Onyx's Interrogation (this is a fic)

“You are too old school, physical access is a thing of the past, everything is done via the net now, you know this, so why did you do it? Why did you break into the lab?” the interrogator asked softly and without feeling in their words, this was just another day for them. Onyx didn't know where he was, the black hood over his head made sure of that, just that he was tied down to a steel chair in a small air conditioned room, he could feel more than see the bright lights that were shining down upon him. Moving his hands in a particular way within his bonds Onyx tried to activate his synthweve pad, there was no response, maybe the bonds were too tight, maybe it was disabled via some sort of electronic jamming within the room, otherwise Onyx did not respond to the interrogator.

“You don't have to talk, it's fine… we will just make you” the lack of emotion in the interrogators voice was the thing that actually scared Onyx, were they truly dead inside enough that they didnt feel anything if they tortured someone. A rattle of tools being prepared was the next thing Onyx heard as they still weren't saying anything.

“Ok, we tried doing this the easy way. Put his hand on the table” they said, a pair of footsteps from behind Onyx made him jump, he thought it was just him and the interrogator in the room, he flinched a second time when two sets of rough hands grabbed down on him holding him to the chair as his right arm was physically and aggressively manoeuvred to be palm up on a cold steel table where it was locked into place with a manacle, the two rough people moved away from him again back behind him.

“So, when I take this hood off of you in a second you will see what is going to happen. The hard work has already been done, you did that to yourself, i'm just here to activate it and then stop it if you beg me too” the normally emotionless speaking voice of the interrogator had changed slightly, Onyx was certain that they heard some pity in it.

“Before the hood comes off though, I do have one question? You read the report, otherwise you wouldn't of come, but do you know what bacterial programming can do?” The question confused Onyx, they were paid to steal a sample by a middle man, they hadn't read any report, what even was bacterial programming. The hood was removed from his head and the bright lights stung his eyes as he tried to take in the details of the room around him, a short heavy set person in a biohazard suit with the hood off and wearing a black suit underneath it was sitting across from him, two tall imposing muscular men were flanking the one in the biohazard suit, they had black pants, black long sleeve shirt, and balaclavas on, the ones who were behind him were most likely dressed the same. The walls, floor, and roof all looked to be made of checker plate steel, the table that Onyx’s right arm was cuffed to was a brushed stainless steel with a set of steel handcuffs attached to it, a small tool roll was also on the table with some clean looking stainless steel tools.

“Ok, everyone out” the interrogator said, the four men in black silently exited the room and closed the door behind them with a dull thud. “Bacterial programing” the interrogator continued once the door closed and as they began to put the biohazard hood on “is used to effect microorganisms by encoding them with logic or operational commands, this is used to help fight against disease, weave biomaterials, deliver therapeutic treatments, amongst other uses.” They finish putting the hood on and started the air flow in their suit creating positive pressure and allowing them to breathe.

“Of course this also has some more sinister uses.” the interrogators' voice had changed, it now is coming from a speaker attached to their biohazard suit, Onyx didn't like hearing the use of the word “sinister”. “Some of these uses can be to have the body create more white blood cells, so many in fact that your bone marrow is effectively tainted, causing a series of other issues within your body and then a long drawn out very painful death. Don't worry though that isn't what's going to happen to you.” the interrogator reaches down for a small stainless steel penlight, clicks it on and a green light shines out of it “good” they say to themself as they turn it off.

“Do you remember going through the chemical fog as you escaped from the r&d facility that you broke into” Onyx nodded, this was his first actual response to any of the interrogators question “good, because that wasn't a disinfectant, it was in fact a way for us to extract the truth from you if you proved to be stubborn. So i'll tell you what's going to happen, i'm going to shine this light onto your right hand, then i'll grab that large meat cleaver and come stand over here by you” the interrogator stood next to Onyx “then your hand will begin to bubble and boil as necrotic cysts emerge and pop and eat away at your bones from the inside out, this can only be described as possibly the most painful thing you will ever experience in your life, it will work its way from your fingers to your hands, and then up your arm, everything it leave behind will be forever useless and need to be replaced by cyberware. Then once you beg me to stop it, and you will beg, I'll cut your arm off.” There was a pause in the flow of what the interrogator was saying here and they only looked down at the seated Onyx waiting for some sort of reaction. Onyx's eyes widened he was actually scared now because there was no doubt in his mind that the interrogator would cut his arm off, and that was even if anything about this bacterial programming stuff that they said was not true.

“Please, you don't need to do any of that. I'll tell you what you need to know” Onyx said, his voice slightly hoarse from not speaking or drinking for a few hours. “Ok, tell me who hired you for this job, who slash where did you drop the experimental product off, and if you tell me this and that what you tell me is the truth not only will I not use this green light on you, but I won't kill you” the way the interrogator said that last part concerned Onyx, but he wanted to live, so he gave up his employer and the drop site.

……

Moth's phone rang, it was an unknown caller, this didn't concern them, it just meant that they needed to implement some things first before answering. They ran the concealing software on their pad and then answered.

“Yo, its Moth”

“What the fuck is happening in Australia?”

“One, I don't think that that's how you should start a conversation, and two, how am I supposed to know I don’t live there”

“Pull up the news feed coming out of there, body washed ashore in Bondi”

Moth did just that, a long range photo had a blurred shape on the beach with a headline that read “unknown male body washed ashore at Bondi” a couple of taps and Moth had uncensored the photo, it had a large hole in the back of his head and looks like it had been bitten by some of the sea life.

“So a body washes ashore and you think I know what's going on?” Moth asks the unknown caller

“I just figured you would know Onyx and might know what he was into but if you dont thats fine”

“Onyx! They haven't been active in years, why are they running?” Moth did know Onyx, he had done some legwork for Moth when they were looking into some over reach happening by NBN in the area. “Do you think this is connected to Alt?” Moth asks the mystery voice before they have a chance to answer the first question they asked

“Has to be, something fucked is happening, you should get a team onto it… I’ll call you later”

The line goes dead, Moth looks at their DNS canary and sees no alerts, no one tried to find them but that doesn't mean that they won't be in trouble soon