Chapter 12: Warehouse Interrogation

Nessa and Vertigo are interrogated by the people who caught them trespassing. Remember? Way back in chapter ten? When they got caught trying to steal the bacteria? Remember that?

Contagioness

            We were tied to chairs in a large warehouse full of boxes, being interrogated by the smiling lady who had caught us.  Surrounding us were about twenty people wearing black masks and pointing guns at us.  I wished I could just give them all the plague, but I knew they would kill Vertigo and me before I could kill them all.

            “My name’s Natalia,” the lady said brightly.  “What are yours?”  I glanced at Vertigo, wondering what to say.  “Tell us or we’ll kill you,” Natalia reminded us in a singsong voice.

            I sighed.  “I’m Contagioness and she’s Vertigo.”

            “Oh, beautiful names!” Natalia said.  “And what are you girls doing in a place like this?”

            To lie or not to lie?  That was the question.  I looked at Vertigo, hoping she would speak so I wouldn’t have to.  She was looking back at me with her eyes wide.  Of course she would choose this as the one time she could keep her mouth shut. 

            “We’re from an organization called S.H.O.V.E.L.”  I’d decided to go with the truth.  I’d never really been good at lying.  “And this…guy took over, and he killed my sister, and he tried to kill Vertigo, and he made us come here to steal some bacteria.  We didn’t want to, we really didn’t, but he’ll kill us if we don’t do what he says.”  As I spoke, I was surprised to find myself getting choked up, but I didn’t fight the tears, hoping they would earn me some pity.  Natalia’s smile faded for just a moment.

 “Tell me about this ‘guy,’” she said to Vertigo.

Vertigo hesitated before speaking, probably thinking Natalia wouldn’t believe the truth.  “His name is Super Demon Baby.  He crawls on walls, has bugs all over, and speaks in a creepy, deep voice.”

            Natalia put her face close to Vertigo’s.  “Tell me, what does Super Demon Baby look like?”

            “He… has blond hair, wears a black cape, and… he’s a baby.”

            “Oh,” said Natalia, her grin beginning to look more a grimace.  She backed away and took several deep breaths, like she was struggling with something.

            “Do you know him?” Vertigo asked.  I glared at her.  Why would she be asking our captor about something that was obviously a sore subject? 

            Natalia let out a strange, high-pitched laugh that sent a chill down my spine.

            “Natalia,” said a woman’s voice, one of the masked people with the guns, “Are you okay?  I can take over for you if you want.  I’ll get information out of them.”

            “NO!”  Natalia yelled, now completely dropping the false happiness.  “I am quite capable of doing this!”  She turned back to me.  “I need the address of this place!”

            Still sniffling, I told her the address and added, “You won’t be able to get in, though.  The place has really high security.”

            “What time do you have to get back before he kills you?” she asked.

            “Umm… before dawn.  Why?” 

            “Natalia, we need to talk,” interrupted a man’s voice this time.

            “Stay out of this!” she told him, then continued speaking to Vertigo and me.  “Tell me girls, do you want to take this villain down?”  We both nodded.

            “Natalia, you know we all respect your leadership, but this issue is too close to you!  You’re just not thinking!  We need to go to the back room and discuss this,” pleaded the woman who had spoken the first time.

            “Fine!” Natalia exclaimed, walking away from us.  The masked woman gestured to a few others to follow her and Natalia, leaving the rest of the gunmen with us.

            We waited nervously for several minutes.  I expected them to come back any moment, announcing they’d decided to kill us.  Or call the cops, in which case Super Demon Baby would probably kill us.  But then I thought of Natalia’s question about taking SDB down.  Maybe there was hope after all.

            The masked people returned without Natalia.  The woman stood before us with her arms crossed.

            “Tell us the whole story,” she demanded.  “From the very first time you met the baby, all the way until now.”

            So we did.  We explained everything in painstaking detail:  the takeover, the lasagna, the death of my sister, the orphanage heist, our current mission, and everything else.  I started getting choked up now and then, but every time that happened Vertigo took over for me.  The woman asked a few questions about some things, but mostly she just listened.

            “Alright,” she declared when she’d heard enough.  “We need to have another meeting.” 

Then she and the others who had left before walked away again.  We waited tensely for at least twice as long as last time.

After what seemed like forever, the group came back. The woman paced back and forth in front of us.

“After some deliberation, we have come to a decision,” she told us.  She didn’t sound happy.  “It was definitely not unanimous, but there’s not much I can do about that.  All I had to argue with was common sense.  I mean, the others had feelings, and intuition and desperation and-“

“Tiffany!  Get to the point!” someone exclaimed.

“Okay, okay!  We’re giving you the bacteria,” Tiffany told us.  “But it’s a kind that will die in two days.  You can’t tell anyone that, though.  And we’re only giving it to you so you can live long enough to help us take down Stupid Devil Baby.  We’re also giving you a cell phone.  There are thirty fake numbers saved into it as decoys, but you’ll want the one named Larry.  You will call it if anything of interest happens.  We will call or text you if we have further instructions.  No one must know about this phone or that we even met today.  If anyone asks, your mission went smoothly.  And I swear, if you double cross us, I will find you.  And I will make you regret it. Got it?”

Vertigo and I both nodded quickly.  They untied us, handed us a cell phone and a box full of bacteria.  We walked out the door, not completely sure what had just happened.

Author's Note

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