the pair across the table. "Why not tell us your names? We cannot offer you anything without them, and it's not as if we are asking for your employers or procedures here. Tis something we will find out eventually, and frankly you do not want to be irritating--" She jerked her head in Brand's direction.

"Oh, go ahead, 'irritate' me. Please." Green energy played over Brand's knuckles, casting sickly-coloured shadows over her face. "You think you're so tough kidnapping little girls, but the first sign of any real opposition and you fold like a card table."

There was a knock at the door, and Kane motioned them all out. They weren’t budging yet. Perhaps a little time to stew would help. In the hall, a uniformed stood with a young blonde man in the suit behind him.

“Agent Kane? This is Kurt Wald. Our suspects lawyer.”

“Are you? Who are they, then?” Kane said, and the man simply handed over a sheet of paper that identified them as ‘Mark Grange’ and ‘Marcella Jean’.

“My clients are venture capitalists, Agent Kane.” Wald’s accent was very English, almost just off the boat.

“And that’s why they were involved in mutant trafficking.”

“Allegedly involved. I’d like to confer with them before they are asked any further questions.”

Kane nodded. It wasn’t like they had a choice. Still, at least they had names to go with the faces. The lawyer was escourted into the room and the door shut behind him as Kane flipped through the documents. Maybe they could track the chain back up to their contacts. If he hadn’t been staring at the pages in his hands, he would have missed the slight flicker of light through the bottom of the door. He stopped, and dashed for the room, wrenching open the door.

“Fuck!” The room was empty save for a cellphone laying discarded on the table. Kane picked it up, and knew even before he thumbed the button that the last call would be the international exchange that they had found on the other kidnappings.

They had escaped, and now his last lead disappeared with them.