Chapter 30: Interrogation

Mateo hissed out a sigh while following close by as she pushed on. "Have...you considered it wasn’t just your adventure into that other world but Scarlet that is causing this effect on you?"

Ears rising a bit, Rachel’s brow furrowed at the question. "I...haven’t," she admitted, fingers brushing against the wrap on her injured arm as chills ran through it. "I could be a little low on blood, which would explain my foggy mind, but..." she trailed off as he guessed what she was going to say.

"You’ve been operating in combat mode since this started, Rachel; whatever your body uses as adrenaline has been keeping you going and seems to be winding down. I’m just saying...take it easy, okay?"

"Heh. Thanks, Mateo; I just feel like if I stop, I might collapse again... Better than being poisoned and dying, huh?"

He laughed at her joke, and, thankfully, he dropped the subject, more than likely figuring it wouldn’t get them far after he’d offered his thoughts on the matter; plus, she was the only one who could explain all the questions the OIC of the area needed. She had to power through, and Rachel could see the army veteran growing to respect her, which was what she wanted.

Rachel paused when they made it to a brightly lit hallway and pulled them back the way they’d come to take another route; if she lost any more Lunar Energy, she really would be on the ground seeing stars.

Mateo said he knew she’d refuse out of pride—he’d do the same—but offered to get her a wheelchair nonetheless; naturally, she grinned and shook her head. She had to prove to herself she could stand on her own when all of this was done.

On the way to the office, Rachel’s slow brain fixated on what the military man had brought up; perhaps there was more to Scarlet’s bite than simply drawing blood like a vampire, and why Cerridwen intervened, snapping the terrified girl back to her senses. After all, her blood was apparently infectious with some kind of rose-like toxin or virus.

Mateo opened the door when they arrived, as a secretary outside motioned them to proceed. Lt. Thompson sat at a cleared desk, with four monitors and a laptop cramped on the wooden surface. They showed multiple feeds, order emails, and many other sectioned-off windows displaying wiki pages. One snatched her attention—the man had one open to ’moon rabbit,’ surprisingly.

"Take a seat, Rachel, Lieutenant," he said, sounding exhausted as he rubbed his eyes; they complied, sat next to each other, and Rachel sank into the cushions with a thankful sigh. "Give me a second to organize a new sheet; I’ll need to take notes while we chat to compile a report."

They waited patiently for him to get things ready as the officer’s hands skated across his laptop keyboard and moved things around on the screens behind the desk.

While Mateo and Thompson sounded like they were the same rank of Lieutenant, the Army and the Coast Guard had differences in their rankings; Mateo was an O-2 and Thompson an O-3. The Coast Guard had point right now since it had such a big presence in Florida and the US homeland’s shores, while the State National Guard worked in union with the federal military during martial law.

It took a full minute for him to get everything organized before he sat back to address them with a weary sigh. "Huu-haaa. Alright, let’s begin by confirming a few things, Rachel—I will be recording this for my superiors to review if needed—a simple yes or no will make this quick. Is that acceptable?" he asked, flipping on a recorder that had been set up beside the monitors before she responded; the question was more of a formality.

"Of course. Hehe. I might pass out halfway, though—just fair warning," she said, hoping to break the ice a bit; the officer was under a lot of stress, and a lot of influential government and military officials’ eyes were looking to him for answers. "I’m an open book."

He started with simple questions about her being a mythickin lunar hare and went through her government records, asking her to recount specific information only Rachel Park should know, such as her Social Security number, birth date, parents, schools she attended, age, and other details about her family.

It seemed tedious, but it confirmed to those watching that she was indeed the same girl from before The Oscillation, and there was a powerful minority questioning that fact.

Once that finished, he threw a curveball at her by asking her to go through an overview of her actions over the past month leading up to her change; she was a little uncomfortable admitting to her fights with her sister-in-law and general feelings toward Alexa.

Unfortunately, given everything she’d heard thus far from the military, Rachel knew many government agencies would be combing through her entire life history—it was only natural given what other mythickin were doing that put heat on them all—she couldn’t lie, and Rachel wasn’t dumb enough to think she could outsmart hundreds of specialists investigating her. A single slip could throw doubt on everything she said.

Compliance and being useful to those in power, along with looking for answers, would get her the ear of those who truly had influence; one issue she could see was if the Scarlet Hand had infiltrated high positions in government that could cause her problems, and it was a possibility she made clear to the two officers when they got to the topic.

Judging by Mateo and Lt. Thompson’s reaction to her speculation, it was a real concern; they had private information regarding Scarlet and what they’d found at her parents’ house, no doubt. An investigation was already underway into everything related to Scarlet and the associates close to their family, but everything was kept tight-lipped, so Rachel hadn’t discovered much beyond the surface level.

Sadly, Rachel’s mind decided it needed a break after forty-five minutes of being grilled. A reflexive, hard lump pushed down her throat as Rachel cracked open an eye with a groan, spotting the two military men eyeing her.

"How...long was I out?"

"About ten minutes," Mateo groaned, scratching his arm before pointing at a kitchen tray of fruit, vegetables, hamburgers, and other goods, including an assortment of drinks. "If you are low on blood, you should probably eat... Can you go forward? I wouldn’t be asking, but..."

Rachel cleared her throat with a laugh, trying to orient herself while blinking. "Shit’s hit the fan... No, I get it." Sitting back and rubbing her hot forehead, she refocused on them. "As for food, honestly, I get the feeling I get more nourishment from the moon than stuff like this now, but it can’t hurt, right?"

Lt. Thompson forced a smile. "We can only hope it doesn’t. You are a citizen, Rachel. Despite how hard Lt. Mateo and I seem to be pushing you, we recognize you have rights and don’t have to cooperate with us. So, I’ll ask again: do you want to continue?"

Her eyes settled, emphasizing her tone since this was everything she’d worked to achieve, and all of it could collapse if she bailed out due to something minor like exhaustion or pain. "Yes."

"Okay," he nodded, seeing Mateo do the same. "You’ve been very helpful thus far... More than I can express, and I’m sorry we’ve been so hard on you, but the information you’re providing could literally save millions of lives, if not tens of millions."

"No, like I said, I get it," she mumbled, taking an apple to start with as her stomach growled, but she didn’t think it was for typical food. "Where were we—my decisions from the change to now?"

She kept the bitten apple pressed against her lips as Mateo shook his head with a severe frown and shake of his head. "You were telling us about this goddess figure that Scarlet mentioned stopped her—Cerridwen," he added, looking at a screen that had been flipped to them and showing a few websites describing her.

Rachel’s mind came to a screeching halt. "Huh... I did what?"

She was drawing a total blank as to the conversation as she internally cursed at the gap in memory; apparently, she’d stubbornly gone on with the discussion to the point she’d forgotten about the entire reveal—and it was a touchy reveal to be given in her delirious state.

Lt. Thompson chuckled. "I thought you were a bit incoherent there at the end; I’m guessing you wanted to bring this topic up in a different way. It sounds crazy, but all of this does, and if Scarlet was brought back to her senses due to this goddess’ influence...we need to know more about this angle than any other."

Rachel’s ears rose from their drooping position, tilting left with her head. "Scarlet..."

Mateo nodded. "When you were out, we were able to bring some blood for her to absorb. We gave her enough to stabilize her wounds, which did heal her; a military doctor oversaw it, and now she’s resting with Anthony and Selvaria, last I heard."

"Okay..." she mumbled, feeling a tiny bit better after the short rest; she straightened in her seat, grimacing at the fire that lit in her muscles.

"Mmgm. Give me a second to collect my thoughts... To be clear, I’m not 100% sold on the goddess angle, but I have been entertaining the idea since she seems to be connected to some of my Feats. Should we go into that next for context? I experimented a lot in Anthony’s quest to understand my change while not putting people at risk."

The blond-haired OIC behind the desk smiled. "It was a smart decision. While you are recovering, I’ll continue my conversation with Lt. Herrero." He shifted his chair to the Green Beret, shifting his laptop on his lap to continue making notes. "What has been your opinion of Ms. Park thus far?"

Lead dropped into Rachel’s gut at the sudden topic. A lot would be extrapolated from the soldier since he’d spent the most time with her in the field, and her actions with Scarlet could certainly draw red flags; as she feared, his comments weren’t all positive.